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Jason Thomas
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, Bass Foundry, TL Speed Shop, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. My name is Jason Thomas and one week removed from our last podcast. If you'll remember, last weekend, well, Friday I was walking around the campus of Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana and we were on the precipice of the Redbud National. This Friday I walked around the city of Rochester, Minnesota, which is home to the Mayo Clinic. It's probably its claim to fame here. Beautiful morning out, a little overcast, but man, temperatures were amazing where last week it was already pretty hot and humid. Just a really, really nice walk around town this morning. Got to kind of gather my thoughts. I did not record this time when I was walking around. It's pretty loud, just cars everywhere. But I did get to kind of wrap my head around the series a little bit. You know, I've done so many podcasts already this week, so I have gotten to work through a lot of things. But for this particular application I wanted to streamline things, shorten things up and get through a bunch of different topics before we jump straight into this. And it's going to be a quick and dirty one today leading up to the Spring Creek National. You know, I'm recording this on Friday morning, so that'll be tomorrow. I'm going to try to get another podcast done to wrap up Spring Creek on Sunday. So these are going to come pretty quick in succession, but that's okay. We're going to get a before a Little Red Bud recap a little before Spring Creek and then I'll do another one right after the sponsors of this podcast. Thank you to guts racing. You can go to gutsracing.com guts racing on Instagram they have seat covers and graphics for power sports. They have seats for Surrons E bikes, pretty much anything in power sports. They are the foremost name in seats, period. So check those guys out. Andy, Greg, just a such a great company with a really long heritage in the sport. You're talking decades of of great products here. So that is a brand you can really trust to serve your needs. Work connection works connection.com and@works Connection on Instagram. Listen, I'm going to do the whole shot challenge. We kind of named it that next Friday at Washougal against Steve Mathis. And the details are Steve is going to have Hunters Factory 450 right after press day and I'm going to have Cornelius Tondel's stock 450. As long as MX Sports agrees and lets us use the gate and everything goes to plan. That is the plan. I don't know how this is going to go. I'm going to ride a little bit on Sunday. I shouldn't even say ride. I'm going to go practice some starts somewhere on Sunday. Riding, riding really won't happen. All I want to do is just get the feel of a Honda and kind of understand what the ask is. So I'm, I'm more comfortable come next Friday. But that's going to be some fun. And the point of that is we will be using the Works Connection Pro launch start device. That is what Jet and Hunter use. It's what Joe Shimota uses to whole shot last weekend. It's what Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing uses. So when Deegs pulls holeshots, Justin Cooper pulls hole shot, everybody's using the same thing thing and that's what I will be using next week. So. So check out Works Connection. They have so many cool items over there. They've been around. First time I ever heard of them was like in the early 90s 90 or 91. They are located very near to Steve Lamson's hometown and to me he was what brought them to the forefront. I, I think you could credit Steve Lamson with Factory Honda's relationship that stems you know, going on I guess 30 plus years at this point. So great company Eric Phipps and their team do a great job continuing to innovate products. So check out Works Connection, TL Speed Shop and race-rentals.com for all your side by side rental needs and trophy truck rental needs Unmatched supplements. Thank you to Chris Gethin and the team. They have taken such good care of me and if you followed along my fitness journey or just notice that I've gotten into better shape over the years. Huge reason why is Unmatched supplements and Chris's guidance over there. Grantstone boots, best boots and shoes in the game and of course firepower parts and fly racing. Thank you to all of them. Thank you for being patient as we work through the sponsors as well. So let's go, let's talk some dirt bikes. Red Bud was. Red Bud was hot. You know was it, was it Florida in August? No, it wasn't. I know what that feels like. It was hot though. You could see people struggling with it. It was, it was definitely a difficult afternoon and when you're racing, you know it's not like, oh man, it could be so much hotter. That's not, it's not really what you're thinking about in the moment because these guys are pushing so hard, like they're on the limit the entire time. And when the temperature goes up to 90 plus and