Eli Tomac’s first year with Monster Energy Kawasaki continues to be a work in progress. Tomac was running third in the main event before crashing and finishing ninth. “With just a few laps to go I came up on a couple lapped riders and had to check up before a double and ended up crashing,” he said. Tomac is currently fourth in points, but only has one win and an additional podium this season.

Blake Baggett had a season-high fifth place finish at Indy. One would think the rough, rutted track helped the former 250 AMA Motocross Champion. “Fifth-place for the night, definitely my best race of the year,” he said in a Yoshimura Suzuki team statement. “It’s good. We’re coming along, plugging away and going in the right direction, definitely improving. We’re just going to build on it from here. I’m excited.”

Meanwhile the Yoshimura Suzuki team announced that James Stewart is expected to return to racing this weekend in St. Louis after missing the main event in Indy due to an ankle injury sustained in practice. A fan sent us a video of his practice crash:

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel returned after missing the past three rounds with a small crack in his C3 vertebrae. In typical Pourcel fashion he rode around for much of practice, learning every inch of the track before putting down a smoker at the end of the session. His 45.587 was the fastest of the day. Pourcel had his troubles in the heat, though, crashing in the tough first rhythm section. “I just stalled the bike in the heat and went over the bars pretty hard. I had a lot of pain in my ribs so I had to get it checked out after that happened,” he said in a team statement. Pourcel qualified for the main and rode to a season-high seventh. Despite the finish, Pourcel said he’s neck is still bothersome. “I want to show the team that I can be in front, but my neck is still a little sore. I had a good start in the main. If you believe in yourself and think you’re going to do well you can get a start from anywhere. It feels good to finally start in the front. I had a couple good laps with the guys up front, then decided to take it easy because the track is rough and I was pretty beat up. I’m mad because I crashed, but I just wanted to stay on two wheels and take it easy because it was my first race back.”

Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki’s Broc Tickle also returned in Indy after missing the last ten rounds due to right forearm injury. Tickle finished fourteenth and admitted after the race that the Indy track was tough to return on after missing so much time. “Obviously, it’s tough to sit on the couch for a long time and come back,” he said in a RCH team release. “Usually, I enjoy the ruts but this weekend I just felt uncomfortable, so it was tough. I struggled all day with staying loose.”  

How bad was Justin Barcia’s takeout of Jake Weimer in the main event? So bad that Steve Matthes is reporting that Barcia felt bad enough to apologize to Weimer after the race. Weimer posted a photo to his Instagram account of the incident and had this to say in a team release: “It was pretty frustrating because I felt pretty good and felt like I could have a decent night,” he explained. “By the time I got to the main, I think I had the 12th or 13th gate pick so I felt like I could have reached another top 10. But then another rider cleaned me out, right away. That ruined my front brake and blew the disc guard off, sheered the bolts, bent my rotor. The front end was all twisted. It was just a mess. It’s frustrating when something like that happens. Boom and all of a sudden, your night’s over. It just wasn’t necessary.”

Honda HRC announced that Cole Seely is continuing to improve after a piece of his C7 verebra was chipped off in a practice crash prior to Santa Clara. “I’ve been starting to feel better lately,” he said in a team statement. “I’m still stiff and a little sore but I’ve been moving around better. I even did a little spin on my trainer, so we’re making progress.”

The SmarTop/MotoConcepts duo of Mike Alessi and Vince Friese is starting to make some strides lately. Mike took tenth at Indy, giving him 9-11-10 results over the last three races, which are his three best results of the year. Friese’s eleventh was a season-best.

450SX Class

Normally, we post the fastest lap times only, but Indy's rutted track posed a unique challenge. So this week we're also including each rider's max (slowest) lap time, which is more telling. (Note the max lap times do not include exceptionally long laps with crashes or stalls. When the AMA calculates max lap time, it only uses the regular laps, which gives you a better idea of how riders stack up). Have a look. 

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Max Lap Time	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	2	43.548	2	48.663	45.895	Ken Roczen
2	1	44.044	1	48.536	45.932	Ryan Dungey
3	9	44.836	2	51.164	47.509	Eli Tomac
4	4	45.212	5	51.739	47.779	Trey Canard
5	3	45.503	7	51.029	47.166	Jason Anderson
6	7	45.866	5	51.778	48.254	Christophe Pourcel
7	5	45.976	2	49.302	47.728	Blake Baggett
8	16	46.370	2	55.328	49.851	Weston Peick
9	13	46.699	5	54.913	49.895	Justin Bogle
10	6	46.726	4	51.055	47.971	Chad Reed
11	10	46.786	7	52.110	49.217	Mike Alessi
12	8	46.900	4	52.831	48.746	Justin Brayton
13	15	47.343	7	53.187	50.054	Justin Barcia
14	11	47.881	3	52.668	49.319	Vince Friese
15	14	47.950	5	52.739	49.771	Broc Tickle
16	20	48.243	2	56.464	50.933	Jake Weimer
17	12	48.366	3	53.875	49.716	Josh Grant
18	17	48.402	4	53.684	50.925	Nick Wey
19	19	49.970	2	58.417	54.282	Nick Schmidt
20	21	50.316	3	58.013	53.363	Tony Archer
21	18	50.332	3	57.143	53.494	Cade Clason
22	22	53.560	1	1:01.199	57.615	Jeff Alessi

