For a brief moment at Anaheim 1 last year, Christian Craig was showing great speed in qualifying. Then he suffered a big crash late in the afternoon, and that sapped some of his momentum for the night show. What followed was a more typical 450 rookie campaign, with a few decent finishes, but overall, more rides that didn't really show his true potential. There's a lot to learn. Then, a big crash in Glendale, Arizona, essentially ended his season. His arm injury had some complications and was slow in healing, which kept him out of the Pro Motocross campaign.
Turns out Craig's season wasn't done, though, became Team USA was looking for entrants for the Motocross of Nations, and by then Craig was back on the bike and raising his hand to go race for his country. The results? Eh, they weren't great considering Team USA won the race in 2022. But at least Craig got a once-in-a-lifetime experience as a reward for representing his country.
He hopes for better in Year 2 of full-time 450 racing. We talked to him at the Rockstar Husqvarna team intro on Wednesday.
Racer X: Well, let's start with after [Motocross of] Nations because for you guys, it was kind of a big build up to kind of a big let down in a way. Mentally, how did you shift past that and just kind of like put it all behind you and move forward?
Christian Craig: Yeah, it stung for a couple days. I was pretty bummed on myself just results wise, but the experience kind of outweighed that with bringing my family there and then getting to see to see all that and the fans was worth it. So I told the Pelletier [Mike, from the AMA] today that you don't even have to ask me, like I will go no matter what. So I'd love to have a rebound year one time, but since then, yeah, after a few little days of reminiscing and moving on from that, it was straight back to supercross. So just been getting straight into that and probably two months now of the grind.
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Simon Cudby ![]()
Simon Cudby
Is it nice at all then that you got to race after the injury, dust the cobwebs off a little bit so that you could not come into the season having not raced for basically 10 months?
Yeah and that was kind of the goal. I picked the biggest race of the year! [Laughs] It would have been nice to get a little gate drop at REM [Glen Helen race] or something, . But I picked the the Nations. But it was fun. You get those jitters on the line in front of, I guess, 100,000 fans, which was wild. So, we did it. Besides the results, we experienced it and got through it.
Is that even a thing? Like racing a REM race. Have you done a local race in a decade?
Last time was probably REM, like, TLD made me do it. Then like Millville or something like that in the off season or something like that. And yeah, I'm probably not allowed to, either.
Okay, so yeah, back on the bike building towards the season and all that. You talked a little bit on the stage about trying to pick up from where you left off with the injury last year. How do you do that? Like how do you come in as ready as you were at that point in time now?
I think just take the bits that I did learn and, yeah, it is gonna be tough, for sure. But I've overcome a lot of little injuries, nagging ones and then also some bigger ones. So it's kind of been this roller coaster ride in my career. I've had really good years and also really bad ones and just gotta take what I can. I do feel like I still have the intensity and the ability to be up front. So that's the biggest thing is having that fire to do that. And if I can get those tools to all work together, there's no reason I shouldn't be up there.
Like you said, you've had quite a few big injuries in your career. So when you come off another one, like this is the experience of the old ones. Do you ever lean on that a little bit?
Yeah. I go back to when I broke my back in 2009. I was off the bike a year so I kind of go back to that mentality where I just wanted to ride a dirt bike. I still have that thing, even when I get hurt, my first thing is, all right, how fast can I come? Back. Like, can I make this race? Is this race in sight? You always have that goal, and that goal is happening right away. So I think that says how much I love the sport and there's no end in sight. I just love it too much.
Your program is still Aldon Baker and in Florida and all that. But, the start of the year, are you gonna do a California program? Because we're gonna be here for a month.
Yeah, we're all gonna be out here. We fly out New Year's Eve and bring in the whole family. We did that last the last two years, we get an Airbnb over by stadium and then stay almost six weeks. So once it kind of goes more East coast, we'll do that. I think that Detroit's kind of like in between there. But yeah, we'll do that, hang out here with the team and obviously probably be some testing and fine tuning until we get back to Florida. But here for this week and then back to Florida till then.
So you made it, I think, 11 rounds into the season. You got to do quite a few east coast rounds and west coast rounds last year. Did you feel that you found a good middle ground with the bike and the way that the chassis worked and everything on both kind of settings?
Yeah, I did. And, , we're in a total different spec now. It's pretty crazy how far this bike has come and the stuff that they've kind of given us. And to see all four of us on kind of a similar set up, it shows like how good it is now. I'm happy with it. It's crazy how much more comfortable I am at this time. Like last year, at this time, I was unsure of what to choose, what kind of clamps to choose, what shock linkage, there just so much. And I've gotten more comfortable with it and it's been a big, big help.
I didn't know if you're allowed to talk about the new spec much or anything.
I mean, I've heard people are saying new frame, but I've been on the same frame. Whenever I get offered to test something, I always try it and we'll see.
So expectations wise, where are you kind of basing that? When you got injured last year, is there a set framework that you've laid for yourself that you want to hit these check marks to start the season?
Yeah, I got a big white board in my room that I set goals on, and what it's gonna take to get those. One of them is, I want a lots of holeshots. I wanna put myself up front. That's probably the number one thing is if I can do that, then the rest of my goals are gonna click into place, . Another one is to make every race. And I think that's really hard to do right now with 31 races. I think only what two people did it or maybe even one, Freddie [Noren] actually did them all. One person made every single round. So pretty crazy. But that is a goal of mine and I did it in 2022. So there's no reason I can't and then obviously be up front and, and battle for top five.
Cool. I'm gonna throw you a curveball. Like a ChatGPT question. My wife came up with this, and we're doing this with everybody.
Okay.
So, what specific mental and physical preparations do you prioritize in the days leading up to A1? And how do you maintain focus and composure during the intense moments on the track?
So, leading up to A1, I would say the focus is staying healthy, eating well, getting in your motos. Those are the three big things, not missing riding days. Then on the track it would be, have a positive attitude, and always believe in yourself, which is probably the biggest thing actually. Believe in myself and then, yeah, just trust and know that I've been there. I know what it takes to win. So, why not do it again?
