A (0:01)

Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. Is this the first one of 2026? I think it might be. Man, I've been doing this for five and a half years now. I started during COVID year trying to figure out exactly how long this has been going on. But I really enjoy this and I have the privilege and opportunity to be on several podcasts, as I've mentioned over the years. But this one's unique because I get to decide the direction, I get to decide the topics, I get to do my power rankings, which this will obviously be the first one in several months. And I really struggled to put this together because I have that unique formula of big picture. I want it to be time sensitive. Also, I'm factoring in now three disciplines between supercross, motocross and playoffs. So it's, it's really challenging for me, especially early like this first round, to do the power rankings. And I'm sure some of you are going to disagree with some of them. That's 100% normal. Because if it was so difficult that not by definition but in reality is going to lead to disagreement and you're going to think I have people in the wrong places, but trust me, I do too. Because that's why it was so tough. I couldn't. It wasn't just obvious. And as the season rolls on and we get more data and there are more results to go off of and people get heard and all those things, it makes it easier and makes it more obvious. But right now it's a. It's a tough challenge before we jump into this thing. Thank you to Guts Racing. Thank you to Works Connection. Thank you to TL Speed Shop and race-rentals.com. thank you to Unmatched Supplements for keeping me well. I don't know how fit I am, but thank you for all the things they do keeping me healthy and helping me to try to attain my fitness goals. Grantstone Boots, Firepower Parts and Fly Racing. Thank you to everyone for being a part of this podcast. Some of them have been on since the very beginning, which is really cool. And I just touched my microphone, so I apologize if that made a noise on your end. But anyway, let's go, let's talk this thing. Obviously A1 is a crazy one and if you've never been, I get it, some of you may just never. That that will never be a thing. Getting to go to California in January, go to Anaheim 1 like I understand, you know, the costs associated and just because I don't pay them now doesn't mean that I Never have because I certainly have paid it on my own. And I do see the dollars that are spent right. Like I see I have budgets that I allocate for fly racing and other WPS brands. Like I know what this stuff costs. I get it if you've never gone to A1, but if you ever get the chance, you absolutely should take advantage of it because there's simply something different about this race. And I was tasked. Tasked. It's a hard word to say. The beginning of the show, the pre show, the first pre show, which was crazy, we had this whole extra pre show with giving like a big picture look at like what makes A one so unique because you hear that from Everybody, like, oh, A1 electric and the atmosphere and there's just so much energy. But to put that into words in like 20 seconds is. I found it very challenging. It's just a hard thing to do. And really the point of me bringing it up is if you're going to ever get, if you ever get to go, you're never going to wonder again, you're going to understand it. And I would say that it's even a little bit less of a feeling than normal right now because of the earlier start when you have opening ceremonies under the lights and there's just all this anticipation all day and the sun's going down and people are starting to file into the stadium and the way it used to be as the sun went down, people would file into the, to the stadium like it was, it was like the perfect timing type thing and it was just very, very special. And I'm not saying it's not great now, it is just. It is a little bit different though when you know opening ceremonies are starting like 3:40 and you know, real terms it's supposed to be 330. Honestly, it's more like 340. It's still pretty daylight out. Yes, you can tell the sun's starting to head towards the horizon. But it's still, still a little early to get that ambiance that I'm talking about. But again it is still A1. There is still a very specific feel with this race and I think that shows up in the results. I really believe that the results are often a little different at this round because of it being this race. And it's not that it's. There's the mystique around A1 is not why the results are weird. It's the time off, it's the change in teams, it's the change in staff and everything going On. Right. Even if you're on the same team, and this has happened to me multiple times, you could be on the same team and you're hoping to have continuity, and you're hoping for it to be just, you know, hit the ground running type momentum. Well, if you get a chassis change like the. The motorcycle completely changes, that can make the opening round very difficult because you. You hear this all the time from riders like, oh, man, the bike was so good testing, and I loved everything about it. And then we showed up day one, and I felt like something was wrong. Like, I felt like they gave me a different motorcycle. That's a very common occurrence for Anaheim. One couple that, or I guess compound that with a completely different chassis that you