• 4 months ago
Transcript
00:00on him. Yeah, managed the damage from that big crash while leading the first moto. Sexton
00:05was darn close, and we'll see if they're in that situation again. Jet Lawrence out last
00:10year's champion. But to the credit of Sexton and Hunter, it had not been a walk away for
00:15Jet this year. All three were separated by just three points. It's been that exciting
00:19this season. And now we ready for the final 30 minutes plus two laps of the 2024 Independence
00:27day weekend at red bud. There's Hunter Lawrence. One minute from gate drop. Now we look good.
00:36He's able to hold off Justin Cooper down the stretch. We got a couple of lozzies up in
00:39the trees cheering on Hunter for sure. Hunter held off Justin Cooper. But Ken, the injury
00:45set in sometimes between motos. He recovered quickly in that race, but that was immediate
00:50because you got the adrenaline going. Then you sit for a little bit, get a little bit
00:55stiff and you're like, Go out for this next moto. You're like, Oh, man. So maybe I'll
00:59take a few laps to get warmed up. But they got some great people in their corner to get
01:04them prepared and be as race ready as possible for this gate drop. No doubt about that. Lawrence
01:11Sexton on top in the championship right now. I like Sexton Sexton's gate position on the
01:17inside right there. If you can get a good jump, maybe get a whole shot here. He's got
01:21that scoop tire as well. Last time today at Red Bud. Revs are up. Gates down. And I
01:37think that's one of the Kawasaki's Jason Anderson to the lead. Anderson closes the door hard
01:43on Justin Cooper. Sorry, that's Webster, the Australian rider. Only his second race ever
01:48in America in the lead. Kyle Webster on the Mobile X Firepower Honda getting it done.
01:59He's rolling. Got Justin Cooper with a good start. Obviously, we'll be watching for Sexton
02:05and Lawrence. Oh, it's Malcolm Stewart up the third now. Anderson looking to take the
02:10lead from Webster. Oh, Anderson tries to get up on Webster on the inside right there. I'm
02:15not sure if he missed the inside, but a little contact made. Anderson sending it down that
02:21hill. He's got the line right here. He's going to have more momentum. And the inside. Anderson
02:27to the number one spot. But great start for Webster. Oh, there's Sexton up the fourth.
02:31Challenging Stewart. This is what the owner of Webster's team wanted. Give him some experience
02:41with this pace in America. Go back home to Australia and use it. He's getting the experience
02:46now because here comes Sexton, J.T. You know how loud a starting group of 450s are. The
02:52only thing I could hear in the mechanics tower was the screaming. Think about the passion
02:58he has. Kyle Webster in his second race in America leading this race around. This is
03:03a huge moment. Regardless of how this moto turns out, I think they've already accomplished
03:07enough in this moto. They were hoping it would be better than Southwick. He went 17.7,
03:11but that's a pretty unique track. They thought he would be more comfortable today. He is.
03:15But boy, here comes Sexton. Sexton making some really good passes here early on in this
03:20moto. Maybe it's one of those motos that he goes full beast mode by Malcolm. J.T. So the
03:32tire choice for Hunter Lawrence. We know he went with the traditional knobby. Not as good
03:36off the start. What do you think? You have to point to that. Hunter Lawrence's starts
03:40throughout this series have been absolutely wiped out. One of the only times he makes
03:45a change and everybody else stays with it, he doesn't get a good start. I simply can't
03:49look past that. If this moto doesn't go to plan and he can't catch up to Sexton, what
03:54else are we going to point to other than that choice? That's one side of it. How much better
03:58will Hunter's tire choice be in the race? Maybe not as good off the start. I've been
04:03hearing great things. J.T. Alluded to that. Oh! I thought that chase slid out and I thought
04:10it was going to high side back. That was a really good save and control by chase Sexton
04:15to not let that bike over rotate. Is that a section where that scooped tire maybe isn't
04:20quite as good? In a situation like that where you're really leaning on the side bite of
04:24the tire, that's where that scooped tire doesn't perform at its best. Going back to what J.T.
