Let’s go all the way back to that, it's odd because you did finally get that supercross title last year, but then I remember you in the preseason saying, “I want to make huge gains” or, “I have made huge gains” like you kind of threw your program away. So, what was it that after you get that title, and you beat Jett Lawrence by the way for it, and Christian Craig that’s no joke, that led you to say, “No man, there’s more on the table here.”
Yeah it's just one of those things where I, you know everybody has weaknesses, I am not naive to try to point my own out and know I need to get better in areas. I was at a point in my career where I have been doing the same kind of training kind of preseason, the same thing the last five or six years and it did work I can’t deny that Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel] and riding with that group of guys was incredible but it' kind of did its part you know? And I was ready for the next thing, and I got an opportunity to work with David Vuillemin and ride with [Dylan] Ferrandis, that was huge for me. I learned a lot. It was just time. It made sense to do it then and Bobby [Regan] was not happy with that but I was just at a point where I felt like I needed to bet on my own self, and I really needed to challenge myself to see if I could raise the stakes even higher. Because I know what I did preseason going into ’21, I knew that I could repeat that, but going into ’22 I had this even more of a chip of saying, “I want to prove that I can win on any coast, against anybody.” I want to do what I can to make that happen. So that is kind of what led to me working with DV and I just liked everything that he had to say about his program, so I was like “Why not?” you know. I feel like I can do this, and I can do it at a better level so let’s give it a try. I really honestly felt like I did that, that’s why it was such a shame I didn’t get to show it at all.

I don’t even know if you were asked this because you were so jacked up, I think everybody kind of left you alone for a couple of weeks, do you even know what happened in the crash in the whoops?
Yeah, a little bit. I definitely think I got knocked a little silly once I was on the ground. Obviously, the bike was burning me a little bit and I didn’t even know. So, I definitely think I was a little concussed. So, the whole practice even during the day the whoops were a little tricky, they were kind of hard to hit, they were closer together than the other set and definitely more, they were closer together than normal I thought. I moved my line just a touch on the lap that I crashed and I ended up getting more lift off that first whoop than I anticipated, but by then I was already carrying so much speed, and obviously like I said I got way more lift than I thought so I was a lot higher and I was like, “Wow I am definitely about to miss this whoop,” but they were so close together I thought I was going to be okay, but man as soon as that thing went there was no stopping it, it felt like it was slow motion. So, it was just rider error, it wasn’t anything like too caught up in the moment or anything, I just made a mistake that was just on me so it's just one of those things. You get to feeling pretty sweet and then dirt bikes kind of remind you that you are not pretty quickly, so that was one of those situations.

So, it was nothing like, “Oh first race, we didn’t have the set up right or I wasn’t gelling.” You felt fine, and you just made one mistake.
Yeah. We didn’t really touch the bike all day, we made a few little changes but it kind of sucked in practice I didn’t get to do the full second timed practice, I only got two laps of that practice and then we had a transmission issue, and I didn’t get to finish that one, so I was like, “Man that kind of sucks.” But it is what it is, I was a little bummed with the way practice went but I was like, “Okay it's fine, racing is where it counts anyways.” But nothing to do with the bike or lack of this or lack of that, simply rider error. I just kind of goofed up a little bit.