haven't raced on. So you're not really sure how it's going to respond to varying conditions. The difference from daytime to nighttime, like, the moisture is different, the dirt is different. There's just a lot of nuance there that riders struggle with. It happens all the time. And that leads to the uncertainty. That's where the uncertainty in this race comes from, is all of the change in the off season. And this is the first time you really get to put it through the paces. Now we have, you know, the WSX stuff, so some of those guys get a jump start on that. That is definitely a thing. And I think you saw, like, Max Anstey, you saw Ken Roczen, seemed like they were a little bit more in tune with what was going on. You could maybe add Jason Anderson in there, but guys like McElrath, guys like Savage, they didn't seem to get any edge at all. Right. So you could. Whichever side of the argument you want to take, however you want to form your narrative, there's. There's likely evidence to support it. And that's. That's fairly true in all aspects of life. We just very big on this. As if, you know, pick a side and you can probably manipulate some stats or some sort of recent evidence. He calls it recency bias to support what the point you're trying to make. Even if it's not like everybody else is disagreeing, you could probably find enough evidence if you contorted enough specific, very specific, nuanced statistics to help make your point make sense. And I think that's true for, you know, who did well, basis off based off wsx, it certainly works in this particular scenario. So I want to start with the 2 PD class, go through a few of the heavy hitters, and then we'll jump immediately into the. The power Rankings and I'll touch on each of those guys as well. We have to start with Hayden Deegan just because, I mean, he's the biggest, you know, star in the 250 class period. And he deserves, I think, to have that immediate topic. Even though he didn't win, even though he didn't get on the podium, there's no doubting that he is the biggest story. And two, to ignore that would be foolish and silly. So I'm not going to. I'm just going to go straight at Deegan. And what I really wanted from Hayden this year was for him to take the next step. I wanted him to be dominant as the 250 supercross guy that he is in motocross and that he is in the playoffs. I wanted that guy, the guy that can get bad start, good start, crash, small mistakes, doesn't seem to matter. He's still getting to the front. We really haven't seen that guy in supercross. And I think I know why. I don't think it's just an aberration or unexplainable. I think it's two very simple things. I think, one, his starts are still too inconsistent that that showed up on Saturday. Great start in the heat. Absolutely dominated. Ran away in the fashion that I wanted to see in the main event. Second, the Whoops are still like, they're not. It's not bad, but you're talking about a guy that is one of the most highly paid racers in the world that is expected to go win in the 450 class, that is expected to win this 250 west championship. So, you know, I've taken heat from even Brian. Like, Brian's kind of snapped back at me a little bit about talking about Hayden's Whoops. And I get it. Like, we talked it out and he understood where I was coming from because I am comparing him to the very best guys in the world in the Whoops. That is what he should be compared to. That is what he's going to be compared against for the rest of his career. So me saying that the Whoops still are a thing where he's not like world class, especially comparing to the 450s yet I think is valid. And I. It's not. It's not an insult. And I think that's where the difference kind of comes in is people take it as an insult or they get offended by that. It's not even criticism. It's just analysis. It's why is he. What reasons could I come up with that he's not necessarily going to be able to beat a guy like Sexton when he's on or Tomac or Jet or the best guys, Ken Rockson, it's those things. It's inconsistent starts and it's not necessarily hitting full stride in the Whoops yet. So I hate to have to, like, walk through that very slowly, but I need all of you. And also, you know, like, if it's Brian or anybody else listening, that just gets like a. It happens all the time. Like, people just clip stuff and then they'll play it and, like, listen. He's talking crap. No, I'm not. I'm not at all. I'm talking about what do I want to see from Hayden that is going to assure me that when he moves up in 20, 27 into 450 Supercross, he's going to immediately go right to the front and be battling for podiums and wins? That I'm not saying he will or won't, but I'm looking for signs of that or assurances of that. And if he did those things, if I saw him get, you know, a whole shot of the heat, if I saw him start top three in the main and kind of just be able to, like, manage the situation and get to the front. And also Max Anstey, who is fantastic in the whoops, if he could mitigate Max's edge there and kind of just hold his own or at least be almost as good or as good as Max there, that would show me that he's making real progress in the things where he has shown a little bit of inconsistency or a little bit of deficiency and I didn't see it yet. So that's. It's not troubling, you know, because I don't really care. But if you are, if