I asked him on the PulpMX Show why he didn’t say anything to anyone or let one of his guys on his team whisper it to the media and he said that he didn’t want to make excuses. I mean, it’s Eli Tomac. He’s one of the gnarliest racers out there and it’s perfectly understandable that an injury had been preventing him from riding to his potential.

Look, I’m not asking for any sympathy cards here, but sometimes it’s hard to be media in this sport. Eli’s free to not divulge his medical condition, of course, but a simple, "He’s got a bum ankle," would’ve solved a lot of things for his fans and followers of the sport. So now, with a week off to get his ankle back even better, it’ll be interesting to see if he can put together much more “Eli Tomac” results.

Watch the full segment with Tomac from Monday Night's PulpMX Show below.

We all saw the Jett Lawrence/Justin Barcia incident, and Jett’s weighed in that it was a racing incident, Barcia apologized after the race in the Honda truck and then again on social media, and we’re all going to move on, but man, what a hit. Barcia, most likely protecting the inside from a Friese retaliation, cut inside of a 180-degree turn and nailed the Honda HRC rider in what was a car-crash-type of collision. Jett’s lucky he got away injury free. Jett definitely cut down in that turn, and Barcia wasn’t thinking about that. This was without a doubt more on Barcia than Jett, anyone who says it’s not isn’t looking at it with a clear mind. I said on Twitter it was 85 percent/15 percent, with Barcia at fault blame-pie, but I’d accept anything at 80 percent or over. Should Bam get penalized or anything? No, I don’t think so, but it wasn’t a great look for Barcia.

His team manager, Olly Stone, told me after the race that Barcia told him he thought about pulling off after the hit he felt so bad. None of that meant much to Lars Lindstrom from Honda, who refused an interview with me after the race because he might’ve said the wrong thing and was not stoked with the whole thing, including the apology from Barcia.

I wrote this last week, “Bam Bam is happier with his bike, which is a good thing, he’s now got to work on getting some of his old spice back. I mean, we haven’t had one damn Barcia controversy out on the track and it’s already round 12!” but this is not what I had in mind! Lost in this is, it was Barcia’s best result of the year outside of the mud race in San Diego—he was in line for a top five and finished sixth overall. Despite this “incident,” we should remember that Barcia’s been getting a bit better here lately.

As far as Jett is concerned, a bad start in race one led to him working through the pack to get second. The next one he was stalked by Tomac but pulled away by the end for the win. He was absolutely crushing the whoops and that was a big difference for him to get the W. That set up ET with a 1-2 and Jett with a 2-1 for third whole enchilada, or so we thought.

Vince Friese (him again) was off to the side of the finish with a broken bike, the red cross flag was out on the finish and Jett jumped with the flag displayed. So did Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb, Jason Anderson (twice!), and Aaron Plessinger. They were all docked two positions (except Anderson, who was docked four positions), so Jett needed some help to get the overall on the night. 

I get it, the flag was out and the penalty that we’ve seen many times is two positions in the Triple Crown format. But when you have five riders jumping it, maybe it wasn’t really working? Yes, you could say the other riders did see, it but the pitch of the finish line jump is steep, it was all rutted, and you could make a very good case that the referee was in error for displaying it. Friese was off to the side of the track right away and was in no danger of getting landed on. I didn’t like the penalty. In my opinion, the AMA should’ve looked at the footage and admitted that the flag was out in error and there should’ve been no penalties. I’m not sure anyone at the AMA looked at that factor. When was the last time anyone at the AMA admitted they got it wrong? In this case, I think they did indeed get it wrong.

I know people were saying the official wasn’t waving it and that would’ve helped, but in the Ryan Dungey red cross incident in Detroit years ago, when he lost the win a few years ago, it was waving, and it was too hard to tell what flag it was so the decision was made to display it still instead of waving it. At least this is what I was told. [Editor's note, in the regular format, riders are now penalized championship points, not position. However, in the Triple Crown format, jumping on a red cross flag results in a two-position penalty for each infraction].

I feel for the guys who had to navigate the inside of the turn, look up at a line to take, and also notice this flag sort of just hanging there. Maybe we can make the red cross flag bigger? That seems pretty easy. Why are the flags the same size as they were in 1978? Make the red cross bigger and it’ll catch the eyes of the riders easier. Bingo bango.

With the penalty to Jett and the T-bone to Jett, Yamaha’s Cooper Webb, who got better each time out, finished second overall. He got a gift for second in the final TC when Justin Hill wouldn’t get out of the way of Chase Sexton and Webb scooped by the #1 for a runner-up spot, and hey, look at that, Webb’s now only eight points back instead of the 16 he was down. This is the very definition of what you can’t let Webb do.

