Although the two do not have a contract beyond this season, Ray Evernham would like to keep Scott Riggs in his driver arsenal next season. Riggs drives the #10 that competes under the Valvoline Evernham Racing banner. The driver is not competing this weekend, though. The team sits outside the top 35 in owner points and does not have a guaranteed starting position in the race. Therefore, the team decided to put road racer Patrick Carpentier behind the wheel for the weekend’s events at Watkins Glen International. Carpentier must qualify on speed to earn a spot in the race. Evernham said that Riggs will definitely be back in the car next weekend at Michigan International Speedway – and hopefully next season. He said that he and Riggs are talking about next season. “Scott and I are still talking, and we’ve still got some options, and we’ve not closed anything yet,” Evernham said. “I want Scott to be part of our program next year. We’ve got to bring up overall performance. There’s a big part of that that’s on my shoulders; he can help us do that. As the thing grows, I want Scott to be a part of it.” As to sponsorship for next season, Evernham said there was nothing to talk about yet. Last weekend, his driver Kasey Kahne said that he’d met with Budweiser and that could mean talks were pretty far along between the company and Evernham. Evernham said that there was nothing to report yet concerning any sponsorship for next season. “Obviously we’re talking to some people, and we’d like things to happen, but there’s a lot of things that have to fall in line perfectly for something to happen …,” he said. “Right now it looks like we’re still shooting in the next two or three weeks to be able to talk about where we’re headed with sponsorship, but you don’t know if that can turn into five or six weeks with one swipe of the pen.”(SceneDaily.com)(8-10-2007)
