Insight: Deegan Delivers

Deegan did have a mistake in his heat race when he stalled trying to make a pass in the sand. He had to keep his composure, which is something his group has been trying to drill into him since a drama-filled event (that even resulted in a fine from the AMA) back in Birmingham.

“Yeah, I was devastated,” said Deegan of the heat race stall. “I was riding really good in the heat race and it's like I've been working on the whoops a lot. Like I went down to Clermont [Florida] and worked with one of my old teammates and we just worked whoops. And dude, I literally hit the whoops wide open, and it just felt so good. I was doing that in heat race and that's where I was catching the guys mainly. I just went for the lead on the inside where I passed Seth [Hammaker] a lap or two before and I think I hit my shifter or maybe my rear brake and it just stalled. I was like, ‘Dude!’ I was like, ‘God, there's no way I just did that. Dude! I'm so mad right now.’ But, obviously now I gotta, you know….tame the tempers. [Laughs] That's what we worked on. But yeah, I was frustrated.”

Being mired in the pack has led to some of Deegan’s problems this year. Overall, Haiden feels he’s improved quite a bit in supercross this year but hasn’t had a chance to show it.

“I think some of the main event starts has kind of held me back a little, obviously crashing as well, it will bite you,” he says. “But yeah, this is the best I've felt so far on supercross, and I really had more in the tank. I was riding at like 85/90 percent, just managing the race. And if Cameron did get closer, obviously, I could have picked it up quite a bit, but it's just that management you're talking about, being smooth. It definitely feels good to finally let it out and just go out and get a win.”

He’s improved, yes, and most of that is on him. The wrist injury probably left him behind on testing with a new-generation YZ250F, but he isn’t making much of an issue about the motorcycle.

“I've been a guy where I don't really intend on my bike set up to do good. I feel like I can just switch my mind on when it's race time and just deal with what I'm dealt with,” he says. “Like I can adapt to it, but obviously, bike set up when you have your bike right, it's a perfect 100 percent good race, but when you don't have the bike right, I'm pretty solid at just being able to adapt to the bike and make do of it. It honestly doesn't hinder me when my bike's not the greatest at the races sometimes with suspension. But right now, we have the bike super solid. As you guys can see it was, it was perfect tonight. Obviously, the Star Yamaha is the best bike and that's known, we just need our guys and me to go out there and show you guys that it's still the best bike.”

Now the sophomore supercross pro faces a 13-point deficit to McAdoo in the standings with three races to go, two of which are East/West Showdowns, which offer a huge chance to make up ground he lost early in the year with the ups and downs of his second season. If he’s going to do it, he’ll need more nights like this: a start, no mistakes, no drama. Can he make Foxborough a pattern? There’s a lot on the line over the next few weekends.