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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 TL Speed Shop, Unmatched Supplements, Firepower Parts, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. It has been a minute and I apologize for that. See what happens when I don't do a podcast? Eli Tomac breaks his tooth in half, we start bombing Iran. So lesson learned, don't go away or the complete world goes to hell is what I've picked up on. So that's my bad, my bad for not getting these done. And clearly there's a price being paid for it. Of course I'm kidding. Nobody wants to see the world at conflict the way it is. Probably never gonna change. There's always don't different things going on in the world that are way outside of my purview. And yeah, just hope that our men and women in the armed services are as safe as possible as they protect our way of life. And I don't necessarily care what your views are, I have mine. Everybody's entitled to their own opinions, but I want our service people to be safe no matter what. Regardless of how you feel about the conflict or the reasons for it or any of that stuff. That is not what we're here to talk about. I just wanted to touch on that before we start talking about Daytona, I want to thank the sponsors of this podcast, Guts Racing Works Connection, race-rentals.com Excuse me. Unmatched supplements. Their website is unmatched subs.com Grandstone boots, Firepower parts and Fly Racing. And I will give you some promo codes for those to save yourself some money and a little context for those sponsors. Probably not going to do a super long one today. I want to touch on Daytona, but I'm going to. We're going to do the race review with Steve and Weege here in a little bit. We'll get more in depth on that. But as you know, the reason I started this podcast is because I wanted to talk about what I want to talk about. I want to steer the narrative, how I want to go about talking. And if a lot of times there are things that happen outside of the race specifically that I want to talk about and on these race reviews we, I don't know, I don't feel like it's my place to take us off on some other narrative where I can do it here. If I want to talk about world, you know, geopolitics or finances or the markets or Whatever, I do it. And for long term listeners of this show, no, I'm not scared to go way out into left field. And sometimes I probably lose listeners. I apologize for that. But in the end, it's why I started this podcast. I started it during COVID in 2020. I was stuck at home every day and I'm like, you know what? This is the time if I was ever going to do it. And I had been threatening to do it since 2013 when I retired from racing. And Mathis was the funny part of this. And there's a perfect example. I'm getting off, off script here, but that's okay. When I first was talking about doing it, Mathis was all about it. He wanted me to do it. He's like, you should do it. Be a part of the Pulp Network. We'll support it, blah, blah, blah. I was like, I just don't. I don't know. I'm not ready. I'm not prepared to do it. I don't have the technical expertise. I don't have enough reps under my belt. And I just. It wasn't what I felt like I wanted to do at the time for a myriad of reasons. Well, fast forward to Covid. And then Steve didn't want me to do it, and I was like, wait, what? Like, why? And we're fine now. But I think he believed, and I'm sure he believed because he told me this, that this podcast would get in the way of sharing opinions on his shows, which he compensates me for. And I'm very appreciative for all the things Steve has done for me. And it works both ways, right? Like, we are very symbiotic that way. Um, you know, I try to steer advertising towards him and his shows are really effective. So it's. It's very good for the things that I manage, too. It's not just I'm doing it out of a favor. Like, these are very profitable and very effective because of all of the listener base, all of you listening to all of his shows. That's why we do things. But I think he was worried that I was going to give this my best stuff and my focus, my energy, and then leave him nothing, which, as we know six years later is not the case. So it's all good now. But it's just funny how that I was. I was so taken aback when he didn't want me to do it. I think his, like, actual words were like, I'm not stoked that you're doing that. And I was like really like you were the one pushing me to do it and I didn't want to do it. So interesting now how. Yeah, things change and perspectives change and I, I think once you realize that I was. Nothing was going to get in the way of making sure that I was committed to his shows then I think we're all good. But anyway, let's talk Daytona. Flew back. I'm recording this on Sunday afternoon, it's 6:40pm Eastern time. Flew back first thing this morning. I was at the airport at 4:45am in Daytona. Fell asleep, probably like 12:15. Yeah. So you can imagine how I felt and feel today. Tired. Flew all the way across country. And for those that don't fly a lot, you're like, oh, big deal, you sat on a plane. Flying is tiring. It just is. I don't know what it is if it's the, you know, being in the compression of the airplane or just, you know, who knows? I don't, I don't