you're writing a script for Hayden Deegan's career future, the storyline moving forward, how he's going to move into 450s and take on the world and go before 50 champion with a quickness. It would be a little concerning to see him still doing the same things he did a year ago. Because if you remember, in 2025, in the month of January, it looked just like this. Inconsistent starts, not necessarily faster than everybody. Yes, he can move forward and catch up, but not necessarily enough. Right, because he started like, what, 10, 12, something like that? Maybe 14, I don't know exactly, but it was, you know, somewhere on the backside of the top 10, but close to there. And if this was motocross, he would have just immediately smoked everybody on his way to the front, he couldn't do that. He couldn't exert his dominance and his skill set and the confidence level, like the mental edge he has, everybody, he couldn't really do that. Like, yes, he was passing guys, but not just blowing past them in like, okay, I'll give you an example. When Ken Rockson gets a bad start and he's like, you know, he's, he's healthy and everything's good. He goes past people so quickly that they don't even know what hit him. That's. I think Hayden can do that in motocross. I think he has that ability in motocross to do that in supercross. I've never seen it and I still didn't see it on Saturday is really, you know, and I'll get off this point. But a lot of the boxes I wanted him to check on Saturday to show me real progress, to shore up some of the questions that I had, I didn't really see. So he's going to have another opportunity in San Diego. He did a great job on recovering and salvaging the night for a decent result, but I don't think it was what anybody had drawn up. Like, he didn't even stick around for the fifth place interview. He got fined $1,000, which I know he cares about $1,000 as much as I care about a nickel that's probably laying on the floor of the sidewalk outside my hotel room right now. But clearly he wasn't thrilled with a fifth place or he would, didn't even stick around to do the interview. And I wouldn't either. I, I know myself, I wouldn't have stuck around either. But he's going to have another opportunity on Saturday in San Diego to address that. And I think he will come out with his hair on fire where I think, like, I believe at A1, he came in thinking he's going to kill everybody. I do, and probably rightfully so, if you look at the trajectory of his career. So when you don't even get on the podium, I think it's a mixture of anger, it's a mixture of embarrassment, and you want desperately just to get another chance at it and as quickly as humanly possible. And he's going to have to wait all week. He's going to have to wait until Saturday in San Diego. But I do think you will see a very, very fired up Hayden Deegan in San Diego. That's my prediction. Max Anstey, I touched on just for a second there, but he was great. He did all the things that he's supposed to do, you know, there wasn't a lot of noise around him. He came in a little under the radar. But for anybody who didn't think he could win the race, I would ask you what you've been paying attention to, because 2024, he was leading the championship on a, I would say, under equipped bike and, you know, Quadwalk Honda, it was Firepower Honda at the time. They do everything they can possibly do, but it's a privateer team, they have limited resources, so they're not going to be. It's not going to be a monster star Yamaha. It's just not. No matter. And that is not a. It's not a slight at them, it's not an insult. It's. It's just reality. And they. I would hope they would be the first ones to admit that and no one would expect them to have the resources that Star does. So he was able to get the red plate on the Honda. Then last year, east coast, he wins the first round. He should have won the second round also and had that whole red flag debacle that the rules got changed. Literally the rules changed over and then he got hurt at the fourth round of Birmingham. So this is really just more of the same we've seen from him. And really the only question is, can he keep it together? You know, it wasn't his fault. In 24, the motorcycle had a failure, mechanical failure, I think, in Birmingham. He got hurt in Birmingham last year. So whether it's him or the motorcycle or the situation or circumstances, you just wonder, can he put this entire thing together? Because the rest of the pieces, speed, experience, whoop, skills, starts, it's all there. It's literally all there. We buy Kitchen. He looked great all day. He had a lot of speed, he looked like he was on point. You could tell he had put in a lot of work. But when you have a shorter series like this, you know, nine races or whatever, little details, little mistakes, crash on the start, when you're feeling it, they'll kill you. They will kill you. And yes, he did a good job of recovering. You know, I only lost a couple points to Deegan, but he's what, 10 down or more to Anstey? Right. And it's not panic button at all because he's riding really well, but you just would love to see him clean up some of these things. And. And I know he just tipped over on the start. It could happen to anybody. But I just. I haven't seen the Levi kitchen from 2024 West coast where he like a race like Seattle where he just crushes everyone. I haven't seen