Jason Thomas (0:00)

A pulp MX Network production. A cerebral and experienced look into the racing action from the week that was. This is Industry Seating with Jason Thomas. Presented by Guts Racing Pro, Glow Wash Works, Connection, Fast Foundry, TL Speed Shop, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. It is Thursday, February 13th and we are in between rounds. It's a little later in the week and I wanted to get this done, but to be honest, I was watching the super bowl. That's really truly what it came down to on Sunday and why I did not get to this until now. I've done 1, 2, 3, 4 podcasts already this week, so it's not like I haven't been doing anything. But we're gonna knock this thing out. We're gonna talk about what we saw in Tampa, we're gonna talk about what I think is gonna happen in Detroit. And I come to you from the Minneapolis airport if you've never been here, the Delta Lounge, which now I'm really, I'm really going in the weeds here. The Delta Lounge here is beautiful. It's one of my favorite airports because of that. But, but it is minus 6 degrees outside and if you're listening from not in America, I mean -6 Fahrenheit, it is freaking cold here in Minneapolis right now. Thankfully I'm not outside. But what do we see in Tampa? We saw the Tupid east kick off their series. That was an, an interesting one and we knew it was going to be an interesting one. That class. When you look at the depth and the tendencies of the riders in that class. Excuse me, it was, it was set up for a wild one and we're, and, and it's set up for really a wild series. Now we've already lost some guys in that class which we'll talk about. So if we continue down this path, the, the wildness, I don't know if there's a better word than that, could start to deteriorate a little bit because we'll lose, we'll lose all the depth, we'll lose that talent that I firmly believe was the, the most talented, deepest 250 class I've ever seen. And I saw like all these smart ass comments and, and just snarky stuff on the Internet of Twitter like oh, look at all the delicate. I, I don't really care what those people think. I will put my knowledge base of 250 racing up against any of these people that are taking shots at like the depth comments from, not just for me, from anybody. This is a really deep 200 to east class, end of story, period. I don't, I don't really care about anybody else's opinion. And if that's the take that you had, if you were like, where'd all the depth go? Then you're just wrong. Sorry. Like people crash, people get hurt, whatever. But going into Tampa, that was about as nasty of a 250, 250 east that you're, you're ever going to see, just, just how it is. And you know, the racing didn't really live up to what we wanted and I'm sure that's where the comments kind of came in. You know, Pierce Brown and Max I think would have had a pretty good battle, but then Pierce Brown, you know, goes head over heels, breaks T5. He has a pretty heavy surgery that I think he's already maybe had. And the rest was kind of business as usual. You know, Max got out front after the red flag and just kind of checked out. Like he didn't have really any pressure from Benek or anyone else. And the battles that we were hoping for really just never, never came to fruition. They never developed because of certain things. It wasn't just that there was no talent. You know, RJ got stuck on that tough block. Nate Thrasher went down. Before that, Pierce was out. Who else was in the back there? Levi Kitchen. I don't even know what he was doing. You know, I think he's still feeling the effects of that sickness. That's the only thing I can point to that was about as underwhelming as an underwhelming of performance from Levi's I've seen in maybe two years. So that's going to be something we want to keep an eye on. It. Was that a, was that a one off? Was that, was he nervous? Was he not? Was he just too rusty or is this something that's a, that's a problem. And I want to think it's the first because I hold Levi Kitchen in, in a very high regard. But let's make no mistake, that was not a good, a good day or night for Levi Kitchen. So let's see what he can do from here. I mentioned Ansley was rock solid and when I say rock solid, I mean like draw it on a whiteboard. This is how you want to execute the game plan. Rock solid, fastest qualifier. When your heat win the main, you can't do it any better than that. And he looked like it was easy. Now I know it wasn't easy. And he was, you're always one big Mistake away from throwing it away all up. Here's Brown. But he just didn't look like he was on the edge of anything. He looked like that was a repeatable process that he could execute again. Now every track's different. If he gets a bad start, throw it all out the window. But I really liked what I saw from Anson. I think that's probably the, the common takeaway is, man, Ansi looked really good. Daxton Bennett, what a bounce back ride. And then all of a sudden now that's all for. Not because he had a huge crash on Wednesday, I think Wednesday morning, either Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday morning, I don't know. I heard conflicting reports there, but he was unconscious and I heard it was for an extended period. It's not my news to share and it's all secondhand anyway. But it, you know, typically somebody gets knocked out, they, they return to consciousness