Dungey had that one big spike in his lap time on lap 11, but look at how inconsistent his times are from lap 18 on. Meanwhile, Marvin also struggled to keep his line flat, although he was still turning quicker laps than Dungey. One cause for the inconsistencies could have been the dirt in Minneapolis. During the press conference all three riders agreed that there was a weird combination of hard spots and soft spots as the moisture worked its way up from underneath the surface. 

Dungey vs Tomac

Now look at how the gap from Tomac to Dungey increased throughout the main event with some callouts to key moments in the race.

You can see Tomac was inching away until lap 10-11 where Dungey was unable to get around a lapped rider for the entire lap, losing around three seconds. This allowed Tomac to get comfortable and killed any momentum Dungey had. Once Tomac slipped away from Dungey's sights, Dungey wasn't able to match his pace as consistently. On the podium after the race Dungey said, "I got off to a great start there with Eli and he was running some good laps. We were right there in tow and I just fell off the back and made a few mistakes and just ... you know, I got a little work to do and that's okay."

Lapped Traffic

It may not have been as apparent watching on TV, but lapped riders were everywhere in Minneapolis. It seemed like once Tomac got around one, there would be a group of two or three waiting for him in the next section. Steve Matthes even mentioned it a couple times on our Twitter page. 

Matthes was spot on when he thought the leaders might have lapped some people four or five times—they actually lapped Alex Ray and Adam Enticknap four times and lapped up to 17th place three times. 

When you look at how short the track was and how tricky in became with that soft dirt, it's no surprise that the leaders ran into the lapped riders so quickly. Marvin Musquin said in the post-race press conference, "The track was actually pretty short once again, just like last weekend in Dallas, and we had a lot of lappers." 

Hard Chargers

Now it's time to recognize some hard chargers. On a track that many said was one lined and hard to pass on, Dean Wilson (450SX) and Colt Nichols (250SX) were both buried at the end of the first lap and managed to pass 10 riders over the course of the race. Wilson said after the race, "I wish I had a better main event. I didn’t get the best of starts, then I collided with another rider and went down after the first turn. By the time I got going I was well behind last and just tried picking guys off. I got up to 12th, which isn’t amazing, but I qualified third which is a positive."

Nichols' poor position after the first lap was due to a crash after colliding with Dakota Alix. 

Wacko Zacho

Finally, let's get to the 250 Class. Joey Savatgy rode a fast and consistent main event and took home the win without much drama on his part. On the other hand, Zach Obsorbne's night was anything but drama free. After getting an average start in the main event, Osborne charged hard and fought his way past Jordon Smith and into second place. Just as he was getting close to Savatgy, Osborne went down in the corner after the sand section and put himself in an even bigger hole than he was in after the start. As you can see in the chart below that shows the gap between Osborne and Savatgy throughout the race.