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. As you probably have guessed, my name is Jason Thomas and It is Sunday, February 23rd and we are on the backside of the Arlington Supercross Triple Crown. I think it was round seven of the 31 round SMX World Championship or however you want to look at it. If you want to say 17 rounds of Supercross, 11 outdoors and three playoff rounds, that's fine. I just think that the longer this goes on, the more 31 rounds are going to be the, the prevailing theme. Just a heads up on that, but it was a pretty cool night in Dallas. Thankfully it wasn't as cold Saturday night as it had been earlier in the week. It was downright nasty cold in the North Texas area. Wait in the week and I got a little better. You know, Saturday was actually decent during the day, still chilly at night, but overall I think it was pretty enjoyable. Like it was super sunny, like blue skies, about as nice as it could possibly be for, for the race day and fan fest and all the people walking around the pits and all that stuff. So that was, that was pretty cool. I had, I had a good weekend. I enjoyed, enjoyed my time in Texas. Really looking forward to Daytona. One of the, I don't know, like Steve and I battle about that all the time. Steve Mathis about Daytona, he's coming around, but just because he gets babied now, like they cater to him, the president of dis, Frank really takes care of him now, which, I don't know, I struggle with, to be really honest with you. Like on one hand I'm happy that my friend is having this really nice experience. There is that, like, I do love Steve as a friend. As much as we argue and we disagree on politics and disagree on lots of things, I still, I still love my friend and I'm glad that he gets to have a really nice Daytona experience. But the other part of me struggles with his bad behavior, what I would deem bad behavior towards Daytona. He has railed against this race and talked bad about it and said it's the worst race of the series and unabashedly so. And now he is being rewarded for all of the nasty things he said over the years. And I, I don't love that aspect. I don't think that bad behavior should be rewarded just as a general policy so I'm torn on that. I know I'm way off, way out in the weeds to start this podcast off, but it was something we've been, we've been talking about leading up to Daytona this year. So Steve will be in the, the President's suite with Frank getting tri tip and all sorts of great things that frankly, for the way he's been towards Daytona, he probably doesn't deserve. And that's not for me to decide. Like, I have no bearing on this. I don't really care that much, but it's just interesting. It's interesting how the world works sometimes. So anyway, Daytona is going to be a fun one. Hopefully the weather cooperates. That's really the only concern anytime you go to Daytona is just, is it gonna be cold, is it gonna rain? Rain would be the worst. But for the most part, we, we have positive weather for Daytona on a, on a regular basis. Now. What do we see in Arlington? It was a Triple Crown, as I mentioned, and I think, you know, we talked about this a lot. I think that the riders and teams are the only people that don't think this is the best product we have to offer. And I understand their take. It's more racing, it's more risk. I don't think that on a, on a neutral basis or basically everyone gets paid more. You know, some riders, I think are, have worked it into their deal or are getting there. I think new deals will certainly have to address it. So the teams don't like that. That's more budget they have to account for. It's more exposure that they have to worry about. And the riders, it's more risk of getting hurt. And more gate drops equals more risk of being hurt. And you could just say, well, anytime you race, you are assuming that risk, which is fair. I, I very much agree to that sentiment. But there is a lot of pushback from the teams and riders. And then there's a lot of, hey, this is awesome. From, I think from Feld and from the fans, I know, certainly for me, I think it's awesome. You know, as a part of the broadcast team, it's, there's so much more action and people want to watch racing, they want to watch the action. And there is simply more of it, period, bar none, there is more of it. And that's, that's a really hard thing to argue. And I don't think anybody really can argue that. They're just going to push back on the drawbacks of it from their perspective, and that's really it. So I Think we've kind of got a happy medium. We throw some in. We don't do it at every race, I don't think. I think that's too much to ask. And we find ways to continue having Triple Crowns on the schedule at select rounds and the riders and teams deal with it because it is better and everyone else enjoys the races that we do get to have these at. So anyway, that's my diatribe on. On Triple Crowns. But the Tiffany class, you know, we went in not really knowing what to expect. You know, we'd seen a little bit of everything. We, we had seen Julian Bomera look like the best rider in the class. We saw Deegan really have his moment at Anaheim 2 and kind of assert himself as the guy we expected him to be. We saw this upstart Cole Davies come out of nowhere. Well, I'm not going to say that like we saw it. We've been talking about how good he looked. But this step forward, he really continued with at Glendale, winning the first two out of three races. And then Jordan Smith went out and won the first race for Triumph in his first race since last year. There was just a lot like, however you wanted to view this 2025 season, whichever side of the coin you're on about who was going to win this championship or who, you know, like whatever storyline you wanted to latch on to and say this is the way it's going to go, there