pretty quickly and it's never good, but they kind of continue on with, with their normal life. You know, take some time off, do all the concussion protocol type things and take precaution. This was not that. This was, I heard for a lot longer than you would want to be unconscious for. And from my experience, again, I'm not a doctor and I know I make assumptions on injuries and things, but that's just from being around this for a long time. And you learn along the way. You know, I've been around injuries and racing all of my life and you learn a lot about this type of thing because you talk to doctors and you read about it and you try to learn no different than anybody else would ever try to learn. So you know, the length of time when you're unconscious is a big factor. And also the amount of times it's, it is a compounding effect. There we go. That's the word I'm looking for. It's a compounding effect. So the more times you have a concussion, knock yourself out, any of the above, the worse that they get and the more side effects and lingering effects that you will feel from that. So this is not a good thing for Bennett. So let's just hope and pray that he's okay. Forget about the racing for now. Let's just hope that he can get back to full health before we, we worry about the dirt bike side of things. Cameron McAdoo, I mean, what a freaking performance, man. I raced with a torn ACL twice and honestly it was more out of necessity. I needed to make money. I had bills and mortgage payments and all the things that all of you listening do and this is the only way I had to make money, and it's the only way that these guys have to make money, too. Now McAdoo probably makes more than I did. I'm going to guess I'm going to almost guarantee that he did. Or at least even in my best years, he probably makes more than I did. So it's not Dire Straits, but I think on a career level, on a, hey, I need to break out of this cycle of. People think I get hurt all the time. It's. It's really important for him to turn in a result here, and I think that's driving the ship a little bit with him forcing this east coast series to happen. Because I think if this was like Kitchen who, there was so much momentum coming off of 2024, I think a lot of people want him like, he's in high demand. Maybe not so much after Tampa, but coming off of 2024, that was certainly the case. I think he would look at it and say, I probably need to get this fixed for the long term picture. And that's where recent events come into it. Like, McAdoo just simply doesn't have that leash. You know, he doesn't have the, the benefit of the doubt that Kitchen does. And that's not anything. That's not a personal thing. That's just the amount of injuries that McAdoo has sustained and the amount of chances that he's been provided. That's just how these things work. And I applaud him for stepping up and dealing with the pain, dealing with all of the tough stuff that comes with a torn ACL and racing through it because it's swelling, it's pain, it's the thing dislocates all the time. And I was talking to him on the podium and I was kind of. I wanted him to know that I could relate to this because I dealt with this a lot. I actually never got my right one fixed. It's pretty solid. My left one I had to get fixed after a few months. It was just. Never got any better. It was just terrible all the time. And I was kind of talking to him about the nuances of an ACL tear and racing through it, because what most people don't realize is your knee dislocates all the time. And that sounds terrible, right? And it is terrible. It's not comfortable. It is. It's not even as painful as it is. The most uncomfortable, strangest feeling you could ever describe is trying to ride a motorcycle with. Because that ACL is the stabilizer. It runs through the middle of your knee and it holds everything in place. So when you don't have that, it's torn. You lose all the stability. And when you talk about the pain of an acl, a lot of times after the initial pain, it's not that bad. Now your meniscus can hurt and I'm sure his meniscus was causing him pain because it's torn. That's where a lot of the residual pain comes from. If you put it down wrong, you do something ill advised. The meniscus is what's going to cause you the nerve pain. The ACL is gone. There's nothing left to cause you pain or discomfort other than your knee shifting around. And it's funny, he mentioned something on the podium or actually, I'm sorry, he did not. James Stewart mentioned something during, during the broadcast and I was like, oh my gosh, that's so insightful. And I forgot this part of it until James said it. When you're riding, and for those of you who don't ride, just bear with me. For those of you who do, you'll get this. When you're riding, when you're, when you're under braking, all, all of your momentum, right, like all your force presses forward. It's like being in a car. If you break really hard, you feel yourself press against the seatbelt. That's a normal thing. Everybody knows that feeling. Well, the same thing happens with your internal organs, body parts, whatever, they shift forward too, because they're all based in fluid, right? Your knee is, is sitting in a body of fluid, which is, you know, your leg and it's, it can move around within a certain range. Well, normal. You don't really feel that because it's held in place by all