Riggs hired to drive for Evernham

Scott Riggs was hired Saturday to drive a third car for Evernham Motorsports, the highest-profile job of his racing career.

Riggs is in his second season of Nextel Cup racing and his contract is up at the end of the year with MBV Motorsports, where he has just six top-10 finishes in 58 starts. But he had several factors working in his favor when Evernham began searching for a teammate to Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne.

First, Riggs was on the short list of drivers Evernham considered before he hired Kahne two seasons ago. Then just last month, Valvoline agreed to be part-owner of Evernham’s new team – a move that ended its relationship as sponsor of Riggs’ MBV team.

“He and I have been talking about working together for some time now,” Ray Evernham said. “Scott has shown he can be a winner … and we look forward to getting him to the winner’s circle next season.”

Riggs had been approached by several teams in the garage about openings for next season, but stressed several times that his age made it critical he get into a good car now.

“At 34 years old, I still haven’t proven what my capabilities are,” he said. “I needed a team that was on the way up, that was deep enough and had no worries about the strength of the team. I don’t have the time or the patience to go with a team that needed a few years to get going.”

Briscoe wins first IRL pole

Rookie Ryan Briscoe won his first career pole, posting the best time at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., for today’s Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix.

Briscoe, 15th in the IRL IndyCar point standings, recorded a speed of 108.248 mph around the 12-turn, 2.26-mile road course.

Helio Castroneves, who like Briscoe has extensive road course experience, qualified second at 107.664, followed by Tony Kanaan at 107.346.

The IRL, staging its first race on a permanent road course, established a unique qualifying format.

After all 21 drivers finished their single-lap runs, positions seven through 21 were locked in and the top six drivers ran for 10 minutes in an effort to improve their positions. All remained the same.

Thomas Enge qualified fourth at 106.903, followed by Castroneves’ Marlboro Team Penske runningmate Sam Hornish Jr. at 106.669.

Bourdais takes pole at Montreal

Sebastien Bourdais has figured out how to post a fast qualifying time on Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Now, all the reigning Champ Car champion needs to do is get a handle on today’s race.

For the second straight year, Bourdais won the pole for the Montreal Molson Indy, turning his final qualifying session into a one-man show on the 2.709-mile, 15-turn road course winding around Notre Dame Island.

His fastest lap was clocked at 1 minute, 20.396 seconds, a speed of 121.305 mph. Four of Bourdais’ 13 laps would have been good enough for the pole, and a fifth would have put him second on Sunday’s 18-car grid.

Oriol Servia struggled through most of the 35-minute session before finally uncorking a lap of 1:20.698 (120.851 mph), which was good enough to give Newman/Haas Racing the entire front row.