You ended up sixteenth overall in the 2014 Monster Energy Supercross standings. Not a spectacular result, but then again, you missed a number of races. When you were on the bike and racing, you were consistently in the top ten. All in all, how would you describe your supercross season last year?
Supercross was all right. I dealt with injury stuff coming right out of Phoenix. At Phoenix I separated my shoulder, so I kind of had to deal with that issue every week for a few rounds. I ended up missing four or five races. By the time I came back, I started getting some top-ten finishes, but for me, once you kind of lose that momentum at the beginning of the season, it’s kind of hard to gain it back. So I was just sort of more in survival mode with every race that I went to. I was just trying to get through the rest of the rounds and the rest of the season. I felt like I was riding good. Everything went sweet. I was just looking more forward to outdoors since my chances were kind of gone from losing it in the second round at Phoenix. I’m bummed I crashed there. But, yeah, I was happy with the season. Definitely some good finishes, but not where I wanted to be. 

Ryan Villopoto recently told me that the sport is so competitive now that if you’re not at 100 percent and fully prepared to make a run at the supercross championship, you don’t really stand a chance. What do you think?
Yeah, pretty much. You just have to prepare yourself the best you can. It doesn’t work when every year I’m trying to catch up from being hurt from the previous year or whatever. With how I’m feeling this year and the momentum I’m bringing into the new season, this could be a year for me to really break out and have some solid finishes and stay healthy and just build more of a base. Some of the guys haven’t been hurt in the last three or four years, and when they have such a big base built, it’s kind of hard to catch up to that, and that’s pretty much what I have to do. 

Well, in 2009 you won a race, hit the podium, and placed an excellent fourth overall in the points. You know you can do it, don’t you?
Yeah, I can do it. It’s just a matter of all those stars lining up. I feel like this year is the best I have felt. I have a new trainer named Ty Kady that I’ve been working with, and I’ve been doing a lot of cycling and really fine-tuning my training, and it’s the best that I’ve felt in a long time.

You’ve ridden for two commercially driven race teams. Is the Toyota/JGR Yamaha team similar to the Chad Reed TwoTwo team?
For me, I’d describe them like they’re really and completely opposite. For me, at times, it was really good for me to have a little bit of a structure. The Gibbs team was good for that. I also had the background of being on Yamaha since 2009, when I started on the 450. A lot has changed with the new Yamaha. When they changed it in 2010, I kind of struggled with it a little bit. I think a lot of people did. Now that the bike has had some years of development I feel like it’s gone in a better direction. Obviously I was part of all that with that team, so I feel like I had a big part in how well that bike was developed and how it’s done so far, but right now I’m excited with what I have with Chad and how comfortable I feel on the Kawasaki. The environment of the team is way different, and the outlook of the team is way different. It’s more of a fun racing environment, and that’s what you need to go racing. I just like the way Chad’s style is with it. He likes to have fun, but when it’s business time, it’s business time, and that’s what we need to do. I felt with Gibbs it was maybe a little bit too much pressure. It’s more of like riding for a factory team. The pressure you put on yourself, and maybe the team holds on you is a little bit different than a more freewheeling Chad Reed. I have a lot to learn from Chad. As a racer and the fact that he’s been around for a long, long time, he understands the sport. A lot of guys that start teams or who are team managers don’t really get the understanding of what it’s all about. I’m happy with the change I’ve made and we’ll go from there. I’m just very fortunate that I have the opportunity with Chad to do this, and I hope we can make things happen and turn some heads and have a very good year. 

How did you and Chad become such good friends, and how did you end up on his race team?
I’ve known Chad a long time. It goes back to when I moved back to Florida with [Grant] Langston. We had our own track and Chad would come out and ride. I got to know him personally on that level when we would hang out at his house. We also had mutual friends in the industry like Byrner [Michael Byrne] and Andrew McFarlane, who was around. It was a fun group to hang around with, and that’s how I originally met up with Chad. How this started this year, he was looking to put another guy on the team, and right about Glen Helen time I talked to Chad and his manager Steve Astephen. He came around to my motorhome at Glen Helen and said, “Hey, we’re kind of interested in maybe doing something with another rider, and we’re thinking about you and we just wanted to give you a heads up.” I went out and kind of solidified things at Glen Helen and kind of showed people that I still could be up there and win races. We kept the lines open during the season, and we were hoping things would work. The spot opened up for me and it was just perfect timing and we put it all together.