these things. When you remove that acl, your knee shifts forward under braking and that ACL is not there to hold it back. And it's the most terrible feeling I know how to describe. Like, it's not a pain, like a shrieking pain. It's like you want to throw up because it's, it feels so gross. And your knee is like moving inside your skin and like presses on the front. It's, it's terrible. I'm like getting goosebumps thinking about it and describing it. But man, when James said that, I was like, oh my God, that's, I hadn't thought about that until he said it, but it was so true. So all those braking zones, every time Cam would go into a turn and break, this knee would push forward and it's Just, it's the worst feeling ever. So, anyway, Cameron McAdoo, congratulations. Incredible job. And let's see. Let's see where it goes from here. And the last thing I'll say on him is, is I. It's this weird thing because I think his knee is going to get better. Like, his knee will improve as far as, like, stability, and he's, he'll be. Continue to get the fluid out of it. Like, those things will get a little bit better. He'll. His quad will strengthen, his calf will strengthen to kind of make up for the lack of an acl. Like, those things happen. The weird thing is that can happen, but you can actually get a little bit worse on the bike because you're not practicing. And if that goes on for weeks and months, you start getting really rusty. And your edge, you start to lose some of your edge. So it's like these cross currents of my knees better, but my form is worse because I can't really ride. And then at some point, maybe you can start to practice again. And that's, that's when you can kind of offset that. And, and I'm just talking from personal experience where it was like the last few weeks of me doing this right before I had knee surgery. And Cam's going to do the same thing. Right after Salt Lake, it was Vegas for me. He's going to go get knee surgery. That's what's going to happen here. But those last few weeks, I started to be able to practice again, and I kind of got my. I got. Got it back together a little bit. But not practicing for a couple months is not awesome. So we'll see. Well, I'll try to ask him about where that. Where he is in that process, because I think it's interesting, maybe you don't, but that the nuances of, like, is it all therapy all week just to be able to ride on Saturdays or now have you shifted into. I can kind of start riding a little bit during the week to try to stay on my best form. Like, the, the. Those things I think equate into better or worse results, too. And that's, to me, is the interesting part. Tom Vial. I mean, fifth place is fine. It's fine. And Marvin Muskan told our broadcast team that if he could get out of there with the top five, they're be happy with that. Now, that's a strange comment to make for the defending champion. Start there. But we don't know what's going on. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he wasn't feeling perfect. You know, like, there are a lot of things happening, as we've learned, that go on behind the scenes. And not everybody tells you their life story coming into a race. You know, people try to hide injuries and sicknesses and all sorts of things all the time. That just is a part of it. And if it's not pressing in the moment, like if I. Okay, I'll give you an example. I heard that Tom had been sick the couple weeks leading up to the race. Now if it's not something that's affecting him on race day and he's not sick at the race, he's. He doesn't have to tell anybody. You know, he's not going to willingly divulge that information to his teammate or competitors. Not teammates, competitors. So let's just see. Let's see if he gets a little better as we move forward. And, and if the. If that is true that he was sick, let's see if that improves slowly or if he makes a big jump this weekend or what. Because that wasn't great. You know, he really wasn't fast. Didn't get good starts, wasn't fast in qualifying, had a huge crash in practice. Like none of those things are, are good. So it wasn't anything you could say was necessarily a good day. Chance Hymus was sixth and I skipped over Seth Hammaker. Seth Hammaker was steady. Itest was solid. I thought it was a great day. You know, fourth isn't probably what he wanted, but I think for Seth it's just staying out there, staying upright. And the results will come because he's damn fast. So if you, if he can stay upright, I truly believe the rest will take care of itself. So that would be the only thing I'm worried about with Hammaker is him stacking it up. It's been his problem since the dawn of time. I mean, he's really, really good racer when he's upright. So I don't think anything, anything really changes here. As I mentioned, Chance Hymas, he really overperformed here. He hasn't ridden a lot. You know, I meant, I think I mentioned on the broadcast he had ridden like five times. And it wasn't really because of the knee thing. Some of it was. But he started riding again late December. So that you think about that's, I don't know, five to six weeks of riding. That's, that's quite a few times, and you'd ride three or four times a week. So it's not like you'd be a hundred percent, but reasonably okay. But then he had this arm pump thing. He had to go in and have a procedure done that didn't heal well and he was having big time issues. And