know all the, the scientific or biological reasons, but it wears you out. Anybody who has traveled a lot knows that, like it just, it just does take a toll on you and you. And when you do it week in and week out for extended periods of time, like I'm in the middle of right now, it takes a toll. And you really have to be careful with your sleep. You have to dedicate rest. You cannot just willy nilly around with this stuff or it will catch up with you. And typically for me, it will catch up in the way of getting sick. And where I'm going with this is if you see riders that are constantly sick right now, it's because of that train. They're training way harder than me and they're pushing their body to the limit every Saturday and then they're hopping on planes and flying all over the place. And also there's a factor here which I hesitate to say this because I don't. They wouldn't trade it for the world. And I don't mean it in a negative way, but it is a factor. Everybody knows this. It's just not like something you want to ever blame because that's not, it's not cool. And that is a lot of these riders have children now and children don't, you know, they're not the best with hygiene. Right. So they have germs and they go to school and they bring other sicknesses home. It's just, that's just reality. And I'm not like, I'm not trying to pick on little kids. That's for damn sure. But I work with a lot of people that have children. I'm around people at races that have children. And it is a thing. It is a thing that your kids. Their immune systems are not fully developed, right? So they're. And they're just not as hygienic as adults because they're kids. It just goes without saying. So they're fighting that also. They're fighting. And I always see, when I see riders sick, I'm like, oh, man, they're fighting so many different things. Like, they're. I just picture them like the shield up from every angle, from travel and airports and. And think about how many people they come into contact with on a weekend. Shaking hands, autograph sessions. I can tell. So when I'm walking around, I have my own little, you know, glimmer of fame now or whatever, right? Like, I don't. I don't consider myself that, but it is very humbling that people want to talk to me and want to take photos. It's really cool. I don't take it for granted ever. But I also, like, sometimes people want to shake my hand and I'll kind of, like, give them, like, fist bump, and I can tell they're, like, not thrilled with that. And for me, it is nothing more than I'm trying to just not spread germs. That's it. I'm trying to not get sick so I can do my job every weekend and be my best self. And sometimes I see. I see their face. I'm like, listen, I'm not trying to be disrespectful. It's not that I don't want to shake your hand. I'm just trying to stay as healthy as I can. So I apologize, and please don't take offense, but, yeah, for the riders, it's what I face times 10. So it's. It's almost inevitable that these guys are going to get sick. And you saw Eli Tomac was sick at Arlington, and he's, like, coughing, and I'm like, damn it. Please don't get me sick. Thankfully, he didn't. You know, Ken Rockson was sick. Where was that? Seattle. Ken Rockson was really sick. So it just goes around. Like, it's almost impossible to fight off illnesses for. For these guys. And it takes a toll. Like, I. When I got home, I. I slept on the plane. I got home, I took another nap, and then I'll try to go to bed pretty early tonight. All in an effort to fight against what travel and exposure to germs will do to you. And the riders are no different. They have to be really, really mindful of this stuff. Mid season. You have to. You have to. You know, recovery and rest is something that you have to take care of just as much as the training. And they both go hand in hand because you can't train and you can't be your best if you're not also extremely focused on recovery. So, anyway, yeah, for the good part for the riders this weekend is most of them were able to either stay in their motorhome last night at the race or they would just drive home after the race. Like that is such a godsend for them to wake up or go to bed. You know, a lot of them would have drove home to Orlando. Some of them would drive to Tampa, like Hunter and his wife Cynthia, and like Dazzy. They would all probably drive after the race Saturday night. Now they're not going to get home till, I don't know, one in the morning probably. But that's okay. Like, that is totally worth it. You wake up this morning, you sleep in, right? Like sleep until like 8 or 9. You get your full sleep, you take a nap today, you're going to be fully rested. It really does make a difference not having to wake up early this morning, hop on a plane, fly, get home at like noon and then try to start your rest from there. Like, that is a big difference for these guys. So thankfully for them, they're going to be more rested this week. I don't think many riders would be flying back to California this week at all. I don't know of any. Typically I would be on their flight. Like Mitch Payton, for example. I fly with him a lot. He was on his way back to Corona today, so we flew to Atlanta together. And then they would all fly. He would fly into Ontario, most likely. A lot of