that in a long time. Seriously, like maybe, maybe I've missed a few races or something. Like it's just not coming to my recall right now. But I haven't seen that guy in a while where his starts are on point. He just perfectly executes main events like that's been missing for, for a bit now. So I don't know. I'm going to ask around and just like I don't have the answer for why. There may not be an answer for why. It's just, yeah, man. Other guys are faster, the series is deeper. Wasn't racing against Deegan, who knows, who knows what the reasons are. But I haven't seen as the complete package of Levi Kitchen the way I saw in 2024 in, in quite a while now, the only thing I would say, the only thing I would add to that, to kind of counterbalance that argument. The way he was able to overtake Anstey at the second round with the red flag debacle, that was pretty impressive. That was very well executed. But it's more of like the full body of work where it's the start, it's the execution, it's the fitness, it's the speed, it's no mistakes, you know, like I haven't seen that from him in a little bit. Chance Imus second on the night. This was what he needed. He's in a contract year and it's going to be really important that he executes because Honda's not, it's not a certainty that he stays there. I think they want to keep him, I think he wants to stay there. I think everybody involved wants to continue forward, but if he can't get results and he can't stay healthy, I don't know that they can, you know, does that make sense? I think everybody on the surface, you go out, you execute, you get results. This is a no brainer. It's the what if. Because the what if has been what's happened. It's been injuries, it's been a lot of missed time. It's been on just underwhelming supercross results. Even though he won a race last year. So I was very happy to see him come out and look the part from Friday. Right away he looked the part. Jumping stuff first aggressive, looked comfortable, good starts. So great job. Great job. Chance Hymas and I just wanted to mention that this, this is a big year and he needs to put in rides like that. He needs to look like that to take any questions away from Honda. Right. The last thing you want Honda doing is, is wondering and looking around at what their options are. You don't you want them to just be like, no, like, we have our guy. Like, what are you even talking about? Why would we go away from what we have? That's what you're looking for. And the way to get that is just be there every single weekend. You don't have to win all the time. Be in the fight. Show you can do it, show you can win, stay there, show that your supercross inconsistencies are a thing of the past, and this is going to be what you can count on moving forward. And I feel very confident that he would be rewarded for that. I can't see a way past that because I. I don't think it's a situation where they're looking for an exit ramp here. They're looking to keep him on track in more ways than one. Ryder D, third place. Incredible. And when you think about Jaime, I think Rider D is in the same camp where, you know, the KTM group wants to keep him. They want, you know, like, he moved over from Team Green. He was team Green forever. Came over to this. He went to the gas guy side. Now he's on the husky side. I think that they want him to be a part of this program, and they look at him as a guy that can win, which they don't have much of. If you look around their team, they don't have much that can win in the 250 class. So this is Ryder D. Being that guy is a big coup for them, and they need him to do this. So I personally really like Ryder D. He's always very nice to me, and I shouldn't base it off if he's nice to me or not, but I think he's been through enough. He's been through a ton of adversity in his pro career that it's kind of grounded him. And I think he is in a place now where it didn't come easy. Even though he's a factory rider for his whole life, the pro struggles really gave him a reality check. And I think he understands now that he's going to have to fight for it every step of the way. And you saw him fight. He was fighting in that 250 main event. It would have been very easy for him to fall into the trappings of Hayden Deegan on the last two laps because Hayden was coming. Hayden was pushing so damn hard. And Ryder D pushed back. He did not cave. He did not give an inch. And yeah, that was impressive to see. And I don't have a dog in the fight but it put a smile on my face to see him fight back so aggressively because most people can't withstand Hayden. Like the charge when Hayden gets going, it's almost like an inevitability type thing. And yeah, he was able to do it. McAdoo is the last 250 guy that I wanted to mention here and he didn't really look great to me all weekend. He just looked like he was a step off and you know, the lap times kind of back that up. But I was going more going off the eye test. He just looked like he was just honestly a touch, a touch off the pace. Just not quite back to the Cameron McAdoo that we have come to know. The guy that can go out and win. You know, we all know the, the wardrobe malfunction stuff. Like that guy that was the fastest guy on the racetrack. He didn't look to have that and it was really unfortunate the thing would happen to Hayden. Like I truly don't believe Hayden meant to cross