then the humidity starts ramping up, that's when you really start to run into problems. And that, that's what we saw at, at Red Bud and you could just see it on people's faces. It was difficult, like, and when I, I talk about this a lot, but it's such a truth teller. When you are sitting or if you ever follow along with the cameras, the television cameras, and you see the riders come in to the tents, they have those easy ups that are right behind the podium when they pull in there, just look at the riders faces, you, you can really tell who's suffering and who's kind of okay with their body temperature. The effort they put in, it's a really, really broad difference. And you can get a gauge for fitness. I've been doing this for a long time, not doing this, but I've been watching that particular dynamic for a long time and it pretty much bears out the truth every single time. It's impossible. I say impossible. It's very difficult for riders to hide in that moment right when they're coming off the track. They, even if they could possibly hide it, they typically don't care. So when I see like Deegan come in, when he's healthy, he, he looks pretty good. Like that's how I tell, you know, like outside of performance, that's kind of how I judge his fitness. He doesn't look like that was very taxing on him. Now when I look at a guy like Levi Kitchen, now Kitchen's riding well, don't get me wrong, his results are pretty good. He looks like he just fought some sort of border conflict. Like he looks smoked. And so I just think it's, you know, some of it's probably genetics. Not everybody's as, as inclined to peak fitness as others. That's a real thing. You know, other people can handle higher workloads and their threshold is higher. All those things are definitely hereditary and genetic. That, that's a part of life, but it's also a testament to work put in during the week. And you could go back. Do you remember like two years? Was it last year? Might have been last year. It was last year when, you know, Deegan and Kitchen used to practice together. They were both at Star at the same time. And Deegan would comment last year about, I wasn't too worried about Kitchen because I know he'll fade at the end. Like he's taken a shot at Levi, no doubt. Like he is trying to mess with Levi for sure. But it's also like, I think he's speaking his own truth. Like, whether or not it's factual is not the point. It's what Hayden believes to be true. He didn't just make it up out of nowhere. He is going off of what he's seen in the past, his experiences with Levi, practicing. And I think there is a little bit of truth in what I see from Levi when he pulls in the tent. I don't think his results are really suffering because of it, but I do think he is right on the limit of what he can take. Like, I'm telling you, when he pulls in, he is a wreck and everybody around him and his team knows it. They are pouring water on him, they're ripping his boots off. Like they are trying to get his core body temperature down as quickly as humanly possible. And I would contrast that with Joe or Deegan or some of these other guys where it's very calm. Like, yeah, they're giving him water, maybe somebody pour water on his back. But generally the mood and the sense of urgency is much lower. It's just a very, very different thing. And there's something to that. There is something to that. So I think on the hardest days, if we get a, you know, like say Washougo is 100 degrees or something, which it very well could be, that's going to be a difficult setup. Even though it's Levi's home race, he has claimed he doesn't ride that well there. I'm just looking at conditions that are going to be harder for Levi to show up and I like to judge fitness and capabilities on those hard day and just look in their face, like, look in their eyes and look in their face when they're overheating. Because I talked about this on the broadcast the other day. When you stop, like you have all this air that's blowing on you like a breeze. Think about a breeze. If you have a 30 mile an hour wind, what that breeze does, well, that's what's happening all the time. When you're riding. You have this airflow that's constantly cooling you down. You're already super hot anyway. When that airflow stops, your body temperature spikes because you don't have the airflow, that radiator, you know, of air flowing you down or, excuse me Cooling you down. So I look in their face when that hits them and I can tell how much it's bothering them or how much they can just like, yeah, man, I'm not even close to my limit, so I'm, I'm fine here. That is a real indicator. And there's no one that could talk me away from it because I felt it, I dealt with it in my own world. I was, I was gauging myself when I would come in and I'm like, how, how bad is this for me right now? Like, did I have more to push with? And there, there were a few times I could, I could name offhand when I knew I was out of shape, I didn't have anything left to give and I needed to be either