So Roczen and Dungey had the fastest laps, no surprise. But look at those max lap times. Dungey and Roczen's worst laps were 48s. Blake Baggett was impressive, his worst was only a 49, but every other rider on the track had at least one lap over 51 seconds. That's at least three seconds off of the leaders.

For example, Tomac's best was within 1.3 seconds of Roczen's best, but his worst (not even including the lap when he crashed) was 2.5 off. Canard's best lap was within 1.7 seconds of Roczen's best, but his worst lap was 3 seconds slower than Roczen's worst. As the two leaders kept pushing—and amazingly making relatively few mistakes despite that pace—they just rose to a level above everyone else. 

Also, how about Roczen's blistering 43 coming on lap one? Dude was determined to make up ground and get to Dungey in this one. 

As for Baggett, the former 250 National Motocross Champion showed his mettle on a gnarly track. For Baggett, it wasn't about the top speed, it was about the consistency. His best time was only seventh-fastest, but his worst lap was significantly fastest than anyone not named Dungey or Roczen, and that helped power him to his first top five of the season.

By the way, yes Roczen had a faster average lap than Dungey but still finished second. That's because the lap time data didn't begin until the riders reached the finish line the first time—and at that point Dungey was already in the lead, and Roczen was already behind. 

250SX East Region

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	46.274	5	48.380	Aaron Plessinger
2	2	46.514	5	49.037	Malcolm Stewart
3	21	47.048	5	47.715	Jeremy Martin
4	5	47.269	3	49.305	Martin Davalos
5	6	47.290	4	49.993	RJ Hampshire
6	8	47.633	3	50.585	Tyler Bowers
7	3	47.681	1	49.696	Gannon Audette
8	4	47.699	3	49.745	Shane McElrath
9	7	48.567	5	50.627	Anthony Rodriguez
10	19	49.212	2	52.677	Benny Bloss
11	9	49.675	2	51.402	Luke Renzland
12	10	49.794	2	52.640	Cedric Soubeyras
13	15	50.164	1	51.977	Dakota Alix
14	11	50.379	5	52.598	Paul Coates
15	12	50.426	4	53.176	Justin Starling
16	22	50.445	3	51.317	Darryn Durham
17	13	50.547	3	53.261	Matt Bisceglia
18	14	51.080	2	54.068	Daniel Herrlein
19	16	51.627	5	55.080	Henry Miller
20	20	51.795	2	53.109	Alex Frye
21	18	51.887	2	54.790	Jacob Williamson
22	17	53.000	3	55.456	Levi Kilbarger

No huge surprises from these laps, with Plessinger and Stewart 1-2 in the race and in fast times. Poor Jeremy Martin seemed to have a podium going until he endoed and broke his handlebars (and perhaps his title hopes). 

More news and notes

Martin Davalos was inline for his first podium since a third in Daytona before crashing on the tricky dragon’s back prior to the finish line late in the race. Like most, Davalos, who finished fifth, talked about how hard the track was. “The track was really demanding tonight,” he said in a statement. “I had three pretty big crashes. I’m just glad I’m ok. I definitely had to stay on my toes. I had a good heat race, but lappers got in my way in the main. I’ll just go back to work on Monday and focus on St. Louis." Despite his problems, Davalos moved into third in points, a full race behind Malcolm Stewart with four rounds to go.

There was room for Davalos to move into third in points after Jeremy Martin went down in the tough rhythm section that gave Ryan Dungey trouble. We spoke with Jeremy after the race and he said he was fine, that it wasn’t an ankle or leg, but that he hit his stomach hard. He wanted to continue racing, but his bike was messed up from the crash (his handlebars were literally broken off of the bike). Martin is all but out of the title chase now, as he sits twenty-eight points behind Stewart.

GEICO Honda’s RJ Hampshire had to go through the LCQ to make it happen, but he tied a season-high with a sixth—his best finish since Round 1 in Atlanta. “Ended up coming out of the gate pretty good, rounded he first turn around the top five then got tangled up in the first couple turns and believe I fell back to around 15th. I had a massive case around half way because of a lapper, which hurt me pretty bad.”