04:30Alluding to. They have made it better. Dunlop has. To make it perform better in those type
04:39of areas. Now you have a tire that not only works good on the start but can give you that
04:43side bite that you might be looking for. Sexton looking to attack Anderson. Look at Kyle Webster
04:50coming right back and chase Sexton, the Australian. Almost got him back. It's so much different
04:59when you're racing up here at the front, like the top five, the seven area. It's actually
05:05easier. A lot of these guys are somewhat dependable and you can kind of predict what lines they're
05:11going to be taking. Much easier than racing back in the pack like you talked about. 16.7
05:17last week. Coming from a bad start. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough in those areas. Sexton
05:23looks to have finally cleared Webster. Anderson continues the lead. Then it's Malcolm Stewart
05:29and Hunter Lawrence up to sixth. Justin Cooper, bad start for him. He is tenth. Sexton closing
05:39on Anderson. Chase Sexton continuing to close on Jason Anderson. Anderson and that monster
05:59Kawasaki team working really hard. A lot of test days back in South Carolina at the
06:02club mx facility. Even had tickle come down there. The test rider who is today a racer.
06:09They were trying to get experience on the rougher, sandier, softer tracks of the east
06:13instead of their traditional spot in California. It's working today.
06:20Looking good on that line right there to the outside on that right hander. Take a look
06:26at what that corner is going to look like later on in this race. It's going to be about
06:30five ruts through there. Deep, knee deep, that is.
06:37Bottom box is Hunter Lawrence in fifth. In red with the blue jersey trying to catch Malcolm
06:42Stewart up ahead in fourth. Sexton is side by side with Anderson. And on the inside now,
06:49oh, just able to get the bike in the line. It was close. Bike went sideways, but he pulled
06:55it off. Kept that speed. Bike straightened out. Fell right into the inside line. Anderson
07:02fighting back around this Monza wall. He's got to go for it. That was nice heads up riding
07:07by Jason Anderson to slow up, anticipate chase going back to the inside like that.
07:15Larocco Sexton in position for the 1-1 now. I reckon he's going to pull out right here.
07:23Just on the guys behind him. And over Larocco's lead, the crowd salutes him again. This is
07:30a home race for him. And he just looked over his shoulder. In the zone, maybe trying to
07:35look where his competitor for the championship is. This is Plessiger attacking Webster for
07:42third. And going by the sand rollers.
07:47And how he was able to get that pass made. Jason was able to get a better drive coming
07:52out of the corner like I've been talking about. Let that wheel track the ground. Build up
07:57some speed. And the momentum carried him to make that pass.
08:01So Webster, a furious start to this one. Now back to fourth. The visitor from the Australian
08:07motocross championship. And then it's Stewart versus Lawrence, fifth and sixth. Oh, this
08:13would be, I think we started the day talking about momentum confidence on the Lawrence
08:18Sexton side. But now this has the potential to be just a straight-up massive points haul.
08:23I was looking at the points while you were talking there. And I'm like, this could possibly
08:29be if it stayed the way it was. Still a lot of racing left. But this could be a big points
08:34day for the number four of chase Sexton and that red bull KTM deal. And you just have
08:39to wonder, Will, what Hunter Lawrence is going through. And is he really feeling the burn
08:47from that first moto crash. Yeah, that's right, Ricky. And I heard you
08:52guys talking about it there. And just kind of, you know, we don't know what the onset
08:55is going to be as we go through this moto. But what I can tell you is I spoke to Lars
09:03team manager and said, Physically, how's he feeling? He said, She's fine. He said he did
09:08get worked on by Dr. G. Dr. Goodman there, who does all the physio there for both Jet
09:13and Hunter. But outside of that, he said he physically felt fine. But to your point, how
09:18is this going to go when you've still got so many laps here to go through this moto?
09:23Okay, so the report, at least between motos, not banged up. That's certainly good news.
09:27They're going to work now on Malcolm Stewart. Well, it's gonna be a tough day for Hunter
09:35all around and a really good day for Chase Sexton. Again, a lot of racing left. Still
09:4120 minutes plus one lap. A lot of time to pick some guys off, and he does have the traditional
09:53tire here, which could be better on the track. Didn't help him up the start. That's for sure.