do better prep for heat or I didn't do, like short term prep. Like, I didn't cool myself down. I didn't hydrate enough. I, you know, like, let myself get too hot on the starting line. Like there was something that I didn't manage well, but I felt all those things. I know the difference in my own mind and I can, I truly believe, I can kind of see it in their face and in their body language. It's not something that they're really thinking about controlling. It's very involuntary in that moment, which is probably the best indicator because it's, it is involuntary. Their body is just, you know, like they're, they're past the point of caring what's happening. They're too hot for that. It's just all sense of like, I need to hide anything is gone. And they also know, like, the fans can't really see them. Like, all they care about is cooling down as fast as possible. So anyway, very long way of talking about kind of Kitchen. I just think this weekend is going to be a good setup for him. If you look at the temperature is going to be like 78. It's going to be kind of rainy and overcast. And he crushed this weekend last year. He was so, so fantastic at this race last year. So for watch for Kitchen, coming off a difficult weekend last year, even though he had the speed, Hayden Deegan, he needs a bounce back. He. I know he suffered an injury. You could see how bad his leg was if you follow him on Instagram. He needs to kind of get back to where he was as far as, like, crush Joe's momentum, reestablish himself as the guy when he's healthy. I think he will. And really the biggest things get off TikTok, man. Like, I don't even, I don't, I'm not even on TikTok. I do have one, but I don't use it. I just hear about it. I have videos sent to me, DM to me, and I'm like, what is happening here? He's not doing himself any favors. I'm just telling you that right now. Listen, I, I know we're different generations. I don't expect to like, connect on that level with 19 year olds. Like, I just, I, I know better than that. But at the same time, he's not helping himself here. No one is watching this, thinking it's awesome. Even, even the kids that maybe look up to him, maybe they think it's awesome, but they don't know. They don't know any better right now. I'm just telling you, it's not a good look. Flashing a gun on TikTok, which I saw a screenshot of, like, all that stuff is, is not a good move. Like, making fun of people. Like, it's just it. I don't see anything gained from it at all. And I know he's young, I know he's making decisions that he'll look back one day and probably regret, but you can kind of get in front of that. Like, there are always going to be things you look back with regret on. But maybe, maybe he could have a little bit more awareness at the moment. But racing wise, I don't know that any of that matters. Like when he shows up on Saturdays on the dirt bike, I don't think any of that matters. I'm just talking about kind of the rest of it. And in the end, doesn't affect me. I don't care at all. But I just, you know, I raced at his age. I kind of know what it's like. Not, not his level of stardom. I was never there, especially at his age, so I don't completely get it. But I do know there were things I wish I could go back and do differently. And the point is, I think this, this whole TikTok thing, the way he kind of carries himself, might. It might be one of those. Joe Shimoto. What a great day. Listen, I. If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know that I'm a big believer that when there is opportunity, you know, I always say when the door is open, you have to be willing and able to walk through it. I think Joe Shimoto did that because on multiple fronts, when you think about the points, he was a. He's a ton of points down. And if you want any chance of it. When Deegan has an issue and has a really bad day, you have to make the most of it. Well, guess what he did. He went one, one. You can't do any more than that for yourself. So kudos to that. That is exactly what it means to step up and take advantage of the opportunity. When fate hands you, you know, puts its hand out, you have to grab it with everything you have and pull yourself forward. Second, when your boss, boss's boss's boss, you know, I don't even know how many levels up the chain this was, but you figure he has a Lars who is directly above him. Then Brandon Wilson, who is directly above that, somewhere along the line. Yuzuri issue. Gosh. Yuzuru Ishikawa. I don't know why that was so hard to say. I guess maybe saying it is so hard to say. He is the executive director of Han at Honda and he's in charge of like, MotoGP, motocross, like, all that. He's way, way, way up the chain in Japan. Like, that's all you need to know is he is up the chain in Japan. Like it's a whole nother, whole nother level of management. He was at the race and when you go out and you go one, one and you are Japanese in front of that, those fans and that scene where he was down there, I saw him down there at the