Show #628 of the Pulp MX Show presented by Motosport.com, Decal Works, and Fly Racing went off this Monday night on the heels of round two of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship at Hangtown. Keefer Inc. Testing’s Kris Keefer was in studio, and he and Steve Matthes were joined on the phone by special guests: Thunder Valley’s David Clabaugh, Red Bull KTM’s Aaron Plessinger, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart, and Honda HRC Progressive team manager Lars Lindstrom. Phil Nicoletti also called in for his weekly check-in, fresh off his return to racing with the WLTN Kawasaki team. Keefer and Matthes also discussed Steve’s Road to Loretta’s and their weekend at the Fox Raceway Regional. (You can listen to the full episode below if you want to).
For the second year in a row, Red Bull KTM’s Aaron Plessinger had a Hangtown moto win snatched away in the closing stages of the race. Last year, he fell victim to his teammate Chase Sexton’s incredible charge from last to first, and this past weekend, it was “beast mode” from Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Eli Tomac who stole the win from AP with a lap and a half to go. Plessinger comfortably led for 30 minutes, and on the podium, he claimed he got mixed up with how many laps were left in the moto. On the show, he admitted he still had no idea what happened.
“I think I would have been fine if I didn’t try to sprint to get away from them. Eli got within a second of me, and I don’t know what made me think we only had two laps left. I’m still so confused at what made me think that,” he said.
The heat was one of the major topics of the weekend, but AP said it would be business as usual this week at Baker’s Factory.
“I’m decent; the only thing is my calves are sore. Other than that, I’m pretty good. I was pretty hydrated going in, so I didn’t have that much of a struggle, other than just being so dang hot. At the end of those motos, my feet were on fire. We’re riding tomorrow.”
He joked about having the sleeves cut off his jersey on the podium, saying, “I told them to cut the sleeves off, dude! I was so hot; I said, ‘Does anyone have scissors?’ Somebody around there did, and I was like can you please cut the sleeves off this thing?”
Plessinger also talked about his recent appearance on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, how cool of an experience it was, and how he was able to have Jr. sign his diecast car!
“I was so nervous, dude. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten like that with another person before. Just being around him was like, holy crap.”
Matthes ended the interview with a recent stat that MX Reference found: Aaron holds the record for most 450 MX races by a 250MX champion without a 450 moto win. He’ll look to change that this weekend in Colorado!
Malcolm Stewart shocked the industry with the announcement of his new gear deal with FXR. Nobody would have expected Mookie to leave his brother’s company, Seven, but it was FXR’s fishing line that lured Malcolm into the change. Malcolm talked about the switch with Steve and Kris.
“I was over here in Orlando. There was this big fishing convention called ICAST and they do it every year. I was there representing Abu Garcia, the Reel and Rod Company, you see me post on social media. FXR was in there, and I didn’t even know FXR made fishing stuff. Me and Roger Larsen looked at each other, and we’re like, hmm, this might strike something,” he explained. “The way things were with Seven, we weren’t really seeing eye to eye; they didn’t really want too much to do to with the fishing side of things. We were like, let’s just try to see if FXR even has any availability to have me as an athlete. It checked every box off. I mean, I already fish. I love fishing, and with me being on the moto side of things, it just worked out.”
Malcolm claims his brother James was cool with the decision and happy for the opportunity he had with FXR, but admits he was probably bummed from the Seven side of things. He talked about how this new deal will allow him to collaborate moto with his passion for fishing, as well as his opportunity to start his own fishing line within the company.
“I’m still trying to come out with my fishing company. That was a part of the whole process. I haven’t exactly nailed down the name, but that is part of the deal as well. It’s a sweet deal, dude. Milt is awesome, and the whole group is cool. I get butterflies. It has been so long since I switched a gear brand like that, and meeting different people and designers, it has been a very long time. It brings a lot of light, a lot of energy.”
Matthes asked Malcolm about being dragged into the recent Jett Lawrence drama, and how Jett had texted him to clear the air. Malcolm commented on the situation, saying, “He’s a great dude. He’s surrounded by some good people that I know are in his corner. We did have a discussion, and I didn’t take anything offensive. He said what he said, and we all make mistakes. I’m going to side with Jett on this. I don’t want to hurt the guy’s career; we need Jett in our sport.” He closed out the call talking about his plans for 2026 and how he hopes to have a deal done soon.