jump him. He did cross jump him. I just don't think he meant to. And you know, Cam gets a horrible result from it. Thankfully he's okay. But what I took away from it is he just didn't look like he was all the way back yet. You know, like he was just missing like the 1% of sprint speed that we know he, that we know he has. That's it for two video. So let's go into the power rankings before we do again, thank the sponsors. Guts racing. You can go to utsracing on instagram. I think the pro promo code there is. I don't know JT10. Not 100% sure. I apologize for that. I think it's JT10 works connection. I know the promo code is JT23 which will save you some money@worksconnection.com I saw a picture on their Instagram the other day of titanium foot peg mounts that they were had just gotten done. Those things are badass. Pro on dart device working like a charm per the usual. It's the best one out there. All you need to know is a factory Honda and monster star Yamaha use this starting device. They can. They have the technology to build anything they want. They have engineers, they have a million machines to build literally anything they draw up and they choose to use the works connection one you're not going to get better proof of concept Than that. TL Speed Shop and Race Dash Rentals. I am recording this in Phoenix and they are located just up the road in Wickenburg, Arizona. And you can rent trophy trucks, you can rent side by sides, you can go to Sedona, you can go to Cabo. Cabo. Well I say Cabo. You can go to Baja Peninsula which they will take you to Cabo on a side by side. There are so many options with this and I think it's a great guys trip. Fly into Phoenix and they will take care of the rest. Really cool deal. Go to race-rentals.com unmatched supplements the intra. It's called Intra post workout but it's. It's kind of like a. It's called Intra for intro workout. But how I think this really works for motocross guys and I was talking to the team at Unmatched Supplements a lot about this. There are ingredients in this that are built to help you recover quickly, right? If you are working out strenuously, you're riding, you're doing motos, you're putting a lot of wear and tear on your motorcycles, you're putting like micro tears into your muscles when you're working out, the faster you can recover from that and your body gets back to like a neutral place like where I call like zero back. You're not, you're not tired, you're not over rested. You're just where you're supposed to be going into a training day. The ingredients in this intra workout are incredible for that. There's one called Vitargo that basically you can't find anywhere else. Like they have a patent on it and they allowed Unmatched to use this. But it is I guess world renowned for this quality. So check that out. I think it's the perfect motocross application for this because yeah, you can use protein. I think electro shred is very good for hydration for motocross, especially if you live in a hot area. But this intro workout, this intro workout I think is one that is perfectly adapted for recovery for motocross athletes. And you can go to. I think it's JT10 for the. I should know these things. I apologize. But I believe it's JT10 to save yourself some money at checkout on unmatched supplements. Unmatched Sups.com Grandstone boots go to GrantstoneShoes.com their products amazing sneakers boots, women's boots. They're way too nice for me. True. Truly like they are. They're expensive and they're worth it. But they're honestly so far out of my league. But what a. What a great company. What a great product. Firepower Parts. You're going to see a ton of new items from Firepower this year. What happened there is we pushed a lot of items that we kind of, like, didn't have a home for. Some things landed on fly, Some things landed on these other brands like LC2, like gas jugs. We're pushing all of that into Firepower. Like Firepower is going to be that accessory brand now. Most people know it for the lithium batteries. It's the best battery in the game. Full Stop. And somebody was not happy with me using Full Stop, but I just did it again, sorry. It's the best battery out there. Feather Featherweight lithium battery. Check it out. That's what Firepower is really known for. But these other products are going to really revolutionize, I think, the thought process behind Firepower. You go to firepowerparts.com fireracing.com you can use. If you want to use Mathis code, that's fine. I don't really care. But he has a Mathis code. I think it's Pulpamax, I believe is the. The code there. But yeah, check out flyracing.com and yeah, go buy some stuff. Ours. I think the 26 line is pretty sick. 27 lines done. It's pretty awesome. Pretty excited about it. So 27 is going to be great as well. Anyway, let's go into the power rankings. Thank you for listening through those sponsors. And number one. I think it's the first time he's ever been number one. I truly do. I don't know. I'd have to. It would take me. I'd have to go back through my notes. I have every note of every podcast on this. This particular podcast. I have every note I've ever done, which is pretty incredible. I'm not going to do that, but I could. It's Eli Tomac, and I feel like he had to be in 2022. He had to be because he was winning everything in 2023 after he won. He had to be. So I retract my statement because that sounds