podium, that's going to leave a mark like that, like a, in a good way. That's going to leave a lasting memory with Mr. Ishikawa. And for him to say, listen, we have to keep Joe, he's Japanese, which, that goes a long way. If you don't know much about Japanese culture. For them to have a guy inside, like winning and at the front, that is Japanese, that is a huge, huge, huge deal for any Japanese oem. So that's a, that's a big coup in the world of Joe Shimoda. And it would not shock me at all if he told Brandon Wilson or whoever, hey, figure it out. We're. We're keeping Joe. This is what we're paying him and we're going to find a 450 spot for him down the road. You have to figure this out like that. That would not shock me even 1%. Like, nothing. Like, I wouldn't even shrug my shoulders. I would say, yeah, that's very likely. And it may be something I ask Lars about. I don't know how transparent he'll be with me, but, but I, I feel very firmly in the Fact that him being that Joe being Japanese, showing up on a day like that, winning, going one, one. That even if it's subconsciously with the bosses, that means a lot. And, and if you remember the one thing I talked about, the problem with Joe, this was a week ago. The problem for Joe with staying at Honda was I, I didn't think there was, there was a 450 pathway there for him. I just know how locked in they are with Hunter and Jet, and I didn't think that that would bear an opening. But with the snap of his fingers, a guy like Mr. Ishikawa could change that. One email, one text, one verbal communication with them and say, hey, whatever, whatever. We need to move the budget to, to get this done, parts wise, staff wise. Do it. Like, I don't want to hear it, you know, I don't want to hear excuses. I don't want to hear whatever. Like, you have authority to get this deal done. Like, that's, that's how easy something like this can happen. And I'm speaking a little out of turn because I don't know the inner workings of these things, but I do know enough, I've been around enough to know someone like that, with that much authority and influence. I know how easy it can be to push something like that through. This is not a huge money deal that you're talking about with Shimoda in the big picture. It's not. It. Joe probably makes less than 10% of what Jet makes from Honda. For real. Like, that's, that's what you're talking about. Like, contract wise, dollar for dollar, it's probably less than 10%. So it's not, it's not like anything that you couldn't, a guy with his level of influence couldn't do with the snap of his fingers. So anyway, great job for, for Joe on that whole deal. I'm taking way too long here. Joy Swole. Super impressive. That was awesome. And I noticed Jolie has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. I don't know if that comes from just people doubting him. Like, I don't know. I guess I've doubted him. You know, Justin Brayton even did a public apology on his podcast. I don't know if it comes from that. I don't know if it comes from the injury stuff where he just feels like it's him against the world. I don't know. It's just a kind of a sense I've got around the podium, interviews and stuff. He just, he feels slighted, which is fine. Hey, man, whatever you have to draw from to be your best self, whatever slight, whatever motivation, whether feigned or, you know, whether real or not, who cares if it's going to make you better and give you the motivation you need, by all means, dude. Like, I, you know, like, I don't know if he has a reason to be mad at me or not. Maybe, I don't know, I tried to talk to him or I congratulate him on the podium. Maybe he didn't hear me, but it fell on deaf ears. That's okay. Like, I don't care if, you know, maybe he doesn't like me. I don't know. I don't really. Not really super worried about it. But what I do know is that he was fantastic at Redbud. Like, that was super impressive and he has been really impressive since he came back. I was shocked at how good he was right away at High Point and he's done really nothing but get better since then. So great job to Jalik. I think he has solidified himself at Triumph, I think. I can't imagine a world where they don't keep him. And yeah, good for him, man. Like, I think he was, he was on the precipice of not being there. I think they were going to keep him because I think his Achilles was like a bike issue thing. I don't know that for sure, but that's, that's my guess just from reading between the lines. So I don't think they were going to get rid of him. It's really hard to not keep somebody if they got hurt because your bike malfunctioned. Like, that is a terrible look. So I think they were keeping him anyway. But I really think he solidified himself for the long term with how resilient he's been this quickly. Like, great job for Julique Swole. Michael Moseman. That was awesome. He is a weird dude. Well, I shouldn't say that. He is just a very different eccentric type guy. He is. If you've ever talked to him, you'll know