was something for you to lean into. Like you could. You could find a way to make your case. And I talked about that on other shows. I talked about on that on my Patreon podcast. If you want to be a part of that, it's patreon.com industry seating. You can sign up for that. It's. I do a Saturday morning preview every week, but I think this. This gave a little bit of something for everyone. And this weekend I think we lost a little bit of that. But we gained insight as to where we think this is going to go. So I don't know which is better, nor shouldn't say, I don't care. But I think we just have more to go on. We have more information. We really learn some things in Arlington that we had not previously been shown. And first and foremost was Hayden Deegan. Hayden Deegan brought what we thought he was going to bring to A1 the elite performance. The guy that we saw last summer, the guy that we saw in September, we saw in Arlington. And I don't know what the difference was. I know he changed up his training program. I talked to Brian Deegan. Even as of this morning, he's like, yeah, we're, we're getting there. You know, like the things we've been working on are showing up and I don't know what those are. I don't think he's in a big hurry to give away their secrets, nor why would he. But I had heard that coming in, they had taken some pretty big steps forward. And you always, you hear that and then you're like, ah, I've heard that before. Doesn't really mean anything. So I was curious to see if that would show up. Like, you hear that and you want to see that come to fruition. Like, you want to see words turn into actions. And to give them credit, it did. Like, he looked like a different guy. He looked more confident, had more speed, didn't matter where he started, didn't matter if he fell. He was able to overcome whatever adversity was thrown at him and get the wins. He won two out of three races. A 112 is a pretty dominant performance. And he, I, I think he needed it, you know, like, okay, career wise, no, I'm not going to get that melodramatic. But in this series to establish himself as the guy, he needed a ride like this because leaving Arlington, everyone now looks at him and says, well, that's the guy we got to be like, you know, he's got a five point lead. Everybody's now thinking that he's found it, you know, whatever was missing, he's found that and he's got his groove now. And they're all in big trouble. And back in the back of their mind, that's what they're thinking now, the showdowns can throw a wrench and all that, we know that. But I'm just telling you, a ride like that sticks in people's minds. So we'll see where it goes from here. But that was a big, big moment for Hayden Deegan, I believe, moving forward. I think he regained his swagger and he believes, I think he believed anyway. But this was like real confirmation for him that, like, yeah, I am who I thought I was. You know, all the talk and all the confidence, I backed it up and now he can really lean into it. Like, I think you're going to see an uber confident Hayden Deegan when we get to Indianapolis, and rightfully so he should be after the way he rode like that was, that was impressive stuff. And there are a lot of detractors of Hayden Deegan. You know, Steve has been very iffy on Deegan, especially in supercross. Like, I don't think he's a big fan of Hayden or Brian off the track. Like, they. And I don't mean he dislikes them, but they're. They're different people politically. Their outlook on things like, they, they don't see eye to eye. I think that's fair to say. But even if you're a detractor of them, you had to tip your cap to that ride. You had to. And I think even Steve would. Would do that. Like, Steve's fair with performance. He may not like the way somebody is or like their takes on things, but he is fair with performance. Now I'm not really there. Like, I would probably be more in alignment with how Hayden and Brian feel. So I has nothing to do with that. For me, I'm just more grading performance as a. In a vacuum type thing. This. This was that type of ride for me. So kudos all the way around for. For the Deegan team. That. That was it. That was what I wanted to see. Jordan Smith. Oh, man, poor Jordan. He was on his way to winning that, that first race. I mean, it was, you know, I think it was over. I don't think that Hayden was going to catch Jordan and unfortunately Jordan went. Jordan. And I don't mean that in a. I'm not trying to be mean to him. I'm just saying this is what you get with Jordan. And you could say in some cases it's the same with rj. Like, these guys want to push the envelope all the time. That's their M.O. they like to ride on the edge. And McAdoo is in the same boat and they would probably tell me if I told. If I said this to them, they would probably tell me I need to ride on the edge to be my best self. And this is what comes with it. Okay, I may not agree. I. But I. Because I would probably say, well, I don't know that there's longevity in what you're doing as far as, like, staying safe, putting championships together, having the career that you want. I don't know that taking this much risk will get you there. And I'm not the end all be all, you know, as far as, like deciding this, I'm just telling you my perspective. There has to be balance in your risk to be able to stay upright long enough to put a series together. And that's where it really comes down to. Jordan has been so good so many times and there's the one or two races along the way that he cannot stay upright. He can't hold it together and not go to the same. RJ had always been the same until last year. And RJ had his moments last year. Don't be wrong. Look at, look at the early races last year, San Diego. It wasn't perfect, but that's the thing. Like, it's not speed, it's not talent. It's not anything other