09:58As we expected, it would be a disadvantage there. There's a couple areas. There are certain
10:02areas of the track where a rider would know. Okay, I might have the edge here because of
10:07the choice I made on tire. I mean, as a racer at the top level, you have to know, you know
10:12that in my opinion, that decision comes on you. Yeah, the team is definitely going to
10:17assist you. But you as a rider again at this level should know where it shines, where it
10:22doesn't shine. Know if you can ride with that scoop or not. And if you can't, then
10:28you have to take the loss of not using it on the start and maybe sacrifice a good start.
10:33But you know you're going to gain everywhere else. So, you know, this is all on the rider,
10:39in my opinion, in making the best judgment call on what you need to use, J.T.
10:45I wonder, too, that the two guys that chose to go this route, Justin Cooper and Hunter
10:49Lawrence, arguably two of the best starters in this 450 class to date, were they leaning
10:55on their starting prowess, their technique, and how good their starts have been? Did they
11:00lean on that a little too much and gamble, hoping they could get away with that and then
11:05benefit on the racetrack and it maybe bit them right here in this moto?
11:09That is probably a scenario for sure. But going back to what I was telling you guys
11:14about is a great example of back in my day. Dunlop had a tire that created more grip on
11:22the hard pack tracks. But I didn't actually like that tire as much because I didn't feel
11:27like it was as consistent as what I would what I preferred, especially when you're leaning,
11:33going up the face of a jump. So I would tend to use the more intermediate tire. It lacked
11:39grip, but it was more consistent. And that's what I was talking about. You have to know
11:44what you can get away with, Will.
11:45You hear the number 27 guys of Malcolm Stewart running in fifth there. He's got Hunter Lawrence
11:52obviously right behind him. But this is a really great performance from him. I was talking
11:56to him yesterday. He was reminding me how long it's been since he's been competing here
12:02in pro motocross. A decade. We had James Stewart in the booth there last weekend. He obviously
12:08knows. A decade. And I said to him, OK, so what do you forget in a decade? He said, honestly,
12:13a lot of stuff. He said, number one thing is the speed. He said, the speed that everything
12:17comes at me. And Ricky, you can talk on this. He said, that's just a game changer. He said,
12:21then I have to think about how to preserve the bike. And all these things that you basically
12:25just kind of forget when you're not riding outdoors, when you're not riding motocross
12:29for all of those years. So he said, even though I'm a veteran here, I'm in this kind of situation
12:34where every time I'm out there, I'm going, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Got to remember
12:37that. And the team are helping him with the process, Ricky. But just a fascinating position
12:40for him to be in.
12:41Well, how the bikes have changed, how the suspension has changed, how the tracks have
12:45changed as well. Just for the ten years that I raced pro motocross, I mean, the tracks
12:50were completely different from 1997 to 2007. And so were the motorcycles. But I don't think
12:57the motorcycles advanced as much as what they have in the last ten years now with everything
13:02that we have, fuel injections, all that fun stuff. So, oh, here you go.
13:07Here's Hunter alongside Malcolm. And Malcolm fighting him off. Hunter tries again and makes
13:14it happen. Malcolm has not had a top five finish in a moto since 2013, which points
13:20again to that long layoff. Thought he might have one here.
13:22That's a good pass there by Hunter Lawrence to stick with it. Malcolm raced him hard,
13:29for sure. But good, clean, smooth racing. And yeah, like Malcolm doing well. But going
13:34back, yeah, so the tracks are different as well. And you forget. You just forget things.
13:39Well, I think what is cool for Malcolm, I think a lot of people thought, man, these
13:42are long, rough motos, and it's really hot out this summer. Would he really want to be
13:47out here? But he's been every weekend saying he's surprised how much fun he's having. He's
13:51really enjoying being back. The fans certainly are a big part of that. They love seeing him
13:55back at the races. Showing some heart here fighting back.
13:58I think it's going to keep him fresh going into, obviously, smx. The three smx rounds.