it. If you've ever read an interview with him, you'll know it. He, he just marches to the beat of a different jump. Nothing wrong with it, that's for damn sure. Like, be your own self, man. Like, I, I'm. I'm very kind of down the middle. I don't think I'm on the fringe of anything. I just think I'm just kind of a normal guy for the most part. I think most men just a little bit different than that. He Views the world through a different lens than a lot of other people do. Not good, not bad, just different. And nothing. Again, there's nothing wrong with it. I don't mean to mean it in a negative context, but I promise you, if you talk to him for more than two minutes, you would know exactly what I'm talking about. In the end, though, this was a great performance. This is what he needs to. If he wants to stay at Yamaha, if he wants to continue on with factory equipment, this is the type of ride he needs. Tom viall, the last 250 guy, I mean, he let one get away here. That first moto man, you got to win that. You have to win that. And, you know, he talked about bad lines, which was true. That line before the tabletop down on the bottom was horrific. He kept going to the outside. He got past multiple times there. So you kind of have to figure that out. When you get past the first time, you need to reassess what's going on there. The second time, you just, like, you know, first time, shame on you. Like, second time, shame on me. I don't know that that really applies here, but in the end, you have to be aware that the track is changing and that your line isn't working is the most important. You have to understand that. And for a guy that has. Has a. Has had as much success as he has had, this is a. A very skilled, experienced 250 racer around the world. I'm just surprised he didn't figure that out more quickly. And then the second moto man, he had a good start, forced it there, and ended up having a huge crash in the second corner. And that ruined his day. It really did. I feel like he let one get away as far as the podium. Like, he would have been a shoo in for the podium. I think with the way that day turned out and just not to be, you know, I'm sure he lost money, lost, you know, like whatever. Whatever kind of influence he was hoping for on his 20, 26 negotiations. Because if you think about it, if he wins that first moto, he beats Joe. I'm sure he was trying to. But if he beats Joe and then the second moto, he just kind of finishes around the top three. Maybe he wins the overall. Maybe he's second overall. Probably second overall. With the way Joe rode, the second moto, you have. You just have more leverage in your negotiations. That's. That's the word I was looking for, is leverage. And I don't know, leaving Red Bud that he had much of anything because it's. If you wanted to go back and watch the first half of the first Moto, yeah, awesome, great job. You have lots of leverage. But from the first half of the first Moto through the rest of the day, I would just say it was a declining look. Like it just got worse as the day went on. So tough one there. You know, the Honda thing in Europe is still on the table. I really went into depth last week. If you didn't listen, you can go back to last week's podcast before Red Bud and I go super in depth about VL's situation. He's working on KTM here. You know when he posted that Instagram saying, can't wait to race the 450. I think he's sending a message to KTM. They're like, hey man, I want to be here. I don't want to go to Europe. KTM knows all too well the offers on the table. Like they're in this negotiation, they know what the situation is. But I think that is VL kind of shooting a message subliminally. Or honey, it could be just plain as day to KTM here and in Europe, to Robert, Jonas in Europe and here, to Ian and Roger and whoever. I don't know who all is on the decision making team. Maybe pit buyer in there somewhere. Like, hey man, I don't want to leave. Like, you all know the situation. You know, I have to race a 450, but I need a new contract and I need a competitive one, I think. And I don't want to go back down the same road. But I think the problem is that the money they have or are willing to pay him on a 450 in 26 is nowhere near what he thinks it should be. To me, that's where it really gets dicey. That's. That's the whole crux of it. Really fast and really dirty. I don't know, I keep saying fast and dirty in this podcast, but if you really wanted a nutshell, he has this great offer at Honda in Europe. Probably more money long term. His KTM offer to stay in America is probably much less money because it's. They don't want him on a 450 and that's where he has to go. And they just don't have, they didn't plan for this scenario. They don't. And I don't think they want to give him like big 450 money anyway. Like, regardless, they plan for it or not, I don't think he's deserving of big 450 money, yet he should be like an entry level 450 factory deal. That's where I think he should be. So that's kind of my