What can I say, it has been a great week. I have to admit that for a two-time Daytona winner and four-time Champion, nobody gave us much of a chance.

We came in under the radar all week and put together a great planned race, even though Dave Sadowski said on Speed's telecast that it was impossible to win with three pit stops.

In case they hadn't noticed, it was the quickest Daytona ever, even with three pit stops. I take it as an insult to my guys, Suzuki and Yoshimura when he said that we "got lucky".

I tell you, for a guy who has won the 200 he really is off the pace when it comes to what is happening on the track. Even when Eric and myself had made two stops compared to the other guys one and we were in front on the race track, he still couldn't figure out that we were in the box seat, pretty funny. It's a shame that guys calling the race have their personal favorites for the race as it seems to cloud their judgment and commentary skills all the way to the last lap.

Whilst on the subject of race callers, I have to speak of my disappointment in Mr. Dave Despain. For some reason whenever he has anything to say about me, he refers to my attitude in a bad way. Now, I am the first to admit I'm not always the most approachable person at the racetrack, but I have a job to do whilst I am there, not hang out with the other riders and so on. I take my job very seriously and live racing. If being a person who works hard, trains hard and just lives and works for his family is a bad thing, then I feel sorry for you and your morals Mr Despain. I was not emotional about winning Daytona, as I have said many times before, it is the first of eighteen races. I had other reasons for my emotions and with your attitude you could not possibly understand.

We put together a good qualifying lap to get onto the front row. Eric's time was too good for us this year as he uncorked a flyer. The two days of practice and qualifying helped me gain some trust back in the tires. I took things reasonably easy for those days just waiting to see what was to unfold.

It was very clear in my mind on Thursday afternoon that Dunlop weren't just talking about doing their homework, like I used to do in my school days, they had been working hard and got it right for this year's race. It was a steady race at the start and everybody was just going through the motions. I'm not sure what lap it was, but I was right behind the leaders when Aaron put a big braking move on me going into the chicane. I didn't see the point, I guess he wanted to be in front. Subsequently, he was going too fast and ran off the track.

The problem then was I had lost the draft of the lead pack and to catch them would of really tore up my stuff. I decided to just sit back until it was time to pit. I saw Eric fly in on lap 15 and I was in a lap later. It was at that point that I knew the three stop strategy could work. You see, the lap I came into the pits the pace had started to slow down, very consistent to last year. I then knew that for at least ten of their laps I could be up to three seconds quicker per lap. It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that with a time advantage in the vicinity of 30 seconds and a pit stop lap costing you about 20 that this could be done. With the math done, my attention turned to going fast for the rest of the race. My pit stop sequence was 16 - 14 - 14 - 13.

First I had to pull back Eric who had about five seconds on us before the first stop. My guys gave me two of them in the pits and the other three we managed over the next stint on the track. After another great pit stop from my guys we entered the track for stint number three only five seconds down on the Honda boys. With fresh tires and only one more stop to make we were in the box seat along with Eric. We easily ran them down and took the lead. Eric didn't last much longer as everybody saw on TV. He was having a great race, but it goes to show that it takes more than a fast rider to win Daytona.

We pulled in for stop number three and this was our quickest of the race. Wheels stop to wheels go was ten seconds. If you do ten second stops you are making up time. I entered the track right behind Aaron and got past him pretty easily as he had been out there for about eight laps already, his tire was spinning and I was on a new set with 13 to run. I got +.5, +1.5, +2.5 them I got +6.5 I figured something happened to Aaron.

I've heard people say you have to dig deep and push hard to be in it at the end of the race. This certainly is something that works at other tracks but at Daytona the harder you push the more stuff you wear out. I had to be consistent to the end and they really couldn't catch me especially on older tires. With 8 to go I looked across the track exiting the west horseshoe and saw Jake fairly sideways. Over the next few laps it looked the same so my last few laps were pretty comfortable. It was a nice win and we'll take it and move on. My guys get the biggest thanks, Reg, Pete, Johnny, Henry, Manny, our big man Hansie and Rad was perfect on the signal board. It is certainly not possible without the best motorcycle and the Suzuki GSXR 1000 performed faultlessly all week. Nabe, Don and everbody from Yoshimura, your passion for winning and support keep it all together. Thank you.

On the cool down lap I was very emotional, more so than ever before. I had a friend riding with me, one who I asked for her strength throughout the race and she was with me for every second.