people would go, you know, like to la, but everybody for the most part would be staying back this week before Indy and then they would have a weekend off. So short flights for most of the crew, not so much for me, but most of the racing crew right now. Think about. I'm trying to think of anybody that would be still in California. Like Prado would have been the only one that I would say maybe would have been, but obviously he's not racing right now. I don't know what his plan was. There was kind of some back and forth about whether he was going to go to Alden Baker's or not. He is in California right now, but I don't know what the final answer there was. Or what the plan was before he. Before he injured himself. So let's jump into this thing, 250 class. I mean, it's a good race, right? But it wasn't. It wasn't the battle that I think we were hoping to get. Seth Hanmaker got the start, and he really. You don't want to say flawless. I'm sure there were mistakes in there, but it's exactly how you'd want to draw it up, get it to start on a really tricky right hand. 180. That could be very penalizing if you didn't get a good jump, because if you're. If you get pushed out, you could find yourself in 10th. And those guys gap you on the first lap, and you have a hard time, like Pierce Brown, you have a really hard time closing the gap down and getting that track position back. When lap times are pretty similar for a lot of guys. But for Seth, he. He did exactly what he's supposed to do, gets the Daytona win. You could see how excited he was. And personally, for me, like, I'm a Seth fan, and I don't. I try to not be. Show any favoritism, like, especially during the race, but afterwards, any sort of public environment, I try to not show any favoritism because that's not fair. Like, I'm not there. I'm there as an analyst. I'm not there as a fanboy or, you know, fanboys has a negative connotation, but I'm not there as a fan. I'm there working. So I try to be really fair to everyone and give them their respect. But truly, underneath the surface, I'm cheering for Seth because I like him. I like him as a person. I like the way he handles himself. For anybody who has ever talked to Seth or knows him personally, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. He's just a great human being. And for me, that goes a long way. These guys are all wildly talented, so the human aspect, for me is a very big part of this equation. And Seth checks all those boxes. Another guy, Pierce Brown, I'm getting to know him a little better, speaking to him on the podium more. He. He's checking those boxes, too. I just like how nice he is. He's not like any sort of, like, cocky or arrogant. He. We're just having a conversation, and that's all I'm asking. Like, I'm not. Listen, I don't think I'm cool at all, right? And these guys are young, and they're winning and they're Making a lot of money. Good for them. But I've been dealing with that type of guy my whole life. Right. Like, I've been around that. That dynamic my whole life. So if you just treat me normally, I'm going to treat you better than that, I promise you. So when I get that interaction with guys like Pierce or Seth Hanmaker, there's a lot of guys like that. Drew Adams is like that. That resonates with me a lot. So I do. I cheer for. I cheer for Seth Hanmaker. Like, he has no ego at all. I'm sure he does deep down. Like, you can't fight with these Alphas without having some sort of that in you. But he doesn't let that dictate his personality, if that makes sense. Right. And they're all. There are writers. We don't need to name names that they don't like. They are the opposite of that. Like, they are all the ego, you know, in the world. They say things where I just face palm. Seth Hanmaker is the opposite of that. And I guess it's just my type of guy. Like, he is just my type of guy. Cole Davies. I wasn't sure what we would get from Cole Davies at this race. Like, listen, he is amazing and he's going to win a lot of races, but I didn't think that Daytona was, like, the perfect race for him to exploit his skill set because he's such a technical rider and the track he's so good in the whoops. And the whoops are kind of easy. He was definitely great there. We pointed that out during the race. But I just thought he, if he could get on the podium, this would be a great result from him. And I'm sure he wanted to win. I'm sure he wasn't happy with getting second. But when I just sat back and kind of analyzed it objectively, I was just like, get on the podium and that's a good. That's a good weekend. And you just move on from here. Right. He lost three more points to Seth, which he had lost to the weekend before. So no big deal. He's down five. It's not a huge, huge deal. Pierce Brown retains a red plate. So, like, all was kind of well. I didn't think it was, like, I thought it was just a very good weekend for the series overall, if that makes sense. Right. Like, if you're looking for parody, if you're looking for a tight championship, if you're looking for everybody to keep establishing themselves as relevant championship contenders, it was a very good weekend for that. Pierce fought back, got on the podium. We, like I mentioned to him in my comment, not that that means anything. I'm sure he doesn't care what