take on the whole situation. Let's go to the power rankings and yeah, so there's going to be some in here that I think are going to be. If this was a big deal, if this was like national news, these would be really controversial, I think, and I don't have super strong conviction with them. But there's a lot of fluidity going on here and I'll briefly say why they landed in each spot and if you vehemently disagree, that's fine. I almost kind of vehemently disagree with myself. But in the end they had to land somewhere and I do have justification in my mind as to where they are now. The two honorable mentions that didn't make the top 10, which one of them is going to be, I think, a little surprising the other? Eh, First Jason Anderson. Like I don't know that Jason Anderson, when racing has ever been outside of the, of the top 10. Like, I don't, I don't remember a time. But if you look at how disastrous his Supercross season went, he left the series unexplainably, and I do mean like completely unexplained. Even this, to this day, we have no clarity on what happened or why. I think there was a lot going on. I think it was, he was a little unhealthy. I think he was really unhappy about the Chase Sexton signing and him being left out in the cold with no ride for 26. And I think he just said, you know what, I'm out of here. You guys only have one rider, which is me because Prado's hurt and now you're not resigning me so you guys can have zero riders. I do think that was in there somewhere. I don't think it was the only thing. I think he was battling some, some health stuff and he wanted to be home a little bit. So I think there were multiple reasons for it, but it was still a very, very, very bad end of the Supercross season. And you can't say that pro motocross has gone any better. Like the first few rounds were okay. He was running like 5, 6, 7, 8. It has since gotten worse. He has said that he's very sick. He hasn't finished. He's finished one out of the last four motos. That's not good. And we'll see. He's typically been pretty fast here at Spring Creek, but he really needs to do something. I do think he's going to end up at Ducati next year. I don't have that under any sort of authority. It's just the rumors I hear. But he's not doing himself any favors. Like if, if he hasn't signed a contract yet, they can't be looking at him going, yeah, man, this is what, exactly what we want. Rock solid performance. Like, I don't think that's happening. I think what they would want is to see him grinding it out, getting, you know, four or five, six, seven, doing his best job and understanding that he gives Ducati, if he goes there, a chance to win a Supercross in 2026. That's what they want. That is what they would be looking for out of Jason Anderson. Not this, not this. So tough sledding here for Jason. Joey Sabachi, really tough weekend. Hurt himself in that crash. He's pretty banged up. He's going to try to race this weekend, but he's not 100%. And that was, yeah, just a step back type weekend for, for, for Joey. So you could make an argument he should be like nine or 10. I'm not, I wouldn't fight it. But for now, he's on the outside looking in. Number 10 is Malcolm Stewart and he's been okay, you know, like, I think it's probably been about what most people expected. I know there's some really big mookie fans that thought he would be much better, but he hasn't raced much motocross in a long time. He is older and I don't think what his real skill sets are, which are like blitzing big whoops and some of the technical stuff of Supercross that doesn't really matter for outdoors. Like, he doesn't get to wield that skill set at all. So he's reliant on corner speed and all these other things, fitness. And those aren't, they're not. Definitely not weaknesses, but they're not huge strengths either, if that makes sense. So just kind of where he's at, like, nothing wrong with it. He's fine. But not, not like a breakout summer or anything. For Malcolm, number nine is Justin Barcia. And I think Barcia is on the rise. I think he will be continue to get better. This is a guy who has perennially been a top five pro motocross guy for his career. He's not there yet. I don't know if he's going to get there, but I do think that Barcia is easily a top 10 guy and he's proven that out for a decade that he should be a top 10 guy. So I put Barsha back in because he, he's only a couple races in and he's already getting top 10. So Barcia deserves to be here. Number eight, Jorge Prado. I don't know what to do with Prado. You know, I think he's getting better. I think this weekend will help. It won't be so hot because I do well, shouldn't say I know for a fact, I was told by people that would know that the heat was a problem last weekend. It got to him running that pace at the front, leading, half the moto or whatever it was in those conditions took a lot out of him this weekend. You know, the first moto is probably going to be 74 degrees, 72 degrees, like that will help him. That's going to help