Riggs races to Busch Series win at Gateway

MADISON, Ill. -- Scott Riggs raced to his third Busch Series victory Saturday, taking the Charter Pipeline 250 when Mike Bliss ran out of fuel on the final lap.

"Never give up! Never give up!" Riggs shouted as he climbed out of his car. "We've lost them this way before, but this is the first time I've had to win this way. I thought we had another second-place today. I couldn't believe he ran out of fuel."

The Ford driver was about three seconds behind when Bliss slowed between the first and second turns on the 1.25-mile Gateway International Raceway track near St. Louis.

"They kept telling me to conserve gas, conserve gas," Riggs said. "He had the car to beat."

Bliss, who ended up 12th, made his last pit stop on lap 108 after a crash involving six cars. The 2002 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion thought he had more than enough fuel to complete the final 93 laps of the 200-lap race.

"It's frustrating," Bliss said "We had this race won. We had until lap 210 to run on fuel. I don't know what happened, but we shouldn't have run out of fuel."

David Green finished second, 0.543 seconds behind Riggs, to take a five-point lead over Todd Bodine in the season standings. Bodine was 11th Saturday after starting from the back of the field because of an engine change.

Jason Keller finished third, followed by Brian Vickers, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Stacy Compton, Johnny Sauter, Scott Wimmer, Stanton Barrett and Winston Cup regular Kenny Wallace.

Pole-sitter Ashton Lewis Jr. led the first 44 laps, but got caught up in the six-car accident on lap 108. He finished 33rd.

The race was delayed 30 minutes because of rain.

Bourdais claims pole spot for today's German 500

KLETTWITZ, Germany -- Sebastien Bourdais thought he would be able to start quickly in the CART series. But this is better than he expected.

The 24-year-old French rookie won the pole Saturday for the German 500, his third in five races. Bourdais goes for his second straight victory in today's race after winning Monday at Brands Hatch in England.

After four road courses, the European faces his first American-style oval race at the EuroSpeedway. Bourdais clocked a track-record 37 seconds on the 2.023-mile course at a speed of 196.832 mph.

-- From wire reports