I was told, well, I don't even know if I was told. I overheard that like as, as of the weekend of San Diego, he, they didn't want to race the, you know, Honda didn't like they, they have an investment in Chance. They didn't want him to go out and hurt himself or not be ready and set himself back. That's, that's always a concern with these teams is let's be smart about this because we're planning on you being with us for a very long time and let's not sacrifice the long term because we're rushing back for the short term. And that's going to be something they look at with Jet too. You know that that same situation is going to come up with Jet in a few months here. But I thought Jaime has killed it. Incredible, incredible job to get six. Knowing where he was in this recovery process, that's a lot better. He is way ahead of schedule in my opinion. Rj, Hampshire, man, qualified well, won your heat race going away and then the main event, you got, you got the RJ experience. You know, he went, RJ went full RJ in the main and I know it was a small mistake that turned into a very punitive one, but that's kind of what RJ's. RJ's deal is, man. It's crazy. I, I don't know what to say. I, I'm such an RJ fan that it's hard for me to really, like make fun of it or anything, but you kind of just have to laugh because RJ just gives you all of it. He gives you every emotion, every possible outcome. You know, if you have this range of possible outcomes, like if you're a risk assessor or like an insurance person, okay, what's worst case? What's best case? You know, I've been watching YNs and they always do that. Okay, tell me, what's the worst case of anything? Like, I need to know maximum exposure or something to anything. And I would say I do the same thing in my real job. If we're doing bonus structures for riders or anything like that, okay, what's my maximum exposure here? Like, how bad can we get hurt if this thing goes the opposite or a complete extreme of one side? RJ gives you all of those in the same day. That's the, that's the funniest part. He gives you the Best and he gives you the worst all in the same afternoon or evening. It's incredible. Last note on the two videos is just injury, injuries. I mean Thrasher I think is injured. News hasn't come out. I don't know if he's racing Detroit or not, but. But I have it on good authority that he is banged up. Bennett, we know. McAdoo, we know. It's just, it's not a good situation with these guys getting hurt. You know, 450s. There are more injuries which I'll, I'll talk about. But everywhere we look right now it's guys getting hurt. You know, Cade Clayson broke his arm. It's just one after another. It's a really bad deal. So I hate to see it, but unfortunately it is kind of a part of racing. I want to thank the sponsors of this podcast, Guts Racing. Everything from seat covers to graphics, power sports, E bikes, they have it all. Go to gutsracing.com @guts racing on Instagram works connection. Go to @works connection works connection.com. they're, they're, I think their most famous piece is their Pro start device which team Honda uses, Monster Star, Yamaha uses. Clearly it works. Those guys get the whole shots almost every damn time. Whether it's web or Tomac or Jet Lawrence or Max Ansi or Pierce Brown. I mean take your pick. They're just ripping hole shots all over the place. And yeah, that Works Connection Pro on Start device is a huge part of that. TL Speed Shop, they have a brand new website. It is race-rentals.com and what this allows you to do is go to Arizona and jump in a trophy truck or side by side. It's also on there. But I think the trophy truck thing is awesome. Like you're talking about like a half a million dollar trophy truck that I can't afford that. 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These are like 300, 400 shoes and boots. But most of us have jobs. I don't know. I. I work in an office every day. I'm at home. I'm guessing that a lot of you do, too. And I need nice stuff to wear. I have meetings all the time. And when I meet with corporate, you know, our company's owned by a private equity group. I have to meet with some of these people sometimes, and I need to look the part. And you can't look like some dirty dirt biker that they probably already think I am. But I have to at least look presentable, and Grandstone Boots helps me do that. So thank you to them. Go to GrantstoneShoes.com for more info. And I think it's at Grantstone on Instagram. But, yeah, just incredibly beautiful products they have. Last but not least, fly racing. We are. We're a few weeks away from another gear launch at Daytona, which will be really fun, but check out flyracing.com Cooper Web is just crushing it for us. So thank you to Cooper Webb for. For making our brand look fantastic. All right, power rankings 1 through 10. And holy crap, did these power rankings. I. I just had to take a baseball bat to them because they're. Half the people are gone. I had to start thinking about, okay, who's supposed to be in here now? Because jets out. Tomax out. Like, I was at it. You know, Ferrandis was in here at one point. He's out. There were so many guys moving around that I had to. I had to really completely rethink this thing. But at number 10, making his first appearance is Joey Sabachi. And Joey's a damn good rider. I don't know if you guys ever watch him, but next time you're at a race or