than the one or two races, every championship that they toss it away and whether injured or not, they lose too many points to overcome it. And this was the one for Jordan because I think he'll be back relatively soon. I don't think he's going to be out super long with the rib injury he has. He's a really tough guy. These guys know how to ride through injuries and you could almost say they've learned how to ride through injuries because, because of this same dynamic that I'm talking about, all the, all the over the edge riding has put them on the ground and they've had to ride injured and they've had to become tougher and do these things. So I don't expect Jordan to be out all that long. But the problem is the championship's probably over now because he gave up 25 points to Deegan on Saturday night. And I hate it for Jordan because he's a really nice guy now. I was DMing him and I'm just like, man, I'm sorry this happened. Like, just hang in there. Like, what else are you supposed to say? You know, I feel bad for him, but on a analyst level trying to give true perspective on it, this is who Jordan is. It is like, I don't know how else to phrase it other than this is just what you're going to get from Jordan Smith and expecting anything else. It's probably foolish. Just, that's just what we have. Julian Bomer. You know, this is interesting, this is multifaceted because he didn't look right on Saturday night. He didn't look like himself. Okay, so let's start there. And I was just like, I wasn't, you know, I was kind of leaving, I was walking back to my hotel and I was, you know, I spent a lot of time by myself. Not always on purpose, but I just traveling alone, I live alone. So I have a lot of time to self analyze my thoughts. I analyze these riders, analyze their performance, analyze. When I say self analyze, I'm analyzing how I view these things. Am I carrying a bias? Am I carrying a grudge? Am I being fair? Am I being too easy on people that I like? All those things I think are really important if you're going to take your job seriously. And I do, like, this TV thing for me is I take it dead serious because it's like my dream job. It's the greatest opportunity I've probably ever been given. So I take it super serious, and I want to constantly be assessing my ability to get it right. So when I'm thinking about this stuff, I'm looking at Bomar and I'm like, that wasn't. That wasn't good. Why? What was going on before? I, you know, if I just say he didn't ride well and cast it aside, I don't think that's enough. You know, I need to look at, okay, what was going on? Was there something more to it? And I was like, it just felt like there was something else going on. And then, boom, I'm in the hotel and it's probably only 10:30, and I haven't even showered or anything yet. And I get a text that says. Or I see a tweet. I think Louis Phillips tweeted it. And I got a text right after I saw it about him dislocating his shoulder in that practice crash. And they didn't tell anybody or they didn't tell. I don't know. They're. From what I understand, the protocol now that we have sports betting is they're supposed to alert the AMA so everyone is on a level playing field with injuries. That is what my understanding of this rule is. And they're very serious about sharing injury information with the powers that be. I don't. I'm not going to say they didn't do it, because I don't know that. I don't have any authority on whether they didn't or didn't do it. But typically, if they had, we would have heard about it very quickly. That information would be shared immediately with us to add to the broadcast. Tell people, get the word out for sports bettors, all the things that you're supposed to do in any serious sport, whether our bets being made on performance that would have been shared lightning fast. I. I know that for a fact they are very serious about that. And I don't think that happened. So I'm not accusing anybody of not sharing it, because I don't know. All I can tell you is that I didn't know. Jason want didn't know. A lot of people that should have known didn't know. And when you look at Bomar's performance, that makes perfect sense. His shoulder was hurt. He wasn't Right. He. He was just trying to salvage whatever he could get out of the night, and that's what he did. So taking the. Whether he did or didn't, if that's right or wrong out of it now it looks exactly like what it would have had. He had a bum shoulder and was just fighting through whatever he could get. So I'm not going to judge Bomar too harshly on the performance because I saw the crash. It was a big one right into his shoulders. That all checks out. I just had a lot of question marks around his performance, and now I kind of don't now it. Now it makes too much sense. You know, we'll see where it goes from here. You know, he's got a. He's got to get right. Let's hope it's nothing serious. I can't imagine it was too serious if he raced through it. But he needs to get back to full health because he gave up. He gave a bunch of. A bunch of points to Deegan. It's not anything that can't be overcome. It's not crazy. I think he's five down. Anything six down, maybe six. It's not anything he can't overcome, especially when you have showdown races and all these things. But he's got to get back to the guy that we saw early on, that. That's a fact, that he has to get back to being that guy. If he doesn't and Deegan starts to get away here, we might be wiped out. So we. We shall see. Cole Davies. I mean, we finally saw the Cole Davies we expected in race three. That's the guy that we saw in Glendale. And it was just kind of chaos before that. You know, he looked like he was a little erratic. He looked like he maybe was trying too hard. Just wasn't letting it come to him the way he did in those first two Glendale races. But then