I think. But I, I basically said to him, like, hey, if third is a night where you're disappointed, things are going pretty damn well. Just ask anybody who's been in the in championships before. If you're, if third is like what's got you a little bit peeved, then things are going pretty well for you and that's a really good place to be. So I just like the continuity from Pierce. I like that he showed that he's going to be able to back this up, if that makes sense. Because the first race, I talked about this on my Patreon podcast and if you ever want to listen to that, yeah, it costs like two bucks a month or whatever. But I talked about it on my Patreon podcast where I wanted to see him give us some follow through. Like, the first round can be such a misnomer and it can be such a weird result because the pressure and the build up and the anticipation, you just, if you buy into the first round too much, you're often led astray. Pierce backed that up and showed us like, nah, man, I'm going to be this guy. Which I thought was a big moment for Pierce Brown to kind of do that. Joe Shimoto was the same. He just made that crash. He had that crash. I think Joe would have been fine. I don't know if he would have stayed on the podium or not. He would have had to fight Pierce pretty hard to do it. But I think he showed he's got the goods, you know, and he's still getting better. That's the main thing with Joe, is he's not even really close to as good as he can be. And I think the first round was so far above what anybody expected. Right. And I was kind of, I was wrong in the end, but I was like, let's just be patient with Joe. Don't expect too much, let him come back on his own terms, don't expect the world from him at the first round and then he comes out and weeds and we all know the drama with the red flag, red cross flag. Excuse me, but he overperformed what I thought was really a fair expectation. So this was more a little bit reversion to the mean in him, you know, having an issue, having a little mistake, not quite able to go with the pace of Hammaker. All that was fine. I'm still in the same place I was is just give him a minute here to get his stuff together. Right. Like he'll go to Indy. I think he'll be just as good. You won't see a huge jump. But I do think if he stays healthy, he has a safe, solid. Indy goes into the off weekend, which is Easter, gets a full, you know, week and a half of practice and then we go to Birmingham for the showdown. I think you'll start to see market improvements from Joe. I really do. And I'm happy to be wrong if that doesn't show up. But I think you'll see him be a little bit more polished, note like less mistakes, have a little bit more like at the end of the race, a little bit more push. Those things just take time. You can't get every tool in the arsenal back immediately. That's just not how this works. So he's done a great job of mitigating any sort of question or like any sort of gap fill that he would be worried about things that like, just like in the heat of battle, can you hold it together mentally, physically? You know, he. We talked about on the broadcast, I think Ricky did, or maybe one of the guys, maybe Will talked about his cardio still needing to get all the way back. Like those things just take. They take time to get the full puzzle back together. So I'm just. My whole thing with Joe is just be patient, let him work this out on his own terms. And I think we're really close. I really do. But this is going to be a great championship. Like we have a lot of parody. I don't think there's any queer favorite right now, which is a great place to be. That's a really entertaining series and. And the showdown is going to just add to all of that. It's going to be awesome. So let's go to 450 class before we do again, the sponsors of this Guts Racing, you can go to gutsracing.com go to. @gutsracing on Instagram. Check out what they have seat covers, graphics for, for all sorts of power sports stuff. These guys have been in the business for a long time. Second generation company, really great people. Andy Greg is. He's just Moto through and through. So check those guys out. Works Connection, you can go to works connection.com@works connection on Instagram. They have a lot of cool stuff. They have foot pegs that reposition the stance. You can lower the foot pegs. The Yamaha ones just came out. They do a lot of like rider geometry, like the triangle for riders. Like how they position themselves, the ergonomics and all that stuff. There's a lot of different things they do there with foot pegs and a lot of manipulation there. For me, I would have wanted like everything higher, right? Like, I would have wanted to push the, like reposition the foot pegs up and forward to give myself more leverage over the motorcycle. Well, taller guys, they're going to want to go the opposite. They're going to want to lower the foot pegs and go further back so it gives them more room so they're less cramped. And all that stuff is just, you know, geometry manipulation. So WORX connection has that dialed. Of course. We talk about the pro launch start device. That's what monster Yamaha Star racing uses. It's what Honda uses. And I always say they use it for a reason. Like Honda could build their own. Like they look at the innovation that Honda has. They, they are always and have been always on the forefront of technology. And Moto, that's, that's never not been a thing. I just, that's a double negative. But you get what I'm saying. They could just build their own. But they're like, no, man. Works connection was awesome. Why would we, why would we need to do that? It's not like works connections writing them some massive check. Worst connections, a smaller company, family owned. They're not writing them some insane, you know, check for insane amount of money. That moves the needle for Honda, you know, like progressive, okay, Progressive insurance. They move the needle for Honda Work connection. They're doing it because the product is amazing and they trust it and it's race proven. So check out work connection. The promo code I think is JT23. If that doesn't work, maybe JT24. I just don't know if they've updated it. But, but if that doesn't work, please reach out to me and I'll get you dialed in race-rentals.com go down to Wickenburg, Arizona, go jump in it. They have trophy truck classes. They're like, hey, you think about this. You want to do this, you want to drive a trophy truck? But you're like, I mean, that sounds awesome, but I don't know how to do that. They have courses to do it. They can teach you to do it. You can go race stuff like the Mint 400, the Baja 1000, the Baja 500, the Baja 400. They have all of these different things you can participate in. Say you don't even want to do the trophy trucks. You and your buddies just Want to race side by sides? You can do that too. So check out Race Hyphen Rentals. My friend Jason Cobb owns a company. They have a full team. They have everything. It's just plug and play. All you have to do is bring yourself and whoever else you want to do this with. They have everything else covered. Unmatched supplements. This is another one of my friend's companies and I didn't like know all these people and they're like, hey, yeah, cool man, we'll charity sponsor your podcast. They jumped on board and I have become friends with these people. Chris is my trainer. He owns unmatchedsupplements.com along with another gentleman named Doug Miller, who is an icon in the supplement world. And if you've seen me get fitter over the years, it's because of Chris products and Chris guidance. Now Chris is a transformation guru. He takes people and say, you're overweight and just, you know, life has gotten the best of you and you've gained weight over time and you're like, I want to get in better shape. I want to add longevity to my life. I don't want to die at 60. Right? Like that's a real thing. I watch him deal with this all the time and he goes in, diagnoses every aspect of their life and he really changes their life. Like I've seen him take hundreds of pounds off people. Truly, like, it's amazing what he's capable of. Now I'm not in that situation, but I want to be the best version of myself. So I use unmatched supplements. And there's JT10 is the promo code there. But if you ever want to take the next step of that, I can connect you with Chris. He's hrisgethin on Instagram. He does all sorts of cool stuff, workout programs, one on one stuff. He literally is like my sounding board. And I could never pay him, either pay him or pay him back for all the advice he's given me over the years. But he's my friend, so I'm very fortunate that way. But I could not possibly recommend unmatched supplements more than I am right now. They are the real deal. And his whole thing in a nutshell is he is the most non corner cutting person I've ever met. Like he has. You think I have discipline? Like Steve always makes fun of me and like my workouts and I'm up at 4 something in the morning and I'm on the treadmill and I don't eat anything that I'm not Supposed to eat. Listen, he makes me look like I'm a gambling alcoholic. You know what I mean? Like, he makes me look really bad on that level and that's hard to do. Like, I'm pretty committed to this stuff. He is so over the top, it's unbelievable. That's what he's taken to this company. That's why he started. He was a part of another company. He left that that he founded because his partners wanted to go chase margin and try to make more money. He's like, that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to make the best, best product in the world. The cleanest product in the world. We don't cut corners. That's why he went and started unmatched. So check that out again. I couldn't possibly recommend what they have anymore. Grandstone Boots. They are working on a lot of cool stuff. They've introduced the women's boots. They've introduced sneakers. They have another project that's in the works. I don't want to talk about it yet without talking to Wyatt over there. But they. It's a really big project that they're about to launch as well. So check out grantstoneshoes.com firepower parts. It's a part of the WPS family and there's a ton of new items. Sponsored Club MX and a lot of other riders. So check out firepowerparts.com and then fly racing. New Kinetic Mesh 2026.5. Cooper Webb was wearing it this weekend. His stuff looked amazing. I thought it was white, blue and high vis. I just thought it looked top notch. And that stuff is a lot of people's favorite. It's definitely Steve Mathis