The American Honda team had a terrible Superbike weekend at PPIR. Rider Nicky Hayden literally wore all the rubber off of his (rear) race tire, finishing the race on the carcass. He wore the Dunlop out by riding his machine and past the limits for 48 laps. It was very clear that Hayden was steering the big RC51 with the rear of the bike simply because he had to.
Hayden stated after the race: "I was pushing so hard, struggling and struggling. Hopefully we're going to get right back up and fight for it. I am definitely bummed out. We've done a lot of hard work and spent a lot of time, only to get a problem this late in the season."

This may very well have been the weekend that sealed Hayden's and Honda's fate, championship-wise.

"The rubber was all gone," Dunlop tire engineer and former racer Jim Allen said about Hayden the younger's tire "As long as I have been on the job I've never seen it. It was like (what happens at) Springfield or some dirt track somewhere. It's no secret Honda been spinning it up all weekend, there's no grip if there's no rubber."

Is it a problem with the tire, or a problem with the RC51 at short tracks? Allen states, "Nicky and Mat (Mladin) had the same tire."

Brainerd winner and former Superbike champion Miguel DuHamel pulled off course right before being lapped.

A very tired Miguel DuHamel said after the race, "I had zero grip and I kept going backwards. Nicky kept going because there was a reason, but I was fourteenth at the time. I knew it was going to be a struggle, but I didn't think it would have been this bad."

DuHamel's mood suggested that he had been wrestling a Grizzly bear in a phone booth, and still had no answers.