Prado immensely, be able to sustain intensity. And that's really what you, what you want is intensity and hold it. That's where, that's where he really fell off last week. That was the problem last week is that he couldn't hold it. And so that's what I want to see. He's getting better. The starts are better, the first laps are better. Now you need to be able to, to be able to do that the whole time. The problem, I think is outside of the heat, I think he's having to override everything to do it. And Ben Townley first kind of mentioned this and I, the more I've thought about it, the more sense it makes. He's getting to a point where he can go the pace, but to do it, he's so far over. Like he's redlining. Like if you're looking at tachometer, he's redlining to do it where typically, if this was in Europe in prior years, he would kind of be in, in a normal operating temperature range. Like he's okay, I can hold this. If I need to go a little bit more, I can. If I had the opportunity to back off a little bit more, I will. But I can hold this pace. I think to go at the front right now, whether it's returning from injury, the engine, the motorcycle, his comfort level, the newness of the tracks, like all of those combined, probably he's having to go way past his comfort level to, to run the pace he wants to run and that leads to early onset fatigue. That that's as simple as I can make it. So something has to get better. His fitness has to get better. You have to get the motorcycle More conducive to him. Maybe the lower temperatures will help. Like, something has to break his direction for that dynamic to not continue. Number seven is RJ and rj. Man, what a ride. Three six. His start in the second was absolutely horrible. I. I mean, as bad as it gets. There are pictures I saw float around. I watched it live, and I was like, oh, my God, rj. That was as bad as it gets on the start. And it hurt him in second Moto. Like, I think he had the pace to be better than that. But I still think you have to be happy with a 36 day because he's getting better. Like, he is getting better. That fourth in the second Moto at Southwick, a third in the first moto at Red Bud. Like, he's trending upward. And this track, this Spring Creek track, should be good for him. Is very similar to Florida. It's what I loved other than the elevation. The elevation is different, but the dirt, man, I loved this dirt at Spring Creek. Like, it is. So just sand, clay mix. You could trust it. There's berms. It's not super ruddy. There's a lot of traction, so you can be really aggressive with the throttle. It's just very conducive to what Florida riders want and. And need out of. Out of a racetrack. Number six is ap. Tough one for AP Sick. Didn't finish either. Moto. Not a good day in the points for him. And it feels like he kind of conceded to Justin Cooper as far as the SMX points. Unless Justin Cooper has a problem in the last few rounds. So not. Not a great day. Let's just hope he is a little healthier this weekend because, yeah, he would be. You know, like, he has a real shot at going into second ahead of Cooper Webb, who is now out until probably Charlotte. If you didn't see that. Cooper Webb had a knee procedure done this week after he got his leg ripped off the pegs at Red Bud. So he will be out until Charlotte. Now it's basically Justin Cooper's number one seeding to lose. And then AP still has a great shot of moving into second as we get to Charlotte. So he needs to kind of walk in here. He can't. He can't afford to miss more points. I don't know who's close behind him, but going into second would. Yeah, would be a huge help to AP going into. Into the first playoff round. Number. Number five. And this is where it starts to get wonky for me. This is where I start to struggle. I have Hunter at five. And I struggle with Hunter being at five because he's been so damn good the last three rounds. He's been second place overall the last three rounds. What do I do with that? You know, like how do I square him going 2, 2, 2 at the last three and have him at five? Well, he missed the second half of the Supercross series. He left at Tampa, which is, I don't know, well before the second half. And the first round was good, the second round wasn't so good. And I don't know what to do with the guys in front of him. That's the problem. Because when you look at the body of work, that's where the trouble arises from. And I think if Hunter goes second again this weekend or better, I'm moving him up. Like I'm going to crank him to probably two or three. Like I'm just going to do it. But I'm giving, I'm one more weekend of at 5 because of the big picture season outlook, man, it's tough. Like I struggle. The only other, the only other thing I'll say is that he hasn't won a Moto this summer. You know, Tomax one two and if you were going even up on, on Hunter and Tomac, Tomac's one two Motos and Hunter's one zero. So it's close, man. I'm really struggling with having Hunter at 5. I don't like it myself. I just don't know