we. We kind of saw that guy show up again. So I have nothing but incredibly positive things to say about Cole Davies. His personality is blossoming, his riding skill is blossoming. I mean, this kid, you know, if you were looking at a chart of Cole Davies, it would be up and to the right. He is just really, really improving. Like a picture perfect trajectory of where you'd want to see him in his career at 17 years old, bar none like that. That's it. I don't have to say a lot more than that. This kid is. He's the real deal. This kid has something, you know, I don't know what his contract is with Monster Yamaha Star Racing. I think it's pretty solid from what Daniel Blair was telling me, why he went there, because it was a pretty solid offer for a long term. I feel confident in that. But if. If it's not and I'm wrong in that or I was given the wrong information, I don't think I was. They better lock that kid up, because I'm telling you, that kid has what it takes. He's going to win in this class. I. I'm sold. I. I was there in Glendale. I'm even further there now. You know, there's a little. There's a little noise in his program. It was a little messy, but I'm. I'm all in on where this kid is. Is going for the long term. Like, I just. I've seen two. I've seen enough. I've seen enough to be sold on. Cole Davies, Garrett Marchbanks. One solid ride in there. You know, qualifying was pretty bad. He didn't do a lot, you know, but he finally got a start in one of them. And then he shared that shoulder thing. He was telling me. We're standing around and I've told you guys on this podcast a few times that there's like this downtime. You guys are seeing commercials. Maybe it's another interview with Will. But there's this downtime with the riders. And sometimes it's awkward because I don't want to bother them, but I don't want it to be awkward. So the guys that I have a little bit more rapport with, Roxanne, sometimes. Coop, we're cool now. Especially now that he wears fly, like, it's more. So I'll. I'll BS with them. Like, Rockson's always great. Like, we'll just talk about the track. And, you know, I've known Kenny for a long time. When I was racing in Germany, he was a kid, so I don't even know how much he remembers of all that, but I remember him being at races that I won, so there has to be some memory of that. And now he's the superstar, which he was. He's a million times better than I ever was. But there has to be some sort of memory of me racing when he was there and knowing that. So it gives us a little bit more context so we can talk more if that makes sense. And I'll just rap with him about the track. And he's always very cordial with me, and I really appreciate that from Kenny. But with Marsh Banks, I was like, man, that's what I think. Everybody wants to See from you, you know, and like it's pretty obvious statement, but I'm kind of leading him to see what his response is. And he's like, yeah, my, my shoulder is garbage. Like, I'm just, I'm just trying to do everything I can. I didn't know any of that, you know, and like he telling me the shoulder injury, labrum's torn in three places and his sockets broken. I'm like, you have to tell, you have to say this on tv. This is, no one knows this. I didn't know. And if I'm this plugged into the sport and I don't know, I'm gonna guess that most people don't know. So I'm like, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you about this. Please share that because that is so enlightening as to why the results haven't been what everybody's been expecting. And he did, you know, to his credit, he did. But it just goes to show what these guys are going through on a week to week basis. Like that's brutal to have to race through. And I've raced injured. You, you know, I, I'm not saying that I'm tough or anything like that. It's a part of what you have to do. If you're dependent on this to make a living. Like it's, it's really hard to live life with no income. You know what I mean? Like, think about all of you that are listening. Probably have normal jobs, normal careers and you, you don't take it for granted because it's your job. But think about what it would be like if you haven't had this happen to you. Maybe. I'm sure some of you have been laid off and fired. And I'm not, I'm not trying to demean that at all. But as a racer, this is all, you know, it's all you have. You get hurt and then you have no income for four months, six months, zero dollars, None. You know, like some of these guys have salaries, that's great. But a lot of guys, you know, these other guys don't and you just stop getting any money. Like Nothing comes. You get $0 for an extended period unless you have some sort of side job or you can go, you know, like, you know, Steve always wants to make fun of JMAR for going to work at the dealership, but it's a hard thing. I've done it. It's really not fun and it's really, it's really stressful and anxiety causing to just not have Any money coming in and your bills don't stop, you know, you still have to eat, you still have to pay for things. You really try to get as a, as efficient and frugal as possible, but you can't cut all of it. There's no way you're not going to spend any money. So it's, it's a tough thing. And that's why you see these guys racing through the craziness that they are, is because this is, this is how they make money. And if they don't, they don't make any money. So it's a, it's a daunting thing. You're like, well I can't, I don't have another job. So if, if there's any human way possible I can get back out there and make money, I have to do it, you know. And that, that's just the, that's the ask in front of all these guys and that's what Marchbanks is facing. You know, he's under a lot of pressure from the team because they have so many hurt riders and he needs to perform and he needs to get out there