Even qualifying presented a dilemma for the riders. Weston Peick didn’t turn a single lap in qualifying and used his top-ten provisional to get into the motos. This also gave him a terrible gate pick. We saw Weston in staging during the first practice, when the 450 riders turned in their best times, and he decided not to go out. Fredrik Noren says he crashed a bunch in his first practice and never got a clean lap in, so he ended up fortieth fastest. Noren, and most of the 450 riders, elected not to even go out for the second practice, knowing their times would be even slower. Noren still would have made the motos automatically because he was also top ten in points.

Eli Tomac did not have trouble in qualifying, as he scored the Oakley Bomb award with the fastest 450 time. The rest of the day wasn’t so good. "It was a rough day overall, which is a little weird because I usually get along with muddy conditions,” Tomac said in a team statement. "Practice showed I really felt comfortable in these wet slick conditions. I was fastest overall and felt confident going into the first moto. Unfortunately, I had some issues that were messing me up. Plus, I had to pull off the track and put new goggles on after the first lap of moto one because I couldn't see at all from the mud. I made a couple mistakes here and there too, where I ended up tipping over. The first moto was really just a fight to stay up and out of the roost as much as I could. Vision was tough but going into the second moto the rain actually quit. I still had a little problem seeing clearly because of all the roost but it was two more crashes that really messed me up. All I can really say is that two mistakes kept me from getting on the podium here, I think."

Tomac has climbed his way up in the points to fifth, but Brett Metcalfe won’t give up fourth without a fight. In the second moto he stuffed his front wheel into a mud hole and struggled and struggled to get it out. “I was exhausted,” Metcalfe told our Steve Matthes. “I was probably done. Just taking deep breaths. I knew I had one shot to get out of the mud, and I was probably going to cook it [the bike]. That one wasn’t that great.” Metty finally did free his Kawasaki, and he soldiered on to thirteenth. Metty still has a solid 23-point advantage over Tomac heading into the finale. 

Trey Canard was happy to have ridden so well in the mud, taking second overall and the second-moto win. “I haven’t typically been a good mud rider the last few years,” he said. “Daytona in 2008 was probably my highlight of mud riding. But this type of mud I’ve really struggled with in the past with the ruts and that sort of thing. I don’t know. It was just a good day. I really, really think vision is so key. If you don’t have a good start then you can pretty much forget it. You can’t see a thing, and it’s tough to ride when you can’t see.” 

Let's take a look at the lap charts!

 450 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:56.005	2	3:03.429	Ken Roczen
2	3	2:58.731	2	3:07.934	Trey Canard
3	2	2:58.966	6	3:06.690	Ryan Dungey
4	4	3:00.575	3	3:08.398	Eli Tomac
5	7	3:00.857	4	3:14.999	Chad Reed
6	5	3:03.965	8	3:09.768	Brett Metcalfe
7	30	3:04.857	3	3:14.829	Mitchell Oldenburg
8	11	3:06.679	2	3:11.164	Weston Peick
9	9	3:06.885	2	3:15.441	Fredrik Noren
10	6	3:07.287	4	3:13.893	Matt Goerke

450 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:55.119	3	3:00.412	Trey Canard
2	10	2:57.068	5	3:06.232	Eli Tomac
3	2	2:58.056	7	3:02.211	Ken Roczen
4	3	2:59.603	9	3:02.653	Ryan Sipes
5	4	3:00.048	10	3:03.136	Andrew Short
6	6	3:00.081	7	3:04.208	Chad Reed
7	5	3:00.250	3	3:04.164	Josh Grant
8	7	3:00.587	2	3:05.725	Weston Peick
9	8	3:01.144	11	3:03.696	Fredrik Noren
10	9	3:01.414	5	3:06.225	Ryan Dungey

250 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	2	2:58.569	2	3:05.487	Jeremy Martin
2	1	2:59.509	5	3:05.282	Jessy Nelson
3	3	2:59.720	5	3:05.810	Marvin Musquin
4	5	3:01.083	3	3:07.599	Jason Anderson
5	27	3:02.735	2	3:17.886	Zach Bell
6	4	3:02.937	4	3:07.284	Joey Savatgy
7	6	3:03.906	5	3:09.123	Cooper Webb
8	9	3:04.442	11	3:09.430	Christophe Pourcel
9	8	3:05.719	11	3:11.728	Dean Wilson
10	7	3:06.486	2	3:12.594	Alex Martin