what else to do with it. Number four is Eli Tomac and he's kind of going the wrong direction. Honestly, he's going the wrong direction right now. I don't like the way he's ridden the last two races. I don't know if he's like in the mid season slump type thing. I don't know. I don't know if he just lost a little bit of intensity from whatever reason, but he just doesn't look the same. He doesn't look like the same guy that was at the first couple rounds, the guy that was challenging. Like, see how much intensity he had at Colorado. He won the second Moto at High Point. And then since then, since the off weekend, he has not been as good. He just has not been as good. Like there is no other way to say it than that. So he really needs a bounce back here. He needs to show up and refresh everybody's memory on exactly who Eli Tomac is. That's it. Number three, Justin Cooper. And you could say the same things about Justin Cooper that you say about Hunter. He has a wonamoto. He's been really good. He's been in the, you know, battling for podiums. The one reason I have him above both of these guys is he had a strong Supercross season. Really strong at the end, like battling for podiums every weekend. And he's going to be the SMX World Championship points leader after this weekend. Unless he DNFs, he's going to take over the lead. Like that matters. That carries weight. If you're talking about a power ranking and you're the number one guy as far as overall points, I can't put you behind those other two. I can't. I can't. Because it's not like he's finishing 30 seconds behind those guys in races. Like, he's battling with those guys. And he's going to have the overall number one seeding going into Charlotte. That simply matters too much to put behind them for right now. Number two, and this is probably where I'm going to make people angry is I have Sexton, too. And look at Supercross. Look how good he was in Supercross at the end. He was. He won races at the end of the series by 20 seconds. Like that guy. If he got out of his own way, could have been Supercross Championship. Everybody knows that. Like, that is not breaking news. That's not a controversial statement. He didn't win it. Cooper Webb did. But he could have. He was. And Cooper Webb would be the first one to tell you, I would imagine that there were certain weekends where he was the best Supercross rider in the world on that day. And I'll say Jet, including. Because Jet wasn't healthy, he would have beat Jet on that day. Right. Like, if you had Jet Lawrence at New Jersey that day racing against Sexton. Sexton beats him. Like that's a fact. And you can say, well, Jet wasn't healthy. Yeah, I know. That's part of. That's how this world works. That's how racing works. You have to. Chad Reed would tell you, he told me 10 million times, you have to be in it to win it. If you're not healthy and you're not there, sorry, man. Like, that's part of it. And another cliche I'll use is the number one most valuable, valuable ability you can have. Availability. There's a lot of truth in that. I'll say it again for the people in the back. The number one most valuable skill you can have in this world is availability. Number one ability is availability. That's it. Okay, so that's Why I have, that's why I put Sexton there is because he could. He won those Supercross rounds. He really showed me something in the second moto. I think he's the only guy that has the ability to go jets pace and I think all things being equal, he's the second best rider. I do, I firmly believe he's the second best rider. So I may be early. I may be giving him too much credit too quickly. I'm fine with that. I can take that criticism. But Sexton's a real deal. He just is. And he's not perfect. He has, I think a mental block with Jet. I think he is way too worried about his motorcycle most of the time. I think he looks for excuses way too often. But I do also think he's the second best rider in the world right now, bar none. That that's what I believe. Number one is Jet, obviously. How could it not be? The guy is just lights out. I think he's only getting better. I don't know if he's going to win by a huge margin this weekend. I think this track will allow riders to stay closer. I think Chase will be close. I think Eli might be in the conversation. Hunter was very good here last year, so I. My prediction is I would not look for a Jet runaway. Does he win the race? Probably, probably. But I don't think it's going to be like that 22nd margin that we've seen at times. That that's just my prediction. I think it'll be a closer race than it has been and we'll see if I'm right or wrong. That's fine. I don't really care. It's just what I believe is going to happen. So that's it for this week. Thank you to all the sponsors again. Guts Racing Works connection unmatched supplements, TL Speed Shop and race-rentals.com Grandstone boots, Firepower parts and Fly Racing. Thank you to all of them for being a part of this thing and we will talk to you on Sunday. See you.