really stupid now, but I just don't remember it. It's been. It's been too long and too many podcasts. But ey. Tomac is number one. And I didn't think he was going to win this race. I didn't. I thought there was too much newness. New bike. He switched from the scoop tire. New mechanic, new suspension staff. He's. He's only really been great at a one a few times out of, like, 15 times. I just didn't think it was likely. And he proved me wrong. He went out, dominated the race, really, from a few laps in to the end. And you could say, well, Kenny kept him honest, and I would agree with that. Kenny did keep him honest, and Kenny was. He deserves a ton of credit for the effort he put in, but he really never challenged Eli, like, close, and Eli was really never in doubt of losing the race. So I have. I give full marks to Eli on this. There's a lot of doubters because of his age and because the move to KTM and whatever else you want to say. Those people. Uh, and. And I. I don't know. I. I guess I doubted him a little bit, but not like, I know Eli's a bad dude. I didn't think he was going to, like, suck or anything. I didn't think he was going to win, though. So if you want to say I have egg on my face because I didn't think he was going to win, that's fine. No problem. I thought Kenny was going to win, and he was pretty close. So I feel good about that pick because Kenny was great. He's great all night. Like, he was great in practice. He was great in the heat race. He was great in the main. He. You know, I think I truly believe this, and this kind of goes against me putting Eli one. I truly believe that if Roczen had gotten the holeshot, he would have won. I do, because I think he would have built up a lead really quickly, and maybe that's wrong. Maybe Eli had more in the tank and Eli could have. Could have closed it down. That's certainly possible. That is not something I'm willing to dismiss, but in the same breath, yeah, I just think that Kenny had something for everybody. He just. He just didn't get to the front early enough. So, anyway, number two, this is gonna. These are gonna be controversial. I'm telling you. You're probably. Somebody's gonna be. Probably punching their steering wheel or whatever. I get it. But number two is Chase Sexton. And I know. Horrible race. Eighth place, crashed 5011 times, went off the track. It was all. It was all bad. It was all bad. But I'm going to look through it. I'm going to look through it and look to the other side of this race, because I watched him in qualifying practice. I saw how fast he was going. He was the fastest qualifier. I just think it just went. Came apart on him. And I think a lot of it's mental. I still think he struggles with the same mental bugaboos that he's always had. I don't see any difference there. Talked off the top of the podcast about how, you know, Deegan is kind of the same guy and I'm seeing the same things. Same thing with Sexton. Really see any difference? Maybe the results were even worse because last year he won on the KTM at the opener. But anyway, I'm putting him second because if you look at the body of work, I just think right now I truly believe he's the second. He might be the best guy. He's. I think he's, if not the second best guy in the sport. I really do. I do. And that's why I'm putting him second. And if you disagree, that's okay. I fully understand why I might disagree, even with myself. But I said what I said and I'm leaving him number two. Number three is Cooper Webb. And if you look at, okay, he's defending champ. He made some big mistakes. He had kind of a rough and tumble night, but he was really fast. And in that red flag start, he had gotten to the lead. Right. Like the whole race looks different if the Malcolm Barcia thing doesn't go that way. And I'm not saying he wins a race. I'm not. I'm not saying he wins a race. I don't know, maybe. I would say probably not, just because I think the other guys had a little bit more pace than he did and the way the Whoops shaped up, I think maybe they could have taken advantage of him and the Whoops, but his night would have looked much different. I do think he's on the podium. Without question. He's on the podium with the first start when he's already in the lead on the first lap. No way you're talking me out of him being on, on the podium. So this, in that white, him being number three makes a lot more sense. And also he's a defending champ. I'm factoring that into. Right, that's. This is where the big picture stuff, the body of work stuff comes in. It's not all going to be based off this one result. That's why Sexton is two. These things are going to. It's all going to, you know, kind of come out in the wash, so to speak, when we get more results. But I'm going with what I think I know. Number four is Hunter Lawrence. Same thing. He got fourth in the race, really solid. So I don't even on that you could say, well, he got fourth in the race. He's four. Fine. That's not how I got there. I got there through his motocross improvement, through the playoffs. He's almost won the playoffs two years in a row. And then he was fourth in the first race, which is miles better than he has been at a 1 in the past. He's. This is his third one and he went D and Q like 11. Not really sure. I'm guessing on 11 last year and then 4. So I think he deserves to be 4. I do. And that's putting him ahead of Roczen, which