if you have the opportunity, just watch the dude ride. I really paid attention to him in Australia because it was my job that weekend. That guy's freaking talented, man. Like, he really, really knows what he's doing, and I think he's very underrated now. That doesn't mean the results are always there. You know, things happen. He Crashes, bike breaks, like all those things happen. And, and I know he's not getting like fourth or anything or winning races. I, I got all that. I'm just saying when I watch him and I'm assessing his skill set, I always come away very impressed. So Joey Savage is at 10. Number nine is Justin Barcia, and kind of an up and down season, you know, And I think for Bartia, it's really important to get it together right now because look, look at the situation. The door's wide open. You're coming into tracks that you ride well. East coast, softer dirt. You've got Detroit, Arlington is a lot softer than people think. Daytona, Indy, those are the next four before we get a weekend off and, and then we go to Seattle, I think the weekend after that. So you've got a ton of soft dirt where you can really get aggressive and do the things that you like to do in a depleted field. Like the field is crumbling around him. So Hunter's out for this weekend. He's going to be out for the whole Supercross series. Like, it's just everywhere you look there are injuries and opportunities. So for Barcia, pull it together. Number eight, Justin Hill. Justin Hill's been a revelation in 2025. This is 2023. Justin Hill, 23, 22, 23, back and doing his thing. Like he's back. And I think it's the same boat for a lot of these guys. Like the doors open. What can you do about it, you know? Could Justin Hill get some top fives? I think it's possible. I, I'm very sure it's possible, but you've got to bring your A game. I say this on the broadcast all the time and I swear by it is that in life the opportunity is not always there. Sometimes the odds are stacked against you and you've just got to swim upstream and make the most of a crappy situation and it's not going to be fantastic. This, the result's not going to be anything to write home about, but you've just got to do what you can. Other times it's set up for success. People are hurt, people are. There's somebody's going to give you a chance that they never have before. The date you've always wanted with this one girl, she's open to it, like whatever it is, the avenue in life, when that opportunity arises, you have to make sure you get your shit together and do it. That is a huge, huge staple in my life. Like I live by that. I don't even know it's probably not a proverb, but I live by it. And I always, you know, like, I look back on moments in my life where I knew it was a pivotal moment, that I needed to stand up and make it happen. LCQs throughout my entire career. You have to just do it. Everybody's nervous, everybody's scared. Everybody's worried about the what ifs. You just have to say, you know what? I'm not going to be a victim of this worry. I'm. I'm not going to let this get the best of me. I'm going to. When everybody else is freaking out, I'm going to laser focus myself in on this moment and I'm going to do it. And that's what I think is in front of these guys. It doesn't matter. When I go through the list. Justin Cooper, ap. You know, Mookie, we're going to talk like all these guys. Stand up and make it happen. When the door is open, because it is open right now, the door is open for good results. And it's only going to get more open because more guys are going to get hurt. That's just the way this sport is. We lost a bunch of guys in a row and more guys are coming just by default. They always do, because the guys were not the guys that are hurt. We're not getting back. We're not getting Jet back, We're not getting Tomac back, we're not getting Hunter back. I don't know about Ferrandis, but those three are out for the season, for at least till outdoors. So if anybody else gets hurt, it's just more of an opportunity. So anyway, I'm getting going off on a tangent, but that is such an important, important thing for people to. I don't know. I shouldn't. I'm not teaching anybody. It's just how I live my life is in these really crucial moments. I'll give, you know, like another example. Like at my day job during the week, sometimes I have to stand up in front of the whole company and deliver presentations or have to teach about something or I have to host things. I know that everybody's watching. My boss's boss's boss is watching. You can't screw up in those moments. I don't care. Like, I'm. If anyone here knows me, you know, that I'm like, not the most outgoing person in the world. Like, I'm not an extrovert. But life has offered me these opportunities. If I can say, piss on that. I can do this. I can talk in front of people. I can be friendly and outgoing and engaging with people when I need to. That's. That's the perfect example of it. You can't just be like, no, I'm not good at that. Whatever. I'm going to let that opportunity go. Hell no. Like, same with these guys that are been struggling. Bart has been struggling for a year and a half right now. You can do something about it. And I hope these guys see the opportunity for what it is. And we're going to find out. We're going to find out a lot about these guys. Number seven is Justin Cooper. And the East. These east coast tracks should