250 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	4	2:53.023	6	2:57.663	Blake Baggett
2	2	2:53.345	13	2:57.669	Christophe Pourcel
3	15	2:54.584	9	3:00.496	Jeremy Martin
4	5	2:55.169	6	2:59.692	Cooper Webb
5	7	2:55.458	13	3:00.819	Alex Martin
6	10	2:55.920	8	3:00.887	Jason Anderson
7	1	2:56.043	4	2:57.430	Marvin Musquin
8	6	2:56.379	13	3:00.370	Dean Wilson
9	3	2:56.382	3	2:58.692	Joey Savatgy
10	8	2:56.421	3	3:03.008	Jessy Nelson

More news and notes:

The Frenchmen, Christophe Pourcel and Marvin Musquin, have now won the last three overalls in the 250 Class. They’ve been close most of the season and sit fourth and fifth in the series standings. The two actually don’t have much of a history racing each other. “One year in the 85 [Class] we raced together, but that was my first year on the 85,” Musquin explained. “That was his last year. So he is a little bit older than me, but it’s funny that we never really raced together. My first year in GPs, that’s when he moved to America, so we actually never raced together. There’s a lot of competition behind us. We are the only two French riders in America and we are doing pretty good, first and second [in some motos]. It’s nice. Last week it was him and this weekend it’s me. Like I said, lots of competition, but we respect each other.” 

Although Dean Wilson hasn’t reached his ultimate goal—winning motos and overalls—in his final 250 Class season, the five-year veteran has been consistent since his return at the Tennessee National. Over the last seven rounds, Wilson has twelve finishes inside the top ten. Furthermore, over the eight motos, he has six finishes inside the top six. Wilson is still striving for more, though. “I have one more race to get back on the top of the podium and that is where I want to be at Utah,” he said in a team statement.

In just his second career race, Chris Alldredge knows he still has a lot to learn. “I’m definitely a little bummed with the couple mistakes I made out there today because I felt like we had another top 10 in us,” Alldredge said in a team statement. “There’s just so much talent at this level that you really need to learn when to push and how hard to push, and I think that’s what I really took away from this weekend.” Alldredge finished fourteenth overall in Indiana.

If Blake Baggett had any chance of capturing his second 250 championship, he needed exactly what happened at Indiana to happen—a mud race. The early morning heavy rains provided a sliver of hope for Baggett. Unfortunately, the mud ended up hurting him and eliminating him from contention. “I honestly couldn’t really tell you what position I was in at any point in the motos, but I knew I needed to just try and make passes happen,” Baggett said of his first moto in a team statement. Baggett would finish the moto fourteenth and have to sit idly by and watch as Jeremy Martin captured his first career title. Baggett bounced back for fourth in moto two.

While Rockstar Energy Racing KTM’s Ryan Sipes and Joey Savatgy (we’ll have more on them later here on RacerXOnline.com) were basking in the horrid conditions, the third member of the team, Jason Anderson was struggling, as he plunged into the muck in moto two, bringing him to a complete stop. “I was near the lead and then got my front tire stuck in a mud hole. I made a few more errors as the race progressed but still managed to get 10th in that moto,” Anderson said in a team statement.  “Next weekend is my last ever race on a 250 so I want to go out on a really positive note."

Privateer Brady Kiesel injured his knee at Indiana and will miss the final round at Utah. The injury will require surgery, but Kiesel hopes to be ready for Monster Energy Supercross in 2015. “I started the year with an injury and ended it with one. But looking to be back soon,” he said on Instagram. 

It was a rough day for the GEICO Honda crew, as they failed to place one rider inside the top ten overall, and had five moto finishes of twenty-fifth or worse. Justin Bogle, who went down more than a few times, offered no excuses: "Even though the conditions were difficult I can't complain because we all have to race the same thing whether this was a new track or one we go to every year." Neither did Zach Osborne, who went 30-35 for thirty-fifth overall with assorted bike problems. "It was tough out there, but it was tough for everyone as well. I hate having a double DNF day, but we will keep our heads up and charge ahead to Utah."