14:05But then into supercross next year. Just having those gate drops. Yeah, probably the time
14:10off is nice and him not racing the last decade here in the mx season. But I think this is
14:16going to just complement him in 2025.
14:22Back to Hunter Lawrence, though, here, rc. So he has made the move to fifth. His fellow
14:26Australian Kyle Webster is up ahead of him in fourth. Some theorizing that maybe Webster
14:31could join the Lawrence brothers maybe on the Australian motocross of nations team later
14:37in the year, in October. That's the world team championship. I'll tell you what, with
14:40this ride, certainly a nice little resume bullet for Webster. Hunter's got to track
14:46him down right now. And Webster's riding well. Another battle here. You've got Garrett Marchbanks.
14:53Second race back from injury in eighth. Dylan Ferrandez, seventh, right in front of him
14:58in the Phoenix Honda. And then Justin Cooper, great in moto one, third, but only ninth right
15:04now.
15:05Yeah, wondering if something happened to Cooper. He was nice. I'm not sure what happened here.
15:16Well, yeah, we're seeing second places now. Aaron Plesinger. And that would also make
15:20him second overall. J.T. Was talking to him before the moto. Plesinger hoping to get on
15:25the podium today in front of this rabid crowd. And he's in position to do it. And Chase Sexton
15:30in position for a big one. One second. And we'll be right back. Chase Sexton just trying
15:39to make this happen right now. Grab the point seat and stretch it. So Sexton continues to
15:54lead here. Ricky Carmichael. And then let's check in on Plesinger, who has made the move
15:59to the number two spot. Plesinger, see if he can get the leap like Sexton did. Here's
16:03the gap. Wasn't able to get it. What a day for both of these Red Bull factory KTM racing
16:11guys making it happen here. Chase Sexton. What an incredible win. This would be at a
16:17home track. Loves racing here and never has won here. So this would be a special day for
16:23several reasons. Not only that, but he'll take the points lead. Hold the red plate halfway
16:29through. A reminder that monster energy is available at Kroger. Now, let's see how strong
16:36Plesinger is down the stretch. Had the illness this week. Will talk about it a bunch of times.
16:41All plugged up with the sinuses. Some trouble breathing. And he still has 15 minutes and
16:45two laps to hold on to this podium. Well, he's got a little breathing room in between
16:49himself and Jason Anderson. So that will help his scenario. There's Anderson, who was second.
16:58Had some ground. But Anderson's lap this time around was faster than Plesinger. Yesterday
17:07Anderson here at press day, we asked him to take stock of his season so far.
17:11Yeah, I feel like for the most part I've been fourth. And I've just had some mishaps with
17:19first turn pileups and crashing on my own. So, yeah, if I could clean that up and be
17:27somewhere near the podium spots, I think it would be cool for me to start knocking
17:31off some of those. And that's what the fight is today. Anderson didn't get caught up in
17:36the start. As we'll show you at the motorsport.com whole shot replay.
17:40He got a good start right here. There he is. That was Justin Cooper. He slips up the inside.
17:49He gets the start. Closes the door. Check this out right here. There he comes. Get over.
17:57And Anderson to the 21. Locks it down. Cooper there starting second.
18:02Now back in ninth. Yeah. How about this dude? He's on cruise control. These type of races
18:10and these type of leads are so much fun. Especially when you know the guy second in points isn't
18:16in second. So you can really kind of not necessarily just chill. But it's not quite
18:23as intense. I'm going to ask you and J.T. A couple things
18:26here on Sexton. First let's send it to Will. I don't know about you guys, but my first
18:32thoughts when I was thinking about chase X and the news that came out about J.Lawrence
18:36and the fact that he would now be out of the series, I thought what's chase's reaction
18:40to that? What does he think? When I got to speak to him yesterday, I can tell you his
18:44immediate answer to me was how upset he was. And it became very clear that he wanted J.Lawrence
18:50to remain in this series. There's no celebrating because it makes things easier. He wanted
18:55to line up against him. That's a racer mentality. It's completely understandable. Now chase
19:01might be enjoying this moment. Do you think he'll be missing those battles with J.Lawrence
19:06even more? As a competitor, when you win a championship
19:10or you win races, you want to be able to do it and beat the best guys in the business.