help him because he's not going to have to blitz big, edgy, slippery whoops. And that's. That's his biggest problem. You know, you could say the same for Cooper Webb, but it's even more so for Justin Cooper. Give him a good start. Give him a track where the whoops are conducive to him, and watch out. I'm just gonna leave you with that. The setup is coming for Justin Cooper to make some noise in this class. And I know I just said that about all these guys. Some of them, I don't really have a game plan for how they get there. I just told you what it is for Justin Cooper. Use your starting prowess. Find a rhythm in the whoops when they deteriorate, because they will this weekend, and they will in Arlington, and they will in Daytona, and they will in Indy, and they will in Seattle, and on and on and on. It's going to be the norm from here on out. Make it happen. This is. This is your chance, dude. Like, people are hurt. Tracks are coming to you. What are you going to do about it now? AP is 6 and AP is 6. Because more about his body at work. You know, I look at last year, he was. He was like, the points leader, I think, coming into this round a year ago. So I'm not going to completely derail him when all these guys get hurt in front of him. I'm just going to wait and see. I want to. I want to wait and see on ap. It hasn't been anything good. We know that. But let's see. Let's see what he can do with this opportunity. I keep. Keep screaming about number five is Mookie. And holy hell, man, that stadium was going bonkers. I mean, nuts. Like, Tomac at San Diego was up there, like, kind of the same thing. But, you know, Mookie's in this. In this. Strange. I don't know if it's strange but unique place, and not many people can be here. AP Was here a year ago. But what it is is when he wins a race, no one is unhappy for him. No one's like, damn it, I didn't want that guy to win. No one. Because if you talk about Tomac, if you talk about jet, you talk about Webb, you talk about Roxanne Sexton, talk about whoever. Somebody else doesn't like the guy because he's their favorite writer's rival. That's just how it works. That's normal. It's not like they're like, f that guy. They're just gonna be, like, bummed because they wanted their guy to win or, like, man, I don't. I don't want that dude to do good because my guy is gonna lose points, whatever. Like, that's the normal dynamic. But for a few guys, you know, it could be whoever. I think Mookie was the perfect one. Mookie and AP Are probably the perfect examples because of their personality, and they're so well liked. There wasn't anybody other than, like, Chase Sexton that was not happy to see Mookie win. And Cooper Webb was bummed he didn't make the most of the situation. He was. He was very angry, but not a. He wasn't angry about Mookie winning. He was angry he didn't win. But everybody was thrilled to see Mookie win. And that is a very unique thing. You just don't get that very often where there are. No. There's no one kind of sitting the stands with their hand, their arms crossed, being like, yeah, you know, I don't. I don't want that. You know, like, everybody was like, this is awesome. Which. That's cool. When everybody can get behind somebody, that's a really cool thing. And I'm so thankful and grateful that I was not only there for it, but I got to actually be a part of it on the broadcast. That was. That was really, really cool. Something I'll probably never forget. Number four, Jason Anderson. It's funny because Anderson feels like an also ran in this series, but if you really. If you didn't watch any races and you simply looked at the stats and you said, okay, what's happened here? You would see that Jason Anderson has three podiums and five races and sits third in points. It doesn't feel like that. Right. You know, if you think about what's going on, all the talk has been about other guys, and yet here we are. And I know he's 17 points down or whatever the number is. But it's just, it's such a shocking thing to uncover because he's been so quiet. And you could say he's been quiet because he hasn't, you know, like this weekend in Tampa got shuffled back pretty bad. That was not a good look. But it's, it's all perspective, you know, and if he can just hang around and keep putting in podiums, you never know what's going to happen. That's all I'm going to say. You never know what's going to happen. See the best guy. No. Does it matter sometimes if you're the best guy? No. And so for Anderson, it's just stay the course, try to improve on the little things, get good starts and just let things unfold around you, let chaos reign and see how you end up. It's not a bad plan. It's not a bad plan. So let's see if, let's see what fate brings here because Anderson is sneakily sitting back there, you know, Sexton or Webb have a problem, first turn, crash bike malfunction, small injury, anything. And this thing gets really interesting really fast. For Jason Anderson, number three, Ken Rockson. What a bad deal. You know, I was a guy that got lapped a lot, let's just say it for what it is. It's not like I was terrible at riding dirt bikes, but I wasn't as good as the leaders and that, that means you're going to get lapped. And I think people don't really understand how easy it is to get lapped in a main event. You know, Tomac got lapped this weekend because if you don't get a good start, say you get like a 