I know people are going to be like, what? What? How do you have him ahead of Roxanne? How do you have Webb ahead of Roczen? Because it's not just about what we saw Saturday night. It's not. It's about their placing in the sport. Overall Supercross Motocross playoffs. What does that look like over the course of 31 rounds? And I think this is a fair representation of that for now. For now, it's going to change. Number five, it's Ken Rockson. And I'm having to qualify it because I understand how people are going to be like, how do you, like, did you not watch Rocksen? He was winning the World Supercross races and then he was almost 1A1. And he, like, how do you have like. Because history has shown us that he struggles in April and May and then motocross. He struggles waiting. The championship doesn't even race all the motocross rounds anymore. And then playoffs have been hit and miss. So that's how I get there. Real simple, real simple. I'm not going off of one. Race number six is Justin Cooper. And I was terrified that this was going to be a horrific round for Justin Cooper. If you were watching him in the heat race and he wasn't kind of moving up yet, and you're like, oh, my God, he's not going to qualify out of the heat. It was a little scary. Like, in reality, it was a little scary. And he turned it around and put in a good result to get sixth after the way it was looking good for him, and that is assign a maturity that he was able to compartmentalize the struggles and when it came in event time, put it all behind you. Avoid the crashes, avoid the chaos. The way Webb couldn't, the way Sexton couldn't and the way RJ couldn't, the way Malcolm couldn't, the way Barcia couldn't stay upright, avoid the chaos, get a decent result even when things aren't going very well. And. And that's exactly what J. Coop did. So good job. Justin Cooper, number seven is Aaron Plessinger. And these are all. I understand how these are difficult to get there, but ap, when you look at. He had a horrific end to the championship last year. He was leading the heat race and then he got blasted by Webb on accident. But I think it's fair because he. I think he can win. So I have him ahead of guys like RJ and Anderson. But it's based off of last. A lot of last year too. Like, I think when you really balance out where they are on a likelihood of who's going to beat who, I think AP should be here, if not further up. I really do. Like I could put him. I don't, you know, with Justin Cooper going in with the red plate, I think that's a fair place to put him. Especially Justin Cooper was really strong weight in Supercross and then in motocross. He was good, too. It's hard for me to put him ahead, but I, I feel like I'm doing a disservice to some of these guys like ap, but somebody has to be seven. Like a lot of good guys here. Number eight is Malcolm, and Malcolm was ripping, but we all saw what happened and he. I'm so thankful that he's relatively okay. I even heard he's going to. There's a really strong chance he's going to race San Diego. Such great news because he got drilled and it could have been so, so, so much worse. It could have been just absolutely horrifically terrible. And thankfully it wasn't. Yes, he dislocated his shoulder. Maybe he's going to race San Diego, maybe not. But we all can visualize what could have happened there had things gone a little bit worse. So I'm very, very thankful. Even though it was a horrific situation and we are all terrified in the moment, I'm thankful that it wasn't worse because you look at Barsha, he's relatively okay, has a broken wing on his vertebrae. It's not a big deal. No surgery. He went straight home from the hospital. He was home before most people were home. He's going to be okay and, and Malcolm's going to be okay. And it. I truly feel like it was like the best case scenario possible. Even though it was a horrific thing, it was probably the best case scenario of all of it. Number nine is Jason Anderson, and I have him at nine. Even though he had a good race because I think this was like the best we're going to see of him. I don't think he's going to be this good or, like, battling near the podium every week. I don't. And maybe I'm wrong. That's okay. I'm happy to be wrong. It's okay. Good for Anderson if he does. But I think he came in, he understood there was an opportunity. He's really good at Anaheim, and I think some of these other guys are going to be better. I think Sexton is going to be better, which is pretty obvious. I think AP will be back more in the fight. Webb will be much better. Right. Like, so. I think it's going to be challenging for Anderson to be where he was each and every week, because this isn't 2018 anymore. Anderson. I know Anderson is. He. He does a lot of laps when he's riding. But I don't know that. Like, I question sometimes how much Anderson's heart is in it. Maybe that's unfair. Maybe I'm way off the mark with that. But I. I do question it. I know myself enough, and I'm honest with you guys, that I do question it sometimes about, is he really giving it his all anymore during the weekend, on the weekend? I think he did at Anaheim. I just don't know what that's going to look like for the entire season. And time will tell. Maybe I have to move them up. That's okay. I'm happy to be wrong. No problem. If I. If there's a saying that if you have an opinion and the facts change