How is that ACL ligament you tore back at the Oakland Supercross round earlier this winter? Do you feel good about everything?
Yeah, everything has been good. I’m dealing with some minor soreness just from taking the four months off that I did. I’ve basically had to go full throttle straight into this. There has been some lower back soreness and just some body aches here and there, but honestly, the knee is the last thing, or one of the last things, that hasn’t been sore on me. As far as the knee, the knee is dialed and I’m just trying to take care of myself and to just get ready for this grind that’s about to start this coming week.

Have you, Justin and the Monster Energy Kawasaki team been able to put some time in on the bike and get things to where you want them beginning with the Pala National this coming Saturday?
Yeah, I think yesterday was day seven of actually riding basically since I did my knee. Considering that we’ve only one week of riding time, I feel like the team has done a very good job of getting me in a comfortable spot. Obviously, I’m back with [Justin] Shantie for the summer and he’s been my mechanic basically since I was a second-year pro. We have a great relationship and go back a long ways. He was with me for my first win [Note: Unadilla on August 8, 2015] and memory-wise we’ve had a great time and I look forward to that during the summer. As far as Oscar Wirdeman [team crew chief], I haven’t worked with him since I’ve been here. He seems like a very educated, smart man and you know I like the way he approaches things. Honestly, it feels good to be back. Obviously, I would love for it to be full-time, but I’m very aware that it is not, and I understand my role. Man, it feels good to be back with familiar faces and just to have the team around me. They’ve given me everything that I need to succeed and do my best.

This can be an excellent opportunity for you, huh? Your results were really strong last summer where you consistently ran and finished in the top 10 and the works Kawasaki KX450SR you’ll race come Pala is absolutely world class.
Yeah, that’s the goal. Like I said, I would have liked to have had a little bit more time to get ready, but it is going to be a grind. I’m ready for that and I know what challenges lie ahead. I think that if I can get back my signature starts, like I did when I raced this bike before, I think that I can put myself in positions early on to just learn and adapt and get up to speed as early as possible. Obviously, this class is no joke and between Eli Tomac coming off of a championship and my new teammate Jason Anderson winning the last four races, there are just a lot of good guys that have had a lot of seat time. Maybe they will be a little more worn down that I will be, but then again, they’ve had the last four months of actual riding time and seat time, so things are not as foreign to them. With all of that being said, I know what challenges lie ahead and I know it is not going to be easy and I’m fine with that. I have a great team of people around me and a good support group at home, I’m looking forward to it.

What are your goals? What will you hope to try and achieve through all of this?
Oh man, it’s too early for that. Every time I get on the motorcycle I want to win. Whether that is achievable or not, I think no one is going to win every time they go out and I think we see that all of the time. The goal is to be competitive. That means being competitive when we start off and to build slowly and being inside that top 10 and to escalating towards that top five. That’s the goal. If we get to the first round at Pala and things go a little bit better than we thought, then we are a couple of steps ahead of where we thought we would be. Like I said, I know my role on the team and the team has made it very clear that there is no pressure from their end to go out and to dominate. They want me to do well, but there is no pressure-based results. They’re very aware of my situation and how much time I’ve had with it all coming in. The goal is to be competitive. I would love to make it through the whole year healthy and continue to build and to kind of remind myself of how good I am because I think I have shown in the past that I am talented on a motorcycle. Sometimes it is easy to get distracted and forget about that stuff, but I do have a good feeling being on this bike and I guess we’ll find out here in about a week. I have to say that the bike is amazing. Some things that we struggled with when I was here a couple of years ago are some of the issues that the team has targeted on the bike since I’ve been here and like I said, being around familiar faces is always comforting. I’ve only had a week, but in that short week of riding I feel like we’ve made a pretty good amount of progress. We’ll ride three days this week and we’ll see how things are going to be. Yeah, the bike is very good and being around these familiar faces is really comforting.