favorite. If you've never worn vented gear before, it's truly a game changer. I remember, I absolutely remember the first time I ever wore it and I could not believe what it's like. Like the airflow in the pants is like nothing I'd ever felt before. Truly, it is that big of a difference. So if you live anywhere in warm climate, I'm just telling you, give it a shot. It's totally worth it. There are promo codes out there. They can save you some money. I'm not going to advertise them here because I don't want to upset our dealer network. But there are plenty of promo codes out there that you can go to flyracing.com and save yourself some money. All right, thanks for listening to those. Let's do this 450 power rankings thing. I'm Going to try to work through these things fairly quickly. But honorable mentions first. I've never had Garrett Marchbanks in my honorable mentions. He's there. This was a breakthrough ride. He won this race in 2020. Good job, Garrett Marchbanks. You need it. He needed this badly. Like desperately needed this. And Cowie needed it maybe even more. So good job, Garrett. Like this was, this was legit. Justin Hill, top 10. Had to go to the LCQ to do it. But that's all right. That's all right. Justin Hill is. He's tougher than you think. Like this is. He was a cop. Like I don't know how many people know that. When he went, when he left racing, he was a sheriff in Oregon. And then he was. I've talked with him about this at length and he was a sheriff in Oregon and just said, I can't deal with these people. As you, as many people know, like the drugs and the people in Oregon, it's just really gone downhill. And that doesn't speak for all of Oregon. There are beautiful parts of Oregon, but like downtown Portland, some of these inner sanctuary cities. Trying to be a police officer amongst that is literally mission impossible. You're not allowed to do anything. You're not allowed to arrest anybody. The inmates are running the asylum is really what it's become. And I talked to him about this a lot and he's like, I just can't. I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't deal with this situation anymore. So he moved to Wyoming and said, I'm out of here. So he's a pretty tough dude. Like one of the most low key guys you'll ever talk to. But it's not someone I would want to fight. Does that make sense? Right? Like, usually the quietest people in the room are the toughest. That's like a good wife rule. And I, I personally kind of feel Justin Hill falls into that category. It's not someone that I would run my mouth to. I shouldn't run my mouth to anybody. I'm a small person. I wouldn't run my mouth to Justin Hill. Just. Just a word of advice from knowing him a little bit better than most do. Colt Nichols. Good job. That's a really good ride for Colt. It's been a pretty rough go for the most part. Not a lot of like bright spots. It's been okay. But not a lot of like things to really cheer about. This is pretty good for Colt Nichols and then Shane McElrath that a lot of honorables because there's A lot of good results that were kind of unexpected. Shane McElrath in there too. Good job, Shane. He's. He kind of needed this ride as have all these other guys, like Nichols especially. He kind of. They needed this type of effort just to get some positive momentum going, get some good sentiment going amongst the series. So with other injuries, we have some new power rankings members because injuries happen. Some good rides have happened. So, yeah, like, Sexton's not going to be in here, Prado is not going to be in here. That's just the way it goes. Like, if you're not racing, I'm not putting you in here. That has been consistent from day one. Number 10 is Christian Craig. And that's, you know, yeah, top 10 last week and looking better and better. He was crushing the whoops in Daytona, which is par for the course for him. It's what he does well. So, yeah, good job, Christian. Like he, he needs to kind of get it back together. We have not seen good form from him other than the last week or two since Australia. Like, think about that. All the world was abuzz with Christian Craig talk in Australia and then nothing. Like literally nothing since then and kind of coming back around. So welcome back. Christian Craig, number nine. Don't for Andes. He DNF'd the main event, so that sucks. But he was really good before then. He was really fast all day. He was bouncing on and off the board, you know, like top five, which is really impressive. I was like, every time I saw Ferrandis in practice, it's like he is ripping. Like this is incredibly good. Good signs for Dillon. And then he went down, which is a bummer. But you just take the positives from it. You take the eye test and you just move on. Like the results are going to be what they are. Everybody has a bad race now and again. He's not in the championship fight. But you have to like what you saw. Progress wise from Dylan Frantis and I'll even take a step further. Dave talked about how the bike is going to be much better for motocross than supercross. Maybe. Maybe that was a glimpse of what they were talking about. Possibly. I don't know for sure. I'm just going off of what they told us in December and then what I saw in Daytona. Maybe that's. Maybe that's a little glimpse or a snapshot