Ben Spies, Suzuki, Winner

Q. What did you think you'd be able to do?

A. For one, I'll say that how I look walking definitely my riding's not as bad. It's just that I bruised my quad so bad that I just can't put a certain kind of weight on it. It looks like I'm really limping, like I broke something, but it's not that bad. I'm just definitely, I'm sore, but yeah, it looks like I need a wheelchair. So I'll just say that so that it doesn't look so bad.

Other than that, the first start took off and got a pretty good holeshot and got like a second out and then they threw the red flag and I saw that Miguel was catching me before that. And I knew that obviously still had. I was feeling it out and wasn't going all out. So I knew for the second start it was probably, I knew I was going to be up front and probably, maybe Miguel if he got up there, but we had some time. Mat got the holeshot and I followed him and got around him I think on the first lap around the outside in the Carousel and just tried to you know just put some decent laps together. And I was concerned with the track. Obviously, now I know it didn't dry that fast, but it was drying pretty considerably and I was all the way over on each straightaway trying to find water. You know we had a pretty bad deal a couple of years ago, so I knew what would happen. Just put some laps together, got the gap as big as I could. It was around 15-16 seconds and just put it on cruise control. Then I saw, didn't know it was Jamie at the time, but I saw somebody getting a second. And then my gap came down one second because I wasn't ready for it obviously. Then I put a couple laps together and got the gap back to where it was and a little more. The team kept telling me to slow down, and I was like, I see y'all and I'm slowing down, but I just want to get a gap.

It was really good. We usually don't do many changes to the bike before the race with the wet race, but we made a couple clicks difference and the bike was really good. We just had a nice easy race. It's important to be out front in a rain race riding your own race and not seeing spray off of people and not trying to run and chase and make mistakes, just do what you can do. Lucky enough we got out front and did it today.

Q. Where you upset when red flag came out after first start?

A. The only difference for me with the red flag is Mat was around sixth or seventh and there was some people in front of him. But you know, he rode really good and he hasn't had the best rain races in the past. He rode good today and that's the only difference. But after seeing him, I probably would have passed him. It didn't hurt him that a lot of people crashed in the race. You never know who would have been up there or what not. I might not even won the race, but that's what happens, you got to finish. No real difference. We were on the top two on the first lap in both starts.

Q. You got the championship lead back. Did it on wet track. Going into Utah, how feel about where you are in the championship?

A. Honestly, Mat stepped the game up from last year and everybody's seen it. I've been riding hard, hard the whole year and just trying not to make many mistakes and you know do that. We've made some mistakes in practices with a couple of things. But you know, now it's good that I have a couple weeks off to heal from this and do a little bit of training. Go to Miller and it's about halfway in the season and it's time to put it out there. We're going to have to win races to win the championship and we see that. We just got to take it to another level and not ride so conservatively.

Q. Are you going to be hoping for rain in coming rounds?

A. No, because they always say rain is the equalizer and obviously it's not. Maybe it is for bikes, but not for riders. I mean it showed for bikes. Jamie, obviously is an awesome rider and struggles on that thing in the dry and then in the rain he's going fast. It definitely does that on the bike side, but on the rider side some people can ride in the rain and some people can't. No, I don't really want any more rain races and I don't think we really race at any other tracks that race in the rain except for one. So, we know what we got to do and we can do it. it's just if we can do it the rest of the season without making any mistakes. And it's going to be a really good championship and hopefully we can win it. but if not, we're just going to give 100% everywhere and see what happens.

Q. What happened in crash yesterday?

A. I won't go into detail too much, but on Friday the crash, I couldn't do anything about it. There was just nothing I could do. It was just a small tipover. But the one yesterday was one of the biggest highsides I've ever had and it was completely my fault. We were racing ten minutes later and doing those two warm-up laps and the first lap I saw a wet patch out of turn three and I was like, OK, I can't run over that obviously. And every lap I was pulling on the inside of it, on the gas, going hard. And then I got the checkered flag and the track was changing so much. I was still trying to get back into a dry track rhythm that I was still on the gas going through one and three, but I was also thinking maybe I can run a softer rear tire because the track's not so good and it's not hot. And I was just thinking of a couple other options I wanted to change with the bike and some mapping stuff. And you know before I knew it I was coming out of three doing my normal line and right when I hit the patch I knew it was done. Cost a bunch of money and my team a whole night's working. That was not a simple mistake but a big mistake on my part that shouldn't have happened. But at least I knew going into the race it was because of that, it wasn't because I just sat there and high-sided because I couldn't ride or anything. So just got on the bike and really suffered through that race, but you know we got it done and got second.