The Conversation: Champion Chase

Killer season. It’s been wild to watch the season and get this title. Going through that main event, what’s going through your head? You’ve had a lot of time to think about this. You’ve had a week to think about the celebration and the party and everything else, but what’s going through your head for the 20 plus one?
This whole week I was like, I don't want to hear anything about celebrating, nothing. My goal was to win this race. I had a different week. Like I said, I didn’t really ride much and didn’t really train at all. So, I was just kind of coming into this race. Obviously, the goal was to win the championship and that was the main thing, but I wanted to win this race and put a stamp on the season. I was super locked in. Didn’t really have much going on in my head. Just focus on the race. That’s something in this class, these last six races I’ve been super focused and locked in. It’s really paid off for me. I haven’t had many races like that. In the middle of the season, people were very hard on my late race crashes, and I feel like I’ve really made a point to prove those guys wrong. It feels good.

The four wins in the last five races have been kind of perfect races for you. How important was it to end the season that way? What kind of momentum does it give you going into outdoors? Do you think of yourself as the favorite now?
Before I went up for the main event, I’m like, not that the season would be less sweet without winning tonight, but it honestly was going to feel that way if I didn’t win that main event. So, I put a lot of, not pressure on myself, but expectations. I pulled the holeshot and just tried to set sail and get away. That was some of my best riding I’ve done all season. It means a lot. Just to be able to get out front, put those laps together and be really consistent. That’s what I lacked middle of the season. I was good in the beginning, and then I would either make a mistake or just fall off and that’s something that you can’t do in this class. So, like I said, the people in my corner this year have put so much time and effort in to just get me out of that hole, and put me where I am right now.

The big guys entering the motocross season without Tomac, maybe without Barcia, maybe without Roczen, and with Jett Lawrence entering, how do you feel without the stronger guys beside you?
I want to race the best guys out there. Obviously, it’s unfortunate to not have Eli [Tomac] and Jason [Anderson] and Justin [Barcia] and Kenny and all those guys. We’ll have Dylan [Ferrandis] back, which he’s super good in outdoors. And we’ll have Jett in the 450 class. It’s not going to be easy, by any means, but I’m ready to build off what I had last season and really just kind of build off what I’ve done in supercross and carry it into outdoors. My goal coming into this year was to be better than I was last year, and if I can do that in outdoors I think we’ll be in a good spot.

You said after Atlanta that you felt complete as a rider. Is that still the word that you’d use to describe this feeling, or has it changed?
Yeah, I would say I’m definitely more complete than I was beginning of the season, and even middle of the season. I really turned a corner after that break we had. I can’t really put a finger on what it was exactly, but just me having that mental break and working on the bike and testing. It really paid off. I came into Phoenix [Glendale SX] ready to kind of turn the season around, and it worked out. I won four of the last six races. It means a lot. Like I said, the people in my corner, I couldn’t be more proud of. Being from Illinois, it’s super cool. I can’t wait to see the people I’ve kind of grown up with and celebrate with them. It’s really special.

What do the next couple days look like for you kind of celebrating a little bit here, but ramping up for pro motocross? How do you balance it?
We’ll definitely celebrate tonight and just the next few days, obviously. I have a test scheduled in Florida Tuesday through Saturday, basically. So, back to work. It’s never ending for us. We obviously want to celebrate and cherish this championship with Honda. It hasn’t been done since 2003, so it’s definitely a cool feeling, especially for me being where I am in my career. I’m really happy to check this one off my list. It’s going to come down to outdoors. I’m definitely ready to start testing and get ready for that series.

And obviously like you mentioned, being able to break the Honda curse and everything like that, for you being able to do that for this team, you came from GEICO Honda, it’s not quite Honda HRC, but that’s the feeder program. For you to be able to bring Honda a championship as the team you turned pro with, how is that?
I’m pretty sure my words were when I came off of [GEICO Honda in] 2020, I told either Brandon [Wilson] or Bill [Savino] from Honda, I’m like, I will win you guys a championship before I leave here. That was maybe a little bit arrogant to say, but I really believed in myself. It’s pretty cool to win them a championship. I was obviously close last year in outdoors and didn’t get it done. It’s cool to get it done in supercross. This is obviously not the main championship, but there’s a lot of hype around this one. I have a loss of words. I’m super happy with how the team has really rallied around me this year. They put a lot of work into the bike. It’s so much better than what we ended on last year. It just goes to show how hard those guys work. It means a lot to be a part of that team.

I think they touched on it a little bit on the broadcast, not that you were going to give up on the season, but you guys were probably getting to a point later in the season where you were going to start turning your heads to motocross testing. What was that conversation like? Let’s just wait a little bit?
I started riding outdoors probably around maybe even Atlanta. After that, I started riding outdoors once a week. Obviously not focusing on outdoors but starting to get kind of shifted over to outdoors. I think it even helped me on supercross, just kind of mixing it up, getting some speed back, corner speed and everything like that. I never thought the championship was over. Like I said, anything can happen. It’s 17 rounds obviously for a reason. It’s a gnarly series, like we’ve seen this year. So, you’ve got to be built for it and reliable, obviously. So, I never gave up on it. I wanted to win as many races as I possibly could in these last six races we had. So, my mindset never changed. I wanted to win. Like I said, even in the mid-season when I was having those races where I was crashing, I would get up and just trying to calm myself back to a position where I thought that would get me some points and not quit. Even Indianapolis when I crashed behind Kenny, I tried to ride with bent bars, and it all pays off in the long run. Never give up is really the motive behind the season.

The gear selection tonight, was there any specific plans with that or what was the gear selection idea there?
I didn’t know what gear I was going to wear tonight. I think I actually said that I wanted to wear the Bulls stuff, like probably six or seven races ago. They asked me what I wanted to wear, and it just so happened to line up with tonight. Obviously, Michael Jordan, Chicago, it means a lot to me being 23. September 23rd is my birthday, so the whole 23 thing this year, it was cool. The gear looked awesome today with the red plate. Nothing looks as good. The red plate just makes everything tie together. I’m really happy with how everything turned out. Alpinestars won all three championships this season, so really special to see Gabriel [Mazzarola], the owner of Alpinestars, down at the podium and celebrate with him. Best gear in the business, by far.