19:14You don't want to have anybody missing for sure. I believe chase is one of the toughest
19:18competitors out there. He's going to want to win against the best guys out there. This
19:24is racing. Unfortunately, J.Lawrence has hurt himself. Chase isn't going to get that opportunity
19:31here in the pro motocross championship. I can bet you he's going to have that opportunity
19:34if Jett has his way in the smx playoff. We got that to look forward to.
19:41As for Sexton, this has been the story with him so many times. The guy, he'll get knocked
19:45down. He never gives up on it. That's why he's always the one in position when things
19:50like this happen. He stays in it even on the bad days. He just keeps sending it the next
19:54weekend. 100%. You think about, you know, I just really
19:59admire how he never gives up and how tough he is. When you think about how he's always
20:04been in the shadows of whether it be Eli Tomac, whether it be Jett Lawrence, whether it was
20:10Austin Forkner in the earlier days. He's just so resilient. I appreciate that as a racer
20:18and the racer in chase Sexton because of that.
20:22The bottom box is a great battle. We've got Ferrandez, March Banks, Cooper. Webster has
20:27been pushed back to ninth. Had that furious start. Maybe things starting to catch up to
20:31him. He definitely showed the potential. They are really going at it.
20:37I think Cooper is trying to make some moves back up to the top there.
20:41Yeah, that will be costly. It's Cooper with the third and moto one. Now looking at fifth
20:46overall. Off the podium today. We talk about it quite a bit, the bonuses for these riders.
20:51You're talking 30 grand, 50 grand sometimes to get on the box from the teams and their
20:56sponsors. So with that potential extra podium spot available, not Jett Lawrence here who
21:02will grab it. Could be Plessinger who is looking to split Hunter Lawrence's third. Sexton is
21:08first. Could be Plessinger getting on the box today. Sexton sure looks good. J.T., I
21:15was going to ask you, we're wondering what it could do for the confidence of chase Sexton
21:19if he went out and had a big day today. What are you thinking this might do for him?
21:24I thought it would look just like this. Be opportunistic. If you don't get the start,
21:28chase down the leader. Make the pass and take the win. When you do get the start,
21:32control the race. Be the best guy in the class. That's the ask. That's what I think he looks at
21:38himself as, especially when you take Jett Lawrence out of the equation. So you ask me,
21:43what do I think he should do? He's doing it. 1-1. That answers a lot of questions.
21:48You watch Ferrandez here in sixth. Catching Stewart.
21:53Good to see Dillon up here putting him in a good ride. He's been battling. Think about back
21:59to supercross season. He got sick. Had to take some time off. Malcolm loses the front end. Goes
22:05down. You wonder if underneath that tree and the shade and those deep ruts and that dirt is dark,
22:10was he able to see the depth there? Maybe that was playing a factor in the vision.
22:15Oh. Coming down that hill is getting rough. We've been talking about it all day long.
22:21Hunter Lawrence, that first moto. The track is about as bad as it's going to get right here.
22:28And never a shortage of battles in pro motocross. He gets up,
22:31loses one spot. Now Garrett Marchbanks all over him.
22:39Marchbanks was off the motorcycle for a long time and a thumb injury. Then tried to come back for
22:43the beginning of pro motocross. Had an unfortunate crash on press day. Had a laceration in his hand.
22:49Couldn't ride again as he watched Ferrandez in fifth. Toughest problem for Marchbanks.
22:57You can talk about this, R.C., when you don't get to ride a lot, then the hands.
23:04Like when you're not able to ride, you kind of fall behind on your technique and what you need
23:09to be working on. At the same time, it's just hard. It's like you're on a hamster wheel. You
23:16can't get it going. It's like you're trying to recover but trying to improve. It's a balance
23:22like anything. He's looking to go 7.7 today as Marchbanks. That's solid. As you watch Ferrandez,
23:30the problem there has been this is a new effort for Phoenix Honda to be racing 450 pro motocross.