that your opinion needs to change with it, that's exactly how I'm approaching Anderson. If he gives me reason to change my opinion, I promise you won't take me long to do it. Number 10 is RJ. And RJ, buddy, we got it. We got to calm it down. Big crash. Lost his front number plate and nobody really saw it unless you were watching him. He went off the track again, right near the podium. Almost cleaned out. Multiple people and barriers saved it, but holy cow, did he almost crash big again. Pretty scary. We need to find that rhythm where he was calm, cool, collected in pro motocross and not taking big chances, but also still really fast. We got to find that guy because this was terrifying to watch. And, yeah, maybe I don't like seeing RJ go full rj. There's too many things that can go wrong, and it can happen really fast on a 450. And I just. I have no place to talk to him about this is none of my business. He has really smart People helping him. If I was, I'd be like, we need to, like, take it down several notches. Like, we gotta. We gotta find some stability here. Even if you have to slow down, you need to slow down to find longevity and consistency here, because going about it that way is not going. You're not going to make it very long. Right. There's an expiration date on taking that many chances is. Is about as easy as it goes. So that's it. That's the top ten. I do have two honorable mentions. Number one is Jorge Prado. And this has to be said. Prado, you deserve a ton of credit here. You took a lot of heat last year, and it was deserved. Truly. I do believe it was very much deserved for you to take that much heat. But I will be the first one to say, when you come out and you perform like that, with everybody doubting you, and you asked for these changes. You wanted to be on this bike and you wanted to be on this team, and you said, it's all going to be better, and no one believes you, including me. You deserve a lot of credit when you deliver, period. Because he did quit a lot last year. I'll be the first one to admit it. I watched it, I hated it, and I complained about the quitting. He wasn't trying half the motocross races. That's unacceptable. It's truly unacceptable. And I will be the first one to admit that I was on that train. I was hammering on him about that. But I believe even now, it was warranted. That was not misplaced anger or misguided comments. Those were fair and earned comments, and I would make them again if he did the same thing. But this Jorge Prado, Anaheim, Jorge Prado that we saw on Saturday night, on January 10th, that was a different guy. And he deserves a lot of credit for the things that he did on that racetrack that night, because nobody thought he could do that outside of maybe a few select people. And he still did it anyway. He won his heat, third in the main. He earned the podium. Listen, part of racing is taking advantage of opportunities. And, yeah, I get it. Webb crashed, Sexton crashed. Whoever you want to say, you know, that you thought would be on the podium, they crap, fine, don't care. You can't control any of those things. That is not for him to decide who's doing what. All we can do is go out and do the job, because it could have. It was. It would have been very easy for him to still get 11th even with all those guys crashing. He still, still could have got 11th if he didn't ride like a bat out of hell. And he executed on every front. So I will be the first one out in front of this thing to say he deserves credit. And there are still going to be people that are haters, there's still going to be detractors, that's fine. I just won't be one. When you, when you earn credit, I'm going to give it to you. I, I, that's just who I am and what I believe should be done. And this moment, this ride, he deserves a hell of a lot of credit. So great job, Jorge Prado. You keep doing that, you're going in the power rankings very, very quickly. That's, I don't know how else to, how else to say it, but you will be there very, very fast if you keep doing stuff like that. The last one is Dylan Ferrandison. This is kind of a Ducati and Ferrandis thing. Like they, they all collectively did a great job because I wasn't sure how this was going to go to first time in Supercross, you know, like Frannis is not like a 450 supercross, you know, guru, like, he's good, don't get me wrong, way better than I ever was, clearly. But it's not like you're putting Tomac on the bike and he's going to figure it out. I just wasn't sure what it was going to look like, feel like, were they going to be way off, were they going to be struggling all day? And it didn't feel that way at all until Barca got hurt. He looked good. Like for just barely riding, he looked good. And I thought Ferrandis did a great job of representing Troy Designs Ducati, so great job to all those guys. That was a really great way to start off their monster Supercross efforts. So that's it for this week. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks to all the sponsors again, Guts racing works, connection, TL, speed shop and race-rentals.com unmatched supplements, Grantstone Boots, Firepower Parts, Fly Racing. Thank you again. We'll talk to you next week. See it. 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 Works Connection, Speed Shop, Unmatched Supplements, Firepower Parts, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing.