Jett: "I tried taking some of his lines and he still gapped me out."

“Yeah, little cheeky bug,” said Jett of that second-moto start. “He got one back on me today. But it's really cool. Obviously having brothers going back and forth wins is really sick, you know, and we're looking into this kind of off weekend. Do some testing, relax a little bit, then come back to Redbud.”

As one would imagine, Jett is far from nervous about the situation, but it’s clear there’s more of a fight coming from Hunter than there appeared to be after Thunder Valley. And what’s the latest on Jett’s foot? There’s been a keen watch on his recovery since he came back to the track a month ago.

“I didn't really have any pain,” said Jett about High Point. “It was more just like the riding ability, you know? Like I can't use it that much (in sections) where I would love to be like using both of my legs, where today I had to be a lot more on my arms which made it a little bit difficult. But it's still getting better and better. My movement's getting better. It's still sore when I'm walking around, stuff like that. But it's trending in the right direction for sure.”

The questions about the injury kept coming in the post-race presser.

“I'm trying to obviously look after it and not dab it,” he explained. “My biggest thing is I kind of ride a little bit duck footed with my right foot. So trying to balance it with getting it in sometimes so the ruts don't grab it and yank it. So it's just a bit of balance of trying to be smooth and try and work with the track as well. Obviously today I wasn't as good. I couldn't compensate as normal but it was still good enough to go 2-2.”

Third overall was Haiden Deegan, who hasn’t been able to get the best of the Lawrence brothers yet but is doing all he can to get there. That includes attempts to get under Jett’s skin and engage in his usual trash-talking game. Jett has done very little to engage so far, but he did refer to Deegan as “what’s his name” in the press conference last weekend. Then came High Point practice, where Deegan held the fastest lap time in the first timed session and then slowed Lawrence up and roosted him. Lawrence couldn’t hold back any longer and returned favor with some roosting of his own.

“Uh yeah, my tire was full of mud, so I just wanted to clean it out,” said Jett. “Normally it works better with no mud in between the grooves. So I just wanted to clean it out real quick.”

When the session ended the two started jawing at each other before heading back to the pits. Things got testier in the next session when Lawrence crashed and Deegan yelled something as he rode by. Lawrence flipped Deegan off, which earned him a fine from the AMA.

“I don't know, dude. I just went by him,” Deegan said. “I asked if he was okay and I get flipped off, you know?”

Then Deegan laughed and made it clear he was joking.

“I'm sure if they knew what I said, I'd probably get fined!" laughed Deegan. "It was good. I love banter. Gets me fired up. I mean, you guys can see that, I was going for it today. Gives me something to chase. And obviously Jett’s the guy. I don't know how much longer he can use the ankle excuse. Like, bro, he's gone 1-1 the last two weekends and I feel like it's kind of honestly a thing he can fall back on now. So, I think he's good to go. Honestly, he's riding good. Hunter's riding good and I think it's just a matter of time before I can run with those guys.”

So the trash talk attempts from Deegan will continue, and Jett Lawrence will continue to try to ignore them. If he can. That leaves a couple of things to think about as the series heads into its first off-weekend of the season.