of what that bike is going to look like this summer. Number eight, Malcolm. It wasn't a banner race for Malcolm. I thought he would be better. I really did. I expected more. I Didn't have a dog in the fight. I really care, but I just thought this track would kind of work for him. He's so good in like whoops and bumps and wheeling things and the technical aspects of things and we've seen him go really fast at this race before and it just, just wasn't happening for him. Just wasn't able to kind of put it together. Wasn't awful, but it wasn't anything that he would kind of put on the resume like as a highlight reel. So it was a little, little head scratching for me. I don't really have a reason. Maybe Steve will have some more insight. Again, it wasn't awful. I kind of left with a shoulder shrug. I thought he would be better. AP showed us some flash at times, that heat race. I thought he was going to do something and he crashed. I'm still kind of waiting for the AP breakout here. He's been a little better. Daytona was really the turn in 2025. I mentioned that on the broadcast. That was the signal he, he was on the podium. We're like, Here we go, AP's back. So I'm kind of waiting for that to come back around. I don't know if maybe it just doesn't happen, but I'm optimistic because everybody loves ap. Like, he is. He's the nicest guy, I would say he's the nicest guy in the pits. Truly. Like, he, he is such a great dude. Number six is Joey Savage. And I mean, Joey's crushing it. Like he truly, like he is doing the thing. He looks the part and, and there's a dynamic here with Joey that I wrote about a little bit today. With these guys at the very top, if they don't respect you or consider you one of them, anytime they're around you, they're going to abuse you. Like they're going to immediately like try to chop your front wheel off because they're going to waste no time. They're going to be like, get out of the way. You don't belong up here. All you're doing is impeding me right now. You've got to move and you'll see like hyper aggressive moves from people. Guys like Cooper Webb or whoever. Anybody that is would be like behind Joey or a rider in that position. They would just go for the jugular right away. And that is, that has been a constant for. I dealt with it when, if I got really good starts at times, people would just be like, trying to kill me. Not technically, but like really, like really, really aggressive because they Knew I wasn't supposed to be battling with them. And they're like, you got to go. Like, you got to get out of our way. Like, we got to. We got a race to go for here, and you are not going to be in it, and you got to get out of the way. Well, the signal here is when you see them not doing that to someone, that is like a. It's a signal of acceptance amongst them. And it's kind of an unwritten rule. It's like the law of the jungle, I guess, in a way, is like, nah, man, he's. He's one of us. Like, yeah, we're going to try to pass him, but we're not going to do anything out of pocket here because he has earned our respect. In the end, that's really what it is. He has earned their respect, and they know he can go 21 minutes just like they can. And so now it's like, we're going to try to race him, but if we have to sit behind him for a while, that's okay, too, because he. He has earned that. He. He has earned it through sweat equity and results. He's earned their respect. And you can just see it, like, I can see it as plain as day. And keep in mind, I've been watching these races and racing these races up close my entire life. I know it when I see it. And Joey has earned it. So good job, Joey. Like, that is not something to take lightly. Number five is J. Coop, and Jay Coop was hauling ass. If he didn't crash, I don't know where he gets up to the start didn't help him. But don't let that take away from how fast Justin Cooper was going. Like, he was really fast on the weekend. It's the starts, though. The starts. You know, I don't know what clutch he's running, if he's running hydraulic or cable, but the starts have been a problem for J. Coop, and they. They still have got to sort that out. He's got to be better on the starts or he's never going to realize what he's capable of. He is a rider that is markedly better from the front. Everybody is to an extent, but he. It's exacerbated for Justin Cooper because of his tendencies and what his career has been made of his entire life has been made of. Number four is Ken Roczen, and I went back and forth on Kenny and Coop here with three and four, and I just think when you look at body of work, Koop's gotten the best Of Kenny most of the time. Coop has three titles, Kenny has none of the. I just had to. I had to give it to Coop. Even though Kenny beat him, Kenny got on the podium, Coop didn't. I kind of just gave Coop the nod because of big picture stuff. And where I see. What do I see at the end of the championship? Who's. Where I think Coop will be ahead of him. I could be wrong. 