and make money. You know, I've talked to Garrett about medical bills. He's had crazy amounts of medical bills because he's been hurt so many times and he's been, I don't know where he sits right this moment, but he's been calling himself out from underneath that debt. And a great way to call yourself out of debt is to get some bonus checks. You can get out of debt in a hurry with some podium bonus checks. And I'm sure that's what's in the back of his mind is every single Saturday is a chance to get 5, 10, 30, 50 grand. You know, I got that can solve a lot of problems in a big hurry for a guy like Garrett Marchbanks. Joe Shimoto is the last 250 I want to touch on. And he showed some fight at the end. You know, I try to touch on this during the broadcast. You know, he hasn't, he hasn't ridden a lot. And I think that has to matter somewhere in here. When you can't practice that's gonna, you're gonna get a little rusty at some point. And I wasn't sure and I'm still not sure what the balance is between a healthier hand, you know, lack of pain, he's going to be able to ride harder. He has more grip strength versus not riding at all and just being rusty and you lose that razor sharp edge that These guys take. When they do, they do their boot camp, they come in, they are at picture perfect form. Like, they're the best they could possibly be. They're on the Razor's Edge. That's what the preseason is about. And then you take that and you say, okay, now you have a broken hand. You can't practice again for five weeks. And also, you can't really do much. You can't lift weights with that arm because you can't use that hand. Can't really do much of anything other than ride your bicycle, probably, and maybe, you know, you can run or whatever. Now you've got to go beat Deegan and all these guys who are spending every waking second being better at their practice starts. They're doing corner drills, they're practicing the whoops, they're working, they're testing suspension. They're doing everything they can to be better. You have to go beat those guys with literally, literally one hand tied behind your back. That's the ask for. For Shimoda. And that's. That's not a fair ask. Like, no matter how you want to look at it, that's not a fair ask. So I am not surprised that his performance was. Was a little off. What we saw from a one, like, how could it not be to be. To be completely fair to Joe? And I think, you know, the more he rode on Saturday, the better he got, and that would completely check out. You know, when I say he hasn't practiced when he can ride, like, he tried to ride the week of the race, it didn't go very well, as Lars shared with us. I think we said that in the broadcast. Every time he was able to ride on Saturday or had to ride, he's going to get a little bit better. And it's just. It's just working the rust off. It's that simple. So I think if he didn't take take a step back on Saturday, didn't seem like he did. I talked to him after the race, and he looked like he was in a great mood. He's going to be able to rest again. He'll actually be able to practice a little bit. Whether it's this week or next weekend or the week after, he's going to be able to ride, and then he'll come into Indy better than he was here. And that's all you can do in. In life in general. All you're trying to do is be better than you were the day before. And I think Joe will be better in Indy than he was in Arlington. That that's my prediction. Now it's a showdown. So the result might not be better, but better against his peers. Ride better in his own little world. You know, like in Joe's world, is he riding better or worse? I think he'll be riding better. Okay, let's thank the sponsors of this podcast. I should have done that right off the top, but I will do it now. Guts racing seat covers, power sports, E bikes, they have everything gutsracing.com you can go to @gutsracing on Instagram. Great team over there. Andy, Greg. These guys are at all events, amateur, pro, off road. They're true enthusiasts. That's, you know, like what I love about the sponsors of this podcast is they're so involved that that's my big thing here is I want people that love the sport. You know, this podcast is not like big corporate America. You know, I don't have to do it or have to have sponsors or whatever. So I want to work with people that I like and that want to work with me and that, that epitomizes GUTS racing in every single way. Works connection same same type deal, worst connection has been around forever. You know, they, I think their first real rider that I can remember was Steve Lamson, like 1990. They, they, their claim to fame was frame guards. If you had a two stroke in the 90s, you almost guaranteed had works connection frame guards on it. And they've gone on to build the best, you know, aftermarket products there are. You know, I think they're, they're most, their most notoriety they get now is from the pro on start device. If you look at monster Yamaha Star racing like Deegan, Tomac, Cooper Webb, Justin Cooper, Cole Davies, they use a pro on start device. Factory Honda uses a pro on start device. I don't even need to tell you Jet Hunter course, Shimoda, Hymus, everybody. These teams, when you're talking about teams on that level, they can choose whatever they want, period. Like, end of story. They can choose any sponsor that they want and they're going to be able to get market value for the most part. Like they have their choice. And if you're talking about a team like Honda, a lot of the time they're just like, nah, we'll just build it. Like, we don't need, we don't need to mess around, we can just, we can just do a better job. Like we're factory Honda, we have every machine in the world, we can do it ourselves. They still choose to use Works connection. Like that's, that's the best validation you could ever