15th place start, which is normal. Whatever happens all the time, by the end of the first lap you're already 10 seconds down probably so now you're on a, let's say a 50 second racetrack. You're already 10 seconds down. So you're 40 seconds from being lapped over the course of how many laps is a 50 second race? Probably 22, 23, something like that. So if you're two seconds a lap off the leader, you're right there, you're gonna get lapped and that's, that doesn't count for moving out of the way of, of anybody or, you know, like things happen in the back of the pack. It's not all rainbows and sunshine back there, right? Like you don't always get to go your maximum speed. The first couple laps you're waiting on people like non stop. So Those first couple laps can even be worse. By the end of three or four laps, you could be down 15 plus seconds and you just made the job even harder to not get laps. So that's, that's kind of what happens. You're down, you get, you have to hold off like 35 seconds in six, 15 laps, maybe 18 laps. And it's, it's tough to be two seconds off the leaders is pretty damn good. Like that's, you know, think about for a guy like Clayson or one of the main event guys, you know, I'm gonna say Colt Nichols like he's a former champion, but I guess kinda Mitchell Oldenberg maybe. To be two seconds off of Jet, that's a tough ask. That's, that's those guys Jet is ripping or whoever, whoever's winning. Sexton Webb, whoever. It's. It's not as easy as it sounds to stay on the lead. Wap. And I knew, I'll just tell you straight up. I knew when I stayed on the lead lap, I did my thing. I don't care what the result was. I could have gotten 11th, I could have got 8th. But I knew if I didn't get lapped, I was, I was ripping. Like, for me, that was a really strong individual performance without, without factoring the results in. Who cares? Because there's a lot of other external factors. People hurt, full field, any of those things. But I knew that if I got to the finish line without getting lap man, I, I had it together. I was like, go. I was going fast. So it's just, yeah, one of those subtle nuances that I think the, you just hear Lapper and you think automatically like, they suck. That's not really, that's not really how it is. To me, that's, that's really not it at all with Roxanne. It's really unfortunate because you don't often have these situations where Roxanne and Web were battling and then there are two Appers battling also. So now you've got four riders all trying to cram into the same exact spot on the racetrack. That is, that's a recipe for disaster because Webb's doing its thing. He's not really thinking about it. He kind of got clear. Roczen is in hot pursuit and he's trying to get through these guys as quickly as, as possible. And then you've got Jeremy Hand and Tristan Lane battling too. They don't know that Roxanne is right there and coming. And they're on their own battle. They're trying to fight for position at the same time. So it's. It's about as bad of a setup as you could possibly get, and it went about as poorly as you could possibly ask for. And, oh, yeah, they were in the trickiest section of the racetrack, which was the sand. You know, if that was a corner, they would have all kind of been together or next to each other and had more room. But in the sand, it's so squirrely. Where you think you're going is not always where you are going. And Jeremy Hand went a little bit right, Ken Rockson went a little bit left, and boom, Bang. Bingo. We have bikes strewn all over the racetrack, and then we have people all angry, and you have Larry Brooks complaining and Cooper Webb complaining. And they're not wrong. They're not wrong. Like, it's really challenging to deal with the lapper dynamic when it affects a race. That's right. It's always been right. I've gotten heat from it. I've been in the way. Chad Reed Indianapolis 2004. I think it was four, maybe five. Hangtown 2012 I got in Dungey's way big time. Didn't mean to, but I did. I definitely didn't always get it right. I would say I lucky if I got it right half the time, but I also know how difficult it is. I know what these guys are up against. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. And that the general rule here, that's always been the general rule, or what everybody tells each other, is to not do anything erratic. Just be predictable. Because the. The leaders are faster than you. And if they know where you're going, that's all they need to know because they can make a pass as long as they understand what your plan is. But if you do something erratic and you try to move out of the way, well, guess what? You have a 50, 50 shot of moving into the place that they were planning on going. That's just how it goes. Now, there are sections of the racetrack that I think are conducive to taking a secondary line. If you are. If you like. Especially on a motocross track, supercross is a little bit tougher. But on a. On a motocross track, there's like the best line, and then there are secondary lines which either are blown out, they're too far outside, they're too rough, nobody wants to go there. That. That's really the point. In that moment when you're being lapped, that's what you do. You go to the line that the leaders don't want. You make it very clear. You designate yourself and identify kind of where you're gonna go. Like, you don't swerve, you don't