23:35They've raced supercross, arena cross, grand national cross country. They race most things.
23:40But this is new to race at this level with Ferrandez. They've been working on the engine
23:44quite a bit the first half of the championship. I know for sure that this guy likes to expect
23:51himself to compete at a very high level. We know what he's capable of. He's won this
23:58championship before. The 450 class. Good rider. Second in the series last year as well. So this
24:07battle for sixth brewing, man, there's no relief for Malcolm Stewart out here. Marchbanks is
24:13catching him now. And then Webster, Justin Cooper and Nicoletti, top ten. And then Harlan and Kulas
24:2111th and 12th. Those are riders that are fighting to try to get near that top 20 and get into the
24:26smx playoffs guaranteed. And that's the same thing with Nicoletti. These are the bubble riders we
24:31talk about. And then Marchbanks is way back in the standings because he raced 250 supercross
24:39and then didn't race the 450 these first couple rounds of motocross out with the injury. So he
24:43has to get every point he can smx playoff points downhill there, by the way. All right,
24:52looking back, handlebars going left to right. It's brutal, especially if you don't have the
24:58right balance on the motorcycle like you're going down those hills and your front end is diving too
25:04much and it's too low, maybe too soft. It gets that front end gets super squirmy. Rear end is
25:10overpowering the front end and can make you nervous, that's for sure.
25:15Yeah, that was nervous for anyone that's a Marchbanks fan watching. But look at that,
25:20busting out the LaRocco's leap on the muck off fxr club mx Yamaha. Webster still there behind him.
25:30Webster riding well. And, yes, team owner, he's saying how nervous Webster was last week at
25:37southwick. Hope the nerves are better this time. Finally got a Justin Cooper sighting here,
25:42I think, from ninth. There he is in the 32. So Cooper is catching Webster. What might have been
25:50for Justin Cooper looking for an overall podium, but he's probably going to come up short now.
25:55Well, if he continues up, gains another point, he'll actually move into third
26:00in the championship point standings right now, which would be great for this rookie.
26:04That's what Justin Cooper does, man. I'm telling you, he's sneaky. He's sneaky. He's quiet.
26:13It definitely doesn't get talked about enough, but we will talk about him. Send it to Will.
26:17Just want to give you guys a little update there because we're trying to figure out what
26:19had happened there. Justin Cooper, after seeing the whole shot, he had a great start there. And
26:23apparently in that first lap, he did have a crash. So it was kind of that time lost,
26:27just getting back on the bike and getting going. Thanks, Will. Now he's putting the attack
26:33on Webster looking for eighth. And Hunter Lawrence up to fourth. Oh, he's set up perfect
26:43here. Hold on. Oh, the big downhill. Oh, Cooper got him able to make it happen. Webster was
26:51fighting. I'm telling you, just got edged out there. Oh, look at March Bank. Still not that
26:57far ahead. Here comes Cooper. Remember, March Banks had a lot of time off the motorcycle.
27:02How strong can he be down the stretch? Yeah, I mean, I think he's doing great. Considering,
27:07like you're saying, the amount of time that he took off off the bike. Tough to do. However,
27:12March Banks can be fast. He can be. Oh, yeah. He's a fast rider.
27:17Now he's got to be a strong rider. Four minutes and two laps to go. Here comes Cooper.
27:22Cooper on the outside. Gonna be the outside again here. Got it.
27:28Cooper really coming to life. Chase Sexton, meanwhile, up front,
27:33looking to finish off the day with a big win at red bug.
27:37So, Chase Sexton, 9.7 seconds is the gap between he and Plessinger. And with this,
27:58he would have taken over the points. He'd have a seven-point gap red plate for him.
28:02Yeah, been an interesting and exciting, I say exciting, but interesting last three or four
28:09days for this gentleman right here, Chase Sexton. With the news of Jeff Lawrence. Then you come into
28:17a home race and everyone's saying he is the favorite. And then Hunter goes down right in
28:25front of him. Now he's the points leader. Putting in a great ride. So, a lot can happen. This sport
28:31is interesting. And exciting. Chase Sexton, great day going here at red bug. It's a home race for
28:41him. Motor home behind the KTM hauler. Had about a dozen family members there. Got to meet grandpa.