have is that factory Honda chooses to use your aftermarket product. Like I don't, I don't know if all of you even understand how important that is because those guys do not mess around. Like they don't like aftermarket stuff in a lot of cases because if it fails, they don't want to blame an aftermarket company. They would rather blame themselves, you know, and they still trust Works Connection for this stuff. So that's, that's really cool. Eric Phipps and their team, just an incredible story they have put together over the last, I don't know, 35 years. So go to works connection.com@works connection on Instagram and, and see all of the things. They have a ton of stuff. I just like the, the pro and start to buy story to me is, is really compelling. TL Speed Shop, they have a new website is race-rentals.com and what this is is the place where you can go on and rent trophy trucks side by sides and they have their team. You know, it's not like you just, it's like a rental car company where you like, yeah, I'll take that trophy truck. See you later. No, they're gonna go through the whole process with you. I mean these are half a million dollar trophy trucks and they're gonna take you out, let you ride or drive and show you the ropes, you know, and you can custom tailor all this stuff, which is the cool part. But they've really been working towards getting the trophy truck side more up and going because for a long time it's been the side by side aspect where you could, you could go to Baja or Vegas or Grand Canyon or Sedona or whatever and rent side by sides and they do race side. They have a whole side by side race program. But the trophy truck side, to me you can't find that anywhere. Nobody's going to rent you a trophy truck. These half a million dollar trophy trucks to go ripping around like that just doesn't exist. So this is a really cool thing that these guys are doing. They're based in Wickenburg, Arizona and you can go to race-rentals.com for more info and if you can't get your questions answered there, reach out to me and I'll connect you with, with the people that can. Grantstone boots. Thank you to them. I am always looking sharp. I wish I could wear them on race day. And the only reason I don't, I don't wear the sneakers because I'll ruin them. I mean I wish you could see how dirty my feet get. I don't want to ruin my grandstones every weekend. And the boots are just, they're not built for track stuff. These are like 400 leather boots and shoes. But I mean when I wear, I wear them to the office. I wear them certainly where I'm in my social life, these things are lights out nice. And some of the people I work with at WPS and other people have gotten some over the years and they're like blown away at how good these things are. I'm like, I telling you guys, this is like, these are the nicest boots I've ever seen. So check them out. GrantstoneShoes.com and at Grantstone Boots, I think on Instagram I should know that. My apologies. But if you just put in Grandstone in the search bar, it'll, it'll come up. And of course, fire Racing, we will have a brand new product line coming out for Daytona. So check that out. Friday, noon eastern we will have some new looks to, to share with the world. So that'll be fun. So let's jump into the power rankings and this will be a little bit shorter. I don't have a ton on these, but I do want to run through this and we'll talk, make some points about the 450 class. Honorable mention this week is Joey Savage. He got bumped out for Dylan Ferrandis, but Joey's riding really well. He just needs to stay off the ground. I mean, Joey's such a good rider. I don't think that his performance is always indicative of how good of a rider he is. When I watch him, I'm like, that guy should be top 10 all the time, no questions asked. And that simply doesn't happen because he crashes and makes mistakes. He gets bad starts and whatever else goes on. But that, that guy is an incredible rider. I would say a very underrated rider. That as far as these guys go, Dylan Ferrandis at 10, he's showing some promise. Like he's been in the mix a little bit, he's been better, which is kind of what he needs to do. I, I like what I've seen. He was in the mix of Detroit a little bit. So good for Ferrandis. This is, this is better. I know he's thrown his hat in the ring for that factory Honda fill in spot. I don't know, I don't think that's going to happen, but I know he's definitely been lobbying for it. So we'll see. Number nine, Justin Barcia. And I, in my notes, I wrote Justin Barsha and Jason Anderson. That's it. That's the tweet. I mean, these two just clobbering each other. It makes so much sense. It just makes so much sense that these two would be taking each other out. So, yeah, Barsha, this is on brand, man. These guys just caught, you know, just nailing each other in the middle of the race is very on brand for those two. But Bart has been, he's been riding. Okay, so he lands at number nine. Justin Hill is eight. And this guy has so much skill. Like, when he's on, it's truly unbelievable. But when he's off, you're shaking your head, like, where'd he go? Like, who was. Who's riding your bike, man? That's not the same guy I saw a couple weeks ago. Like, two totally different people. And, and I think there's an analogy here. He's like the crazy girlfriend that I'm sure many of you have had. Maybe it's for women listening. It's crazy boyfriend. And you come home from work, come home from whatever you may be doing, and you walk in and you have no idea what you're about to get. You could get a great mood and very amicable, you know, okay, cool. We're going to have a great night and. And we're gonna get along awesome. Or you could be calling the cops. Like, she just should be off the rails. You have no idea what she's talking about. You're like, who are you? Why are you