Nicoletti talked about his return to racing and the opening round of the Canadian Triple Crown Series. Phil announced his retirement from full-time AMA racing last year but signed with the WLTN Kawasaki team to race north of the border for the first time since 2020. Phil went 3-3 for third overall but was far off title favorites Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright.
“I wasn’t on Dylan and Jess’s level at all yesterday. Even if I was on point, I wouldn’t have been, especially on that track. I cannot ride a track like that,” Phil explained. “And then in the first moto, I go out for the parade lap, and I swear to [Expletive] God it rained over the track. I have never in my thirty-one years rode a track that was that [Expletive] rode a track that was that [Expletive] from water.”
Despite the gap to leaders, Phil was happy with his improvements for the second moto, a good points haul on the day, and a warm welcome from the fans.
“It was a cool feeling," he said. "It wasn’t a cool feeling getting my [Expletive] balls kicked in, but I had a lot of people come by the semi, which is awesome.”
Honda HRC Progressive’s Lars Lindstrom rounded out the guest lineup with almost an hour filled with insight on everything from testing, his experience at Loretta Lynn’s, and Jett Lawrence’s ACL recovery. There has been a lot of discussion throughout the year about the Lawrence brothers searching for bike setup on the new model Honda. Lars talked about the struggle and the process of getting the bike dialed in for the motocross season.
“The boys put in a huge day on Tuesday, trying everything. The first round of any series, I can see all the other guys coming off the track and behind the curtain, what they are talking about. It’s not like it is something that nobody else struggles with; maybe some guys just aren’t as transparent as we are,” Lindstrom stated. “It’s tough to test anywhere that is comparable to a racetrack. We can ride on the exact same track; in fact, we do; we ride Pala, but the prep job is not the same. They spend so much time and money to prep the track and make it deep, and then you get 80 riders out there just making it gnarly rough, and you just are not going to have that on a test day.”
It’s no secret that Jett Lawrence has been through a lot this season on and off the track. Jett let all his emotions out after his win at Fox Raceway, and Matthes asked him if he was surprised by that.
“I can’t imagine being such a young person and having to deal all the things these guys must deal with on and off the bike. I wasn’t surprised to see how much emotion he had. He’s been through a lot, especially with the knee. To be able to come back and perform at that level with all those things happening is super impressive. It’s good to see him have that emotion and see how much it means to him.”
Jett started a bit of a controversy at the opener when he was spotted on the gate with a security guard. Lars explained how the security came about and admitted that it didn’t play out as expected.
“It was funny; we thought. Then it turned out to be a fail. MX Sports brings security guards to every event, and they put these guards with the teams. Sometimes you get an old lady, and sometimes you get this guy who came in. He was serious about his job. He does security for a lot of rappers; that’s like his main thing. He called the riders artists. He was an intense dude,” Lars joked. “He took it over the top. Nobody knew, but all of the sudden he was on the line while they were doing practice starts, and he was standing by Jett holding his umbrella. It went over the top with some of the things, and we had to go in there a say, ‘Hey man, you’re doing a great job, but you need to bring it back just a notch.’ It was little bit of a bad look on us.”
Other tidbits from the show included a lengthy discussion on the bumpy start to Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jorge Prado’s first season in Pro Motocross. Expectations for Prado from fans and media were all over the place coming into the series, but there is no doubt his 7-6-12-5 scores are not what the two-time and defending MXGP champion is looking for. Matthes mentioned how he is searching with the bike, specifically in the engine department. Prado is known to love a fast bike, and currently, the Kawasaki motor is not where he wants it to be. Phil Nicoletti, (who may or may not have ridden a factory Kawasaki recently), chimed in on the topic saying, “You have a MXGP two-time defending world champ, wondering what’s going on. If he’s saying he needs more power, find the guy more power. I feel like if you’re factory Kawi, you should have this stuff already ready to go or sitting there. Or have many ideas that are a plug and play. I feel for Jorge because he is one of the best starters in the world, and now you are not up front, so what do you do?”
Listen to the Plessinger segment below.
Listen to the full episode #628 below.