I would bet even Webb himself would admit the #18 has been faster than him this year but Chase Sexton was faster than Eli Tomac last year and look how many points down he was before the Tomac injury. Speed doesn’t matter sometimes and so here we are. Webb’s right there now.

Levi Kitchen looks so good right now. The Chef swept the TC in dominating fashion. He was simply on another level out there. Want to see a dude who can seemingly put the bike anywhere he wants to at any time? Watch Kitch the last two races. He’s on fire right now with a 15-point lead in the series and the next race is an East/West Showdown, which is going to be awesome to watch.

We had Kitchen on the PulpMX Show and asked him what’s enabled him to take his riding to a new level the last couple of races, as to where before it felt like he was basically the same as Jordon Smith and RJ Hampshire. He mentioned he’d had some talks with some people around him about grabbing this title and he’s got some new confidence from his riding lately. Whatever it is, it’s working. Lost in this is the performance of the Pro Circuit Kawasakis. Levi’s not a small dude and he pulled three clear holeshots without getting an amazing jump. About 20 feet out of the gate, his bike really pulled away from the other riders.

Jo Shimoda’s riding better now late in the series. Better starts and fewer mistakes led to a second overall, and he helped out Kitchen in the series. Odd that Jo’s coming on late here, huh?

RJ Hampshire didn’t get the starts he needed to challenge Kitchen but honestly, I’m not sure even if he had he would’ve been able to run with the #47. I mean, it’s RJ—he would’ve tried, but on this night, he had to do everything in his power to just get a fourth. Sounds like he’s going 450 next year by the way, although it wouldn’t be the first time a longtime 250 rider told everyone and anyone they’re out of the class, only to magically stay in another year.

Thanks to MX Reference of PulpMX.com fame, I got some SX season stats for you people. These are including the Triple Crown races, which is something the AMA can’t seem to do:

• Jett Lawrence has the most wins (5), most podiums (7) and has led 44 percent of the laps this season. Breaking news: he’s good.
• Ken Roczen’s led the second-most laps in the class at 49, which is 15 percent of the laps.
• Only two riders have podiums outside of the big seven (Jett, Webb, Sexton, Tomac, Anderson, Plessinger, and Roczen) and that’s Barcia and Hunter Lawrence.
• Cooper Webb has three wins but has only led 13 laps, which is four percent of the total. He’s tied for sixth in percentage of laps led with Jason Anderson. Breaking news: he doesn’t care.
• The highest rider in the points with the worst qualifying postion is Kyle Chisholm, who averages 22^nd in qualifying but is 18^th in the points. This matches the eye test, BTW.
• Jett’s average qualifying position (2.42) is one whole position better (Sexton is 3.5) than the next guy, which is kind of rare.
• Levi Kitchen has led 46 percent of the laps, next closest is Hampshire at 28 percent. This also checks out.
• Hunter Yoder’s average qualifying position is 20^th and he’s 12^th in the points. Weird.

Some other news and notes:

Hunter Lawrence, with some help from penalties to the top five guys (!!) finished third overall for his first 450SX podium. This comes on the heels of his heat race win in Seattle, so despite a shoulder injury, things are looking up for the #96. He was also leading the first TC when he lost his front end, so regardless of the help, he’s riding better!

Congrats to Kyle Chisholm on his 200^th main event this past weekend in St. Louis. It’s funny, at one time Chiz was a hot Team Green prospect, he won a Canadian MX championship, and I guess people could say he never met his potential as a pro. He’s only got a few top fives in his career, but then again, he’s raced forever, he’s got 200 main events, he’s made a lot of money in his career, and he’s got the respect of everyone in the pits. To me, he’s “made it,” you know? Championships be dammed, it’s been a nice career for Chiz and it seems like he’s not going to stop anytime soon, either.

Mitchell Oldenburg had an eventful night with an almost holeshot in the first race, then he attempted a triple in the first rhythm lane he hadn’t done all day. That didn’t go well, and he caused a massive pileup in the second turn. Oops! Also in the second one, Malcolm Stewart hit him and dragged him off his bike, which he apologized later for. Rough night for Freckle.

Ken Roczen had a rough night. For whatever reason he’s the top rider with the most variance (in a negative way) in his results with the TC format, despite him sweeping it one time. Well, in the Oldenburg crash he broke his radiator pipe and had to salvage the bike. He jumped on his backup bike for the second race but hated it, the brakes didn’t work right away, and it felt super weird so he literally trail-rode around for three laps before blitzing his way past eight guys to get 13^th. In the last one he got a fifth. What a night for the German.