Trey Canard, Team Honda HRC, Third in 450SX

Trey Canard: Obviously bummed I didn’t kind of capitalize on the position I was in. I felt like I was in a pretty good spot to maybe put a challenge on Ryan and I just lost touch. I started making a bunch of mistakes, got real tight. And then it really went bad; we went off the track. Just got to keep working hard and doing our best.

Not the easiest track to pass on but you guys were in a dogfight there for a while.
Yeah, that took a lot out of me, just going nuts. You can’t just sit back and wait for a moment; you’ve got to take everything that you can whether it’s slow or not. Did the best I could.

Can you take me through where you were with [Weston] Peick and Tomac was on the inside… You were three wide even at one point.
I honestly don’t remember much about it. It happens quick. I just saw Dungey sneaking away. Obviously points, you try not to think about it but obviously you’ve got to. I just don’t want to see him run away with it. I’m doing my best to give him a fight. Just keep plugging away and hopefully starts get better and we put ourselves up front next week. 

I feel like at the last four races, I’d say there were two you were quicker than Ryan, and maybe two he was quicker than you. Even last week I think you might have been faster; then this week he got away. Can you even identify what changes week to week? It’s so small.
It is so small. Whatever characteristic of the track suits one of our bikes. I think the harder, slicker stuff is good for the KTM and we get some softer stuff usually we do good. 

You’re going to make a good fight out of this though.
Yeah, I said before to never give up, so why give up today? It’s a big deficit but who cares? I’ll just keep riding hard. – Weigandt

Racer X: You’ve been riding great and tonight came from probably tenth or eleventh to a fifth. Lots of excitement going on ahead of you. Talk about your race a little bit.
Blake Baggett: Just didn’t get the greatest jump out of the gate but kind of snuck around the outside and came around tenth or eleventh and just tried to ride my own race, tried to stay clean and stay out of the carnage. 

There was a lot going on in front of you.
Definitely some carnage. Just tried to stay clean and ride the best laps I could and try to put down the fastest laps I could. I didn’t light it on fire but just trying to learn. Definitely learned a lot from tonight and already looking forward to Monday or Tuesday to trying a few things that came to mind and just keep plugging away.

Your main events have really been very consistent lap times. I’ve noticed you’re letting other people make the mistakes and you’re there to capitalize. For a rookie 450 guy you don’t normally see that.
I haven’t lit the world on fire but… 

I think it’s been good. Look, you’re a national title winner so you probably also know it’s a long series and a lot of races.
Yeah, definitely. Just trying to keep it on two wheels is the goal. Make sure we’re at all seventeen supercross rounds so that we’re healthy for all twelve outdoor rounds. Just put a solid twenty-nine races in between both series. Just try to learn each week and get better. That’s the goal is to get better and stay out of the mayhem. 

Are you happy with the season so far?
Yeah, it’s been okay. I definitely wouldn’t say amazing. But it’s been good. A few things I look back at it where I could have maybe been a little more aggressive here, sent it a little faster here in some spots, but that’s part of the learning curve. 

What about the track tonight; what’d you think of it?
It was one-lined, tight, slippery. One-line, follow-the-leader. It was tough. It was technical. Kept you on your toes. – Steve Matthes

Chad Reed, Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports, Seventh in 450SX

Racer X: Why’d you fall, man? That sucked! We were in for another epic race, I think.
Chad Reed: Yeah, I think I had a good shot at it. 

Lost the front?
Yeah, I lost the front, and to be truthful with you, I struggled a little bit all day with that. I kind of went against everything that I always do. Normally I like to kind of pick the bike apart, make a lot of changes. We felt good last week and we didn’t make a whole lot of changes from last week to this week. I just tried to trust the setting and something wasn’t right. There’s a reason why I chase the feeling. 

But you won the heat so you had reason to believe it was…
Winning the heat we tried doing something to help me, and it helped me, but then there was more negative than positive. You know how that goes—it’s always fun. You’re trying to decipher some positives, some negatives; which route do we go? We just kind of went back to where we were. I just felt like I missed something tonight and that was a bummer. But for the most part, great starts. It’s nice to get my starts back again. 

Did you officially get it [the holeshot] in the main event?
No, I believe Peick got it. Peick was on my outside and kind of swept in, and then I got to the inside of him in the sand turn. I made the pass right away. A little bit disappointed in myself because I made a mistake that allowed him to get back by. 

He gave you a look-over too.
He was scrubbing on the triple pretty hard there. Just a bummer. Then obviously I tried to put myself in a position to pass him back and try to put some good laps together and just lost the front. At that point it’s track position. I was frustrated after that. I was so mad at myself that I just kind of fell into the pace that I was following and ended up seventh. – Matthes

Jason Anderson, Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna, Ninth in 450SX

Racer X: How’d it go?
Jason Anderson: I got ninth, which is not so good…. But tonight I had fight in me. I was up there. I feel like we’re going to keep getting better and better. There’s been some stuff that we’ve been fighting. I feel like today I got some things back, or maybe not back but better.

Like you at A1? Was the A1 guy different?
I don’t want to say A1 was a fluke, but it wasn’t a supercross track. I think it was mellow. I think there are some things that we’ve been working on as far as getting our bike set up for the track and me riding a 450 that it takes time to progress and come around. It’s something that I think we figured out a lot this weekend, and my bike’s a lot better. I feel going into Daytona and the rest of the rounds, I feel like I am going to have that fight that I always have. I feel like I kind of lost that a little bit, just kind of searching and just the struggles that you have mid-season. I think that once we come around to the end of Vegas I’ll be back up there. 

Speaking of the fight, I’ve got to ask about the pass on Peick. I just saw dudes down.
I didn’t mean to hit Peick as hard as I did, but I went in and I kind of lost the front end and I was into Peick. I was like leaning this way, but once I hit Peick I stood up and just went straight. Obviously I meant to go spook him. I came in and I meant to make him think I mean business. I wanted to pass him, but I didn’t mean to just destroy him like I did.

You went down like ten feet later.
Yeah, I went into the middle of the track and got excited and ended up crashing. I’m in the middle of the track and I’m trying to get back on the track, but I didn’t want to lose a position, so then I hit a tough block and just… A rookie mistake. – Weigandt