28:48Everybody hanging out. Credit to chase. After qualifying, he came over. Hung out with the
28:52family. They're from Illinois originally. They moved to Florida not just for chase but also
28:57his sister was a gymnast growing up. They moved to Florida for her. That helped chase's riding
29:03certainly to be able to race and ride year round. Most of the family saying we only get to see them
29:08at the races. Sometimes they're so busy we don't get to chat that much. They had a nice July 4
29:14celebration going on. Now it's going to be really good. Now they're looking at the race.
29:18You're going to hear these fans go bananas on the podium. This dude wraps it up right here.
29:27Oh, yeah. There are plenty of fans here that will tell you they watched him ride 50s and 65s.
29:31You know, 5, 6, 7 years old growing up at this track. It's crazy to think he's never won here
29:37before. This will be his first race win. Yeah, a couple of seconds. No moto wins.
29:44And as dominant as he's been and the great rise he's put in through his career. It's crazy to
29:51think that. You say something about the fans getting really loud down on the podium?
29:56I know our man J.T. Is going to be pumped to see what A.P. Does on the podium along with everyone
30:01else. He's the people's champ for sure. He's had a heck of a ride here being sick,
30:10being sick, coming into this weekend under the weather. Not easy to do, but he's been able to.
30:20Are there days that you've had where the way you feel in the morning, it's like,
30:24man, this is really going to be tough and the adrenaline and all those things.
30:27I tell young people this, riders all the time, everyone watching this broadcast and these racers,
30:32you ever going to, you ever going to, you know, I say I've had more bad days than I've had good
30:39days. 120% at the practice track because it's easy to, you know, like, not feel 100% all the
30:46time. And I 100% had more bad days than I had good days straight up. Yeah. And then somehow
30:52the weekend to make it work on the weekend, like some races that I went, I didn't like,
30:57oh, was it a great day? I say feel. When I say feel, I'm just, you know, as a whole,
31:04you know, maybe it didn't feel that great on the bike.
31:09More from a bike standpoint and how I performed. As we watch Anderson here digging deep,
31:15try to bring the Kawasaki across third in the moto, but that will be fourth overall
31:20behind Hunter Lawrence. Because like these guys are in such a grind. It's a long season. A lot
31:26of races. And that's what it's like. Rarely do you have epic days at the practice track. So it's
31:31like, you know, don't beat yourself up. Because again, I had I had more, you know, days that
31:37weren't spectacular than I did. And you learn to appreciate those days, though. So now we watch
31:42Ricky Hunter Lawrence. Okay, so how would he in that sense take stock of this fourth of this moto
31:48Anderson Plesinger that is costing him serious championship points. We've given him credit
31:53for not getting too high or too low with any result. But this one, this is going to be tough
31:59right now. Well, yeah, I mean, it's I mean, as a weekend, a couple of reasons. You lost you lost a
32:04red plate. You lost several points in the championship. But the biggest thing is, is
32:10what what does this week look like? You know, we talk about having bad days during the week and
32:15not feeling comfortable, assuming he might be banged up because I'm sure he's probably not
32:20telling us everything of how he feels. So that's that's one of those scenarios, I'm guessing. So
32:27now you're in that position like we were talking earlier about. How do you improve but also heal
32:33at the same time? So there's Hunter in fourth. I don't know. He's still eight seconds down on
32:40Anderson. Don't know if he's going to be able to move any further forward. We're down to two to go.
32:44We will next check in with Ferrandez on the Phoenix Honda.
32:51Coming through and even a top five. And this is a proud guy. You know, as you mentioned,
32:56won this title before. In previous times, I don't think he's pumped on a fifth, but
33:01at least it's progress right now from the start to the season. And David Eller, the team owner,
33:09a big involvement in this is the factory connection team, Rick Stilfelder,
33:13and a lot of the old staff from the old Geico Honda team that used to run Honda's 250 operation.