so angry? What happened? That's how I feel about Justin Hill's riding. You just don't you. The extremes of the spectrum are so far, and I have no idea what makes a difference. I don't. It's my job to know these things, and I simply have no idea. I know that the more technical the racetrack is, that helps him. Like, if I'm going to give you something, that's it. But is it the dirt? Is it the jumps? Is it the ruts? Who knows? Who freaking knows? Seven is Aaron Plessinger. I don't know what to tell you about ap. This is. This is struggle bus big time. This is so far away from where he was a year ago in all the wrong ways. This is. This is not good. This is not a good first. Seven races for ap, and we all like ap. I don't know of anybody that dislikes that guy. He's one of the only people on earth where I, I can't find anybody to say something bad about him. Like, I just don't know that that exists. But the racing has not been spectacular thus far for ap, and let's. Let's hope he can get that turned around. Number six is Justin Cooper, and he did turn it around. That was. That was a fantastic ride from Justin Cooper all night. Really, really solid. And, you know, I was talking about the Whoops thing, and that's definitely a thing for him. That's not going to change. I don't believe. I, you know, like, the Whoops are going to be a challenge for him moving forward. I don't see why in year eight of him being a pro or whatever this is, that he's going to somehow figure it out. I just think this is what we're getting. It's not like he's incapable in the Whoops. It is just a deficiency. It's just a weak spot for him. And to win races, it can't be a big one. Like Cooper Webb it is, too, but Webb can get through them pretty damn good. It's just not as good as the very tip top guys. Like, Rockson's better, Sexton's better, Tomax better, Jets better. He's, like in the second tier, down in the Whoops. And that can hurt him. It has hurt him. But I would say Justin Cooper's like the third or fourth teardown, where, yes, he can blitz loops, of course he can blitz them. But it's. It's a real liability for him, and it's one that he always has to guard against. And this weekend, this was no different. You know, he was able to make up for it a little bit. He was able to guard against it. He had a real shot at winning that first race. But this is the one thing holding him back. You know, everything else is there. His speed is great, his starts are phenomenal. But, yeah, the Whoops are. They're a problem. Mookie. This is invisible race. I don't know. I didn't see him a lot. I saw him in the background of the battle a few times, but it was just kind of an invisible race for him, and doesn't mean it was bad, but it wasn't good. It wasn't like anything close to resembling Tampa or even really Detroit, you know, it just wasn't. It wasn't a standout night for Mookie. Let's just say that Jason Anderson. God, I would hate to race against Jason Anderson. Like, you just look at the run in with Barcia, and he just. No, thanks. Like, he's not Vince Freezy, but he would not be fun. I would hard pass on racing against Jason Anderson. You know, I like the guy off the track. He's. He's for the most part nice to me. No issues. But man, like when he puts his helmet on, he is just a completely different animal. And he, I think he would be the first one to tell you that that's the case. It's not like he shies away from it or, you know, like, I think that's my problem with freezing. This isn't about Freezy, but Freezy, when you talk to him about it, he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Jason Anderson would be like, yeah, man. You know, Bar should the same. Oh yeah, that's just what you're gonna get. Like I'm just gonna tell you on the front end, this is who I am. Just be. Be ready for it. So I'm kind of cool with that. Like at least, you know, and at least there's not some facade these hiding behind or playing dumb, you know, like Anderson's Lisa come out and tell you, like, yeah man, if I get, if I get an opportunity, I'm gonna run it in on you. Like I'm gonna tee you up if I can. That's going to give me a better position. So be it. So be ready for it. Like that's. At least you have some sort of accountability for it. But that doesn't change the fact that I would hate racing against them. Like, it would drive me absolutely bonkers. Number three is Ken Rockson. And man, he was so close to winning the overall. So close. And in the end, unfortunately, kind of the same thing. He gets passed late. I hate saying that but kind of happened. And I thought it was really interesting. You know, Kenny is like, man, I just need to be. I need to be faster. Like, that is such a rare thing to hear about rocks and is he's not fast enough because he's so lightning good on the early laps. Like a sprint speed. So damn good. But I understand what he's saying, you know, in those in the middle of the race. He had an opportunity to seal the deal and he couldn't. Like, Sexton was closing the gap. Webb closed the gap. Like that's, that's the speed he wants in the middle of the race when they're just going flat out turning the best laps they can and everybody's up to operating temperature and that. If you don't know what I mean by that, like you should, but if you don't, everybody's warm. Everybody's found their groove and everybody's just clicking laps off like, let's see, let's go. No, there's no traffic. That's when Roxanne feels like he's lacking the speed. He needs clean air. Like as Ricky would say, that clean air. There's no traffic. You know, Roxann's really good on the opening lap when everybody's trying to feel things out. He doesn't need that. He doesn't need that warm up period where everybody else kind of does or most people do. That's his strength. But when everybody gets going, that's when he feels, that's