Tell the world a bit about yourself. You've made a main event and you're coming on strong. Where are you from and what are you all about?
I’m from Atwood, Tennessee, where I was born and raised. I’m about eighty miles from Loretta’s right in between Memphis and Nashville. I’m 21 years old and I turned professional when I was 17. I’ve had a lot of injuries and about twelve surgeries in the past five years, so it hasn’t been the greatest. To still be able to get inside the top twenty after that is just a big accomplishment. Yeah, man, it was awesome making the main in Detroit. It’s been a long time coming, and it was one of my goals to make a main and now I did. Now we’re shooting for a top-fifteen.

Twelve surgeries? Were you injured a lot in the amateur ranks too? Or, is this something that just started happening when you turned pro?
When I turned pro, I broke both of my wrists and had to get surgery on both of those. My collarbone and both femurs had to be worked on as well. In 2013, I broke one of my femurs practicing after Oakland. The first doctor I went to kind of messed it up and I had to have two more surgeries after that just to get it right. It was like an eight-month process. That took a toll on me for sure. It was almost a year off of the bike. Then I got all healed up. Then, last year I crashed at Anaheim 2 and broke my lower leg and had to have surgery on it also. I was out another three months. I took the summer off from racing the outdoors and just trained all summer with my trainer Joe Byrd. He got me into pretty good shape, and I ended up doing the Ironman mud race. It was the only outdoor national that I did and that turned out pretty good. I didn’t end up inside the top twenty, but I think I went 25-23 or something like that. That felt good and I know I was in a good position heading into supercross. 

My riding coach and mental coach Bryan McDonald, with Privateer Racing League, he has helped me ever since I was an amateur. He has a really good thing going and does video. It helps us make the right adjustments week in and week out. We have just a few more adjustments to make and I think we can make something good happen.

Because of all the injuries you had the last few years, I’ve heard this is the farthest that you have ever made it into a supercross season.
Oh, yeah, for sure. The past four years I haven’t even been able to make it to the East Coast rounds without getting hurt. I couldn’t show my speed really because I was just getting warmed up in the first few rounds and then, bam, I get hurt. Bam, I get hurt. Bam, I get hurt. It’s just one thing after another. I just never gave up. The feeling is great when I do achieve something like making a main. It was a rough road for sure, but you have to have adversity to make success. I have a bunch of that. 

Coming back from all of those injuries each time had to be tough. But you made the main event in Detroit. That had to feel like a long time coming.
Oh, man, it was great! I can’t stress that enough. In the LCQ I was second into the first turn and I think [Killy] Rusk passed me. I stayed there the whole race. I had Ronnie Stewart behind me, and he could have punted me off of the track every lap. We all knew that we were in a qualifying spot. I was just so pumped when I came over the finish line jump I held my bike wide-open for like thirty seconds. I was surprised I didn’t blow it up because it was banging off of the rev limiter for so long. I was just so happy to be out there in the main event. I was riding like a goon. It was more like, “Oh my gosh, I am in the main.” I didn’t get a good start at all. I didn’t want to get in anybody’s way. Every time the leaders came by I kept looking behind me so I didn’t screw them up. I learned from it and we’ll get back into the main event in Houston and things will go better. Now that I know that environment and I know what I need to do, I think we can get a top-fifteen for sure.

It has to help your confidence finally getting in.
You know, with me getting hurt, this is the best I have ever done. I've done well in the past, but I was always right there on the bubble. It got cut short a bunch. Now I have a lot of good people in my corner and all of the right tools to get me into that top fifteen.

You said your new team picked you up right around Daytona. Talk about that.
I usually ride to the races in the rig, which is Frank. We have to eat out of canned food and there isn’t a shower in there. Every now and then I’ll take a baby wipe shower or stop at a gas station. We have to rough it. Other than that it’s been great. I put the money I make right back in it. Before then I was just doing it on my own with my parents helping me a little bit. I get graphics now and they make my bike look sick. They drive me to the races. I have a mechanic now—his name is Swoop. It’s better now than ever. 

Yeah, so what if you have to eat out of cans and bathe with wipes—that’s all a part of the experience.
I don’t fly to the races, but I get to for New Jersey I think. That will be the first supercross I've ever flown to. It’ll be sick! We don’t get to ride everyday, but it’s all good and I have no complaints.

Who is Alex Ray off of the bike and away from the track?
I don’t know. I mean, off of the bike I'm training a lot. I go hang out with my dad; he owns the pawn shop in town. I’ll go there mess around with him and wheel and deal with some people. I’ll work on my bikes, go mountain biking, hang out with friends, ride pit bikes, and try to drag the fender doing wheelies. I work on my track here at the property. We have a night track at my house that we hold races on in the summer time. I help my dad with that. We get a lot of four-wheelers [laughs] and a bunch of young kids. We usually average around 250 to three hundred entries in my bike yard. We’re involved in a series as well. I’ll also train kids around here. My trainer Bryan lives around here, so whenever I’m off of the bike we are always going over video and studying.