33:18That's where the Lawrence brothers and Chase Sexton came through. Some of the folks that
33:23worked for that team that went away are back helping work with Ferrandez. Yeah,
33:29but does feel like a bit of a first year effort for them since they have not raised
33:32Phoenix Honda 450 motocross before. Here's Ferrandez. It's a tough task when you consider
33:40all the other teams that they're racing against and the resources that those race teams have as
33:44well. And they're doing a great job. Malcolm Stewart digging deep. Remember he had March
33:49Banks close and has not relented. And now Cooper going to try to get him. And the leader has come
33:56around for the white flag. Sexton. So it'll be one to go for the field now. One more lap.
34:04Man, this track is super, super rough. All these ruts. It's so hard to believe that
34:10how quick this track can deteriorate and get so challenging from one lap to the next. And that's
34:17what I appreciate. Appreciate about this sport and these great athletes racing these motorcycles is
34:22how they're able to adapt but still maintain a quick speed. Well, adapting well as Cooper,
34:27he has caught Stewart and will try to make a last lap pass. It's not very consequential
34:34to the difference between six and seven, but they only know one way. Is it just
34:39that racers are going for it? Yeah. Okay. Last. Wow. Big look over the shoulder for Malcolm.
34:52He batted the last rider there. Maybe possibly. Trust me. I'm sure these lappers are ready to be
34:58done with this race. So I was talking to McElrath and Chisholm last week. One was the last to get
35:04lapped and one was the last to not get lapped. McElrath was 148 seconds. He was still circulating
35:09when we were talking podium, but he said that was my goal. I was not going to let it happen.
35:13There you go. Chisholm was like, I was fine with it. Achieved his goal. That's right.
35:19Everybody has different goals out here. Here's Malcolm Stewart trying to hold off Cooper J.T.
35:25Well, you're wondering about fitness. You're talking about how rough this racetrack is. Just
35:28take a look at the lead that chase Sexton has pulled out. 22 seconds over AP and the rest of
35:35this field. He is leaving no doubt who he wants this alpha to be. You can see the one-hander of
35:41Oroco's lead. I was looking for a ride like this from him. Show the confidence you have in this
35:46moment, and it's here. Fantastic ride by this dude. The whole red bull KTM squad making it
35:55happen, taking advantage of the situation, command performance. McElrath just got lapped.
36:00He almost made it this time. Now, here's what's significant. This is the biggest gap in any moto
36:05this year. Chase Sexton sweeps red bud. It is attempts to take control of 450 motocross.
36:16Stewart. Cooper got by him. Oh, he did. Yeah. Oh, man. Still a 6.7 today would be Stewart's
36:24best of the year, but Cooper did make the last lap pass. Cooper's all over Ferrandez. Man,
36:31Cooper just digging. Yeah, there's Ferrandez on the inside. Cooper on the outside. A run
36:36to the checkers. Oh, he's there. He might not, R.C. I don't think he's going to get him, but
36:43man, heck of an effort. Yeah, Cooper digging deep. He got away from him. First lap crash.
36:50Ferrandez holds on for fifth. Cooper, sixth. Stewart, seventh. Here's the pass. Cooper and
36:59Stewart. Oh, lapper playing a part. Malcolm goes to the inside, maybe playing a little defense
37:06right there. Justin Cooper right around the outside. I love that outside line there. It
37:10worked a lot. And there is Chase Sexton. He conquered them today. He didn't even look tired.
37:19Didn't even look dirty. Eighth career victory in this class for Sexton.
37:28Might start getting in a groove here these next few rounds, and Hunter's going to have his work
37:34cut out for him. So that's the mission for Hunter Lawrence next week. Got to stop this train from
37:40getting rolling. Is that what Hunter's got to do? Yep. He's got to go back to whatever he was doing
37:45on the starts. Find a little bit more sprint speed. This is just assuming he's 100%. He's not
37:52banged up. Still fight. He won't give up. And Aaron Plesinger, sick and all,
38:00going to get to the podium second overall today. Hunter Lawrence will be third. Chase Sexton.
38:06Give it to the fans what they want.