where he feels like he's missing that last 1%. So I don't know how you find that. I was kind of similar. I don't, I wasn't fast enough all the time. But I'm sure he's gonna be working on it. Sprint speed, which is already great at. But like, I'm sure they'll just be doing a lot of lap time work. That, that's really, in the end, what it'll come back to is just where can I find a tenth? Here or there. That's, it's not, it doesn't take much. You know, if you, if you're doing say like a 48 one on average and you can get that down to a 47.9 on average, that's a lot now cup now turn that into, you know, 15 laps and see what that works out to. It's a big difference. It can be the difference between winning and losing and very likely would be you're talking about three or four seconds, you know, of track position. That's a big deal. Especially look how close the racing was this weekend. Number two, Chase Sexton. Oh my gosh, I, I mean if you didn't feel bad for Chase Sexton, you may not have a soul. Even if he, even if you're a Cooper Webb fan. I don't know, I don't know many people that hate Chase Sexton, but it was really hard to not feel bad for Chase. You could just see the agony and the pain and frustration on his face. I mean he was, he was going through it. He was really hurting and I'm sure he was last night after the, you know, at the hotel. I'm sure he was this morning. I hope he can shake that off because that one looked like it left a mark. And you never know, you never know what that's going to do to his psyche. You know, most of the time I'm like, yeah, he's fine. He's going to be really bummed, but he'll shake it off. That one seemed like it hurt and I just don't know if that was any different or not. That's, that's the question I'm posing. Was that one a little bit more. Are we going to see that one stick around for a little bit. As far as like, does it have a lingering effect on his performance when he gets in that position again? Do we see that same thing happen because he's, he's going to be thinking about it again? I don't know. I just felt like that one was a little bit harder on him than, than anything prior had been. So tough, tough, tough night for Chase Sexton. I was thinking about this earlier. If any of you have ever seen the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, like that's what he needs. He needs a mind eraser, somebody to come in and just wipe that memory from his mind. That's what he needs. And just be like, yep, that never happened. I don't even know what you're talking about. Never even heard of that race. Arlington 2025. Don't even know what you mean. Never heard of her. Yeah, it's not possible. But that was just kind of what I was thinking about is, is just finding a way to get past that. Is, is going to be really important for Chase Sexton and I think it's going to also, also going to be really difficult. And number one is, is Cooper Webb as he should be? Yeah. Pretty damn good. You know, like I, I think he, he is the most opportunistic racer I've ever come across. I say that with full confidence. Is he the fastest? No. Is he the most fit? No. Does he have the best racecraft? Probably. But he just finds angles to work just what he does. He will find whatever edge he can exploit and make the most of it and it'll wear you down. And he's like Iceman. I think I've used this somewhere in a broadcast somewhere. He just, he, whatever your weakness is, he is going to dig his hooks into that and ride it for everything it's worth. And I think for Chase it's the mental aspect and the mistakes. The mental side, you know, are, is tied to the mistakes. Like he, I don't know if he loses concentration or he starts overthinking the, the situation, but that is not a good setup against Cooper Webb. You know, like Coop's mental game is the strongest aspect and it's, I think Chase Sexton's Weakest aspect and coupe is going to, I don't think he's going to do anything egregious. Like, I don't think he's going to play games with him, but he's going to do everything he can. He's going to put pressure on him. He's going to try to, you know, ratchet up the ante as far as, like every ounce of, of championship pressure he can put on him. He's. He's going to do it. And I don't know all of Coop's tactics. I don't. I was never at that level. But I'm just telling you that that guy knows how to play the game. And if you give him an inch, he will take a mile. That's, that's just who he's always been. He's done it year after year after year. And I, if you want to know what I'm talking about, go watch the SMX Insider post race show from this weekend. And it's, it's towards the very end, but I do a piece on Sexton, where he crashed and what kind of happened. And those are. That, that monologue I give is where Cooper Webb makes his money. Something like that. Those dynamics. That situation is where Cooper Webb does his best work. And you could say he's made literally millions of dollars doing what I talk about and exploiting things like Chase Sexton is doing. So I don't know, I don't get many things right on tv. I felt like I did okay with that one about getting the point across. So if I was ever going to recommend watching something about how I feel about it, that's a good place to go is the insider show and we went right into it after the broadcast. It's on Peacocks right after the race. It's probably 15 minutes, 20 minutes after the race, I'll be standing in the corner where we're sexting Crash, talking about it. But that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed it. I apologize for not getting one done last week. That's on me. Just the week got away from me. But we are off to Daytona and I'll be there on Thursday and yeah, looking forward to another race. Looking forward to another podcast. Thank you to everybody for listening and we'll talk to you soon.