make any weight move. You set up for that line, you aim for it, and you go there, which is going to allow the leader to, with, you know, pinpoint accuracy, understand what your plan is, and then they can go about their business. They're going to be gone before you even know it, because not only are they faster than you, that's why you're being lapped, but you're also taking the bad line, which is going to help them get by you even quicker. So it's going to be over before you know it. In most situations now, Supercross is tougher because a lot of times there's only one good line, and you don't want to do anything drastic, as I mentioned, so you kind of just get tight, like, you get narrow and skinny and try to hope that they can squeeze by. There are times there are corners where you can go where they're, you know, they're not going to go. And the corner before the whoops in Tampa, you could go out to the berm and let them go up the inside and then follow behind him. That was one place. There were a few places you could do things like that, but not everywhere. It was tough in some. Some spots to do it, like the line where Jason Anderson kept getting passed. You could go out there and check up in the corner, but you have to hope that the leader is not planning on using that same line, like triple outside and then step over. Like, a lot of people are going out there. That's where I would try to get out of the way. But I've also made that assessment. And then somebody like a leaders right behind me, and they expect me to just continue through the line. They're just. They've just decided to go behind me. When I check up, they're like, oh, my God, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, I'm trying to get out of your way. That's what I'm trying to do. But you can kind of see all the little nuances that get you in a lot of trouble and get a lot of people mad at each other when you're really not trying to do anything of the sort. But sometimes, sometimes it doesn't matter. Cooper Webb, number two. And Webb. Webb wanted to win that one. He was really pissed off about the lappers. He lost a ton of time to Malcolm in the lappers. And. And I think he felt like he let one get away. Now, he's not going to get up there and talk about that because he knows that's going to be wildly unpopular. When Malcolm gets his first win, he's not going to say, well, I could have won, but, you know, he's not going to do that. He's too smart, too savvy. He knows how to read the room. It's not the right moment. He can't do that. He's just going to say, yeah, you know, Malcolm row great. I was trying as hard. You know, he knows what to do and what to say. But I feel very confident that he, in his head was going, I could have won this freaking race if XYZ had gone differently. Now, whether he's right or wrong is not for me to decide, but I. I truly believe that's what was going on in his mind. But he's in a great setup here. He's. I mean, he's five points down. He, you know, is right in the dog fight. And I think he knows how to tackle Chase Sexton. Like, he knows who his opponent is and what is the Art of War, whatever. Like, kind of know your opponent type thing. Like, I think he intimately knows Chase Sexton's racecraft, and I think he knows how to exploit it. So let's see what Webb can do here. I do think he wins. I think he wins Detroit. Let's see if I'm right or wrong in that assessment. Chase Sexton is your points leader. He's still number one. He's won two races. That was a. That was a big miss. Think about the point swing from going from. You know, he would have gained five points on Cooper Webb to losing points to Cooper Webb. That is a big swing, and you simply cannot do things like that when you're battling Cooper Webb. You can not. He is. He. He just capitalizes on things too well to give him anything. Like, you have to make Cooper Webb earn every ounce of everything. You cannot make unforced errors. You cannot give him points of your own accord. It's just it. So this weekend, it's big for sex. Note he tweeted out on Monday that, you know, people are judged on how they get up and how they respond to failure. And I'm going to talk about it on the broadcast. He's right. He's 100% right. He will be judged this weekend on how he responds to last weekend's crash. Period, end of story. He said it. We know it. We'll all be watching for it. I don't have any preconceived notions of what that looks like. Chase Sexton's a bad dude. Anybody who thinks that Chase Sexton is not a bad dude is wrong. I. I'm not going to say your opinion is right or wrong. You're just wrong. He's a bad dude. Now, could his racecraft be better? Could his mental game be better? Sure, 100%. That's why he went and got a sports psychologist and all these things. He knows it. But as far as, like, he's capable and can win this title and is a bad dude, that's not up for debate. I don't want to hear it. I will not entertain anybody even trying to whisper it. He is a talented badass on a motorcycle, period. And that's why he's number one. That's why he's number one in the power rankings. So that's it. Hope everybody enjoyed this. And Detroit's going to be a fun one. I have no idea what's going to happen, which I think Webb's going to win and I think that. I think maybe Antony wins again. If he gets a start, he wins again. But other than that, yeah, chaos probably reigns again. See you.