100% could be wrong. And I'll be the first one to say, you know what? Nope. Kenny got it done. Good job, Kenny. But I just. History. History paints a different picture than that. And we're going to see what it. What this year brings. But history says that Cooper gets stronger and Kenny starts to deteriorate late. So that's kind of what I'm. I'm almost positioning them for what's to come versus them what was. And maybe that's not fair, maybe that's not the right way to do it, but that's what I did. And for Coop, I think he was probably frustrated with fourth. He didn't have the pace of those guys. He was trying. He's trying like hell. He was in the fight early. He just, in the end didn't quite have the pace that they did. And if they don't make mistakes and everybody gets a start and you don't have the pace, it's going to look exactly like that. They're just going to slowly sneak away from you and you're going to be doing everything you possibly can to mitigate the damage. But over time, lap after lap after lap, it's just going to slowly build a gap over you until you can't make a move anymore. And that was exactly how it played out. Everybody was just doing their thing. No huge mistakes, no crashes, and the gap just slowly widens. So it wasn't. It wasn't a horrible race, but championship wise, it was a pretty big deal because he lost more points. Now he's in the teens again to the points lead and it's going the wrong direction on him pretty quickly here. So we'll see. Time will tell. But that, that was it. It felt like a big moment for the championship because the points have now swung the other way again on him. It's not only did he lose points to one of the guys to, you know, Hunter or Eli, he lost them all to all three. And I'm not even really counting Kenny so much, but he lost both to both Hunter and Eli, which is. Which is truly. That is a big deal. Number two is Hunter. Warrens and I, I know he's the points leader but is he the point sweeter? You know what, maybe Eli's a point sweeter now that's probably, that's probably right. No, he went back, he was five, so he Hunter still the points leader? Sorry I should know this. My brain's working at about 70% right now but I just think Eli is the best rider right now. It's really what it came down to. If you want to know why I picked Hunter 2 and Eli 1, it's because I think that eyes the best racer and I think Hunter has deserved to be second. And if Hunter keeps the red plate and he's able to take it to Eli heads up a few a couple more times maybe that changes truly like it's not like it's an impenetrable one two here but I'm going to give the nod to the guy that's down by two points and looks like the fastest guy in the world. That's what I'm, that's what I'm gonna base it on. And he's won two titles. You could argue I've made the case on this show that he could have a few more. He could easily have four and you could even make a case for five and he looks this good. Yeah, I think he deserves to be number one. So it's Hunter 2 and Hunter is doing a great job. Kudos to Hunter Lawrence. I keep trying to like it's not my place to do it. I should, I probably even shouldn't do it, but I'm doing it anyway. We go off air and stuff, I'm like, man, like you're doing a great job. Don't be down on yourself because I can see it. I talk to him a lot. He's hard on himself. He's down on himself for not getting the win there. And I'm like listen man, that guy right there, that ey guy that you have to beat, he's the best racer that's ever raced here ever. So don't punish yourself because you took him all the way to the checkers like that is a heroic effort. Like you did a great job. That is, that guy's a legend. Like he's going to go down as the best Daytona racer ever. He has more wins here than Richard Petty. So understand what you're dealing with here and factor that in to your frustration a little bit and maybe cut yourself a break, maybe give yourself a little bit of mercy here. You know, I, I, I tell myself that sometimes too. It doesn't always hit the mark so much when I'm trying to tell myself that. But sometimes you just gotta give yourself a damn break and not be so hard on yourself. I think that's really true for Hunter sometimes. I would say right now, because I could see the frustration in his face. You, even if you heard his interview is like, I wanted to stop it. I needed to start like, okay, cool. Yes, understood. But it's okay, man. Like, everybody here, everybody here thinks you're doing a fantastic job. Truly, they do. Even Eli. If, like, you could take the competitiveness of the championship out, Eli would be like, hell yeah, man. That guy's killing it. Like, he would like. It's pretty obvious. I don't think that I'm making some crazy point here. Everybody thinks he's doing a great job. So given that, maybe give yourself a little bit of benefit of the doubt here. So, yeah, just great job. I mean, both of those guys are crushing it. They're at the top of their game, making a lot of money, as they should. Life's good for them. So that's it for this week. Thank you to everybody for listening. I'm going to try to get these done on Sunday. I go to Florida next Sunday for a feld event next week, so it's going to be a lot easier for me to get this done because I won't have as many complications trying to fly all the way home and then be smoked when I get here and all those things. So I should be able to knock this thing out next Sunday. So that's good news. I guess it's good news if you like listening to the show. But anyway, we will talk to you in a week. Thanks again. See you.