Yeah, it was kind of announced that you were coming back [for the last four outdoors] and then the next thing I knew you weren’t, can you comment on that? Star has 49 riders, so we never know what’s going on over there because there’s so many bikes to keep track of, and new guys are joining the team like every three weeks, so it just didn’t work out, is that what you’re going with?
Yeah I can touch on it a little bit because me and those guys, we ended on great terms, I have a great relationship with everybody at Star and I never would try to say anything negative about those guys. They treated me really really well for six years being on that team and I’ve got a soft spot for all of those guys for sure. But it was kind of one of those things where at the beginning of the year I was put in a position where I was told that if I was to get injured then an injury clause was going to be implemented and I’m like, “Okay that’s fine,” you know, whatever. I get it if you’re not out there pushing these brands and pushing your sponsors then you’re probably not going to get paid, that’s the way it works sometimes. And that’s what happened. So I was put in a position where I am like, “Okay well I am not going to make any money regardless,” and I didn’t really care because I am like, “Dude who cares. At this point I just want to go race.” I did really well last year. I won a championship for this team. I want to just go race. I have been sitting on the sidelines for months. At the same time we are trying to figure out 2023, me and my agent Jimmy Button and then this KTM thing kind of fell in our laps and they were like, “Hey if you want to get a head start and start riding this 450 a little early, we can start paying you early, you can come down and train at 83 [Compound] and just really get a big head start on this whole 450 thing. We could ease into it and then you can start riding supercross and we can really just get a bigger head start than what we anticipated.” And I am like, “Okay that honestly sounds great.” So that is kind of what led us to that decision. And Bobby and the team were cool with that, they were like, “Obviously we would love for you to race a few races this summer,” but like you said there’s 49 other guys there, so it wasn’t too big of an issue for me to go my own way, so they agreed to it, said it was fine and we did the KTM thing. I thought it was kind of a done deal and my ’23 was set, signed a contract with those guys, rode the bike for about four or five weeks and then things kind of imploded before they ever got going. So, that left us kind of sitting there scratching our heads again. So, that’s when I came back to California, I had just sold my house in Tallahassee and I was like, “Well I guess we’ll go back to California and figure it out when we get there.” So that’s what we did for a few months there until this came around.

I can’t even follow the timeline, so then you have Rocky Mountain coming back with a new owner so to speak, and that was looking good, and did you even ride and everything?
Yeah, I was actually still living in Tallahassee, and I was going back and forth to 83 Compound once a week and I’d ride two or three days then go back. Kind of regroup with things at home then I would come back the next week. Like I said I rode a KTM 450 for about four or five weeks during that little span. They were gone for a full week for Loretta’s, I didn’t ride that week. And then when they came back, I went down there on a Monday, was going to ride Tuesday, Wednesday and literally on that Tuesday they called me in before, the owner and at the time Seth Rarick was helping out with that outfit as well and they were like, “Hey we are kind of dealing with some things and if we don’t get the answers we need today I don’t think we are going to move forward.” I was like, “Uh I kind of already signed with you guys. I thought we were passed that point.” But I was like, “Okay I guess just let me know how it goes,” type situation and then literally that evening we got the call, and it was no longer a thing. I was pretty disheartened at the time, I was like, “Man I wish I would have just stayed and raced the last four outdoors with Star, at least I would have got some gate drops.” But like I said I did what I thought was best at the time it just didn’t work. Which is a bummer, I hate to see any team that’s going to be there not, we need more avenues for guys in this sport, so it was a bummer. But that’s part of the sport it happens.

So, with Honda it's as simple as they have [Chase] Sexton under contract, they probably will sign Kenny [Roczen] but it's not done yet, so you were like, “Oh they will probably bring Kenny back, but I might as well ask?”
Yeah essentially that was the conversation for months, because Jimmy had conversations with Lars [Lindstrom] in February and March and they were very transparent with us from the get-go. They were like, “Hey obviously our priority is Kenny, he’s been with us for six years, we are going to try to work something out with him, but we don’t know. We don’t know where his head is at or what he is going to do.” Who knows. And then I listened to the Bubba’s World podcast and what he was going to do, and he announced that they were splitting their ways and I immediately called Honda like, “Yo, is this true?”

[Laughs] That is awesome, no insider information you were just basing it off of the same podcast every other fan does?
Yeah literally. I mean Jimmy I am sure had some more insider than I had, and I am sure he already talked to Lars before, but I really wanted to hear it for myself. And I hadn’t gotten to speak to Lars, on the phone or person to person, or anything. So, I am like, “You know what let me just get this guy on the phone and just hear what he has to say, I want to hear it from him.” Like I said that first conversation went better than I anticipated so I was like, “Well I am going to keep hounding this guy until we can figure this out.” Once they decided that they were going to hire a guy, because they don’t have to hire a guy, they could go race with one guy, with six guys, however many they want, being they are HRC. Once they decided, “Hey we think it would be beneficial for you to be on this team and I think we want to go this direction,” it got done quick after that. It just took a while to get to that point. But yeah, Bubba’s World podcast was how I found out and I said, “I’m going to give this dude a call and see what happens here.”

Listen to the full interview with Nichols on the The Racer X Exhaust Podcast below: