Josh Hayes (#1 Erion Honda, winner):

Q Josh, tell us a little about some of the better parts of the race.

A The race actually, for us, I think the biggest thing is it went exactly to plan. Our pit stops were good. I ran the pace that we knew we'd be able to run, and we were hoping that that would put pressure on everybody else. Jake and I were working together really well early on in the race. At some point, I think with a little bit of help from some traffic, I got a small gap. I remember seeing +2 on my board, and I said "Man, this is where I've got to start trying to drive the nail in," and I just started putting the best laps I could together and trying to get a small gap and work it out and work it out. It kept stretching a little bit. And then of course it gets a little confusing around pit stop time, but I knew I did a really fast in lap. I was in, my crew got my pit stop done very, very clean, and my out lap was really fast also. From a standstill, I felt like I put a really decent out lap in, and was back up to speed immediately. It took a little while for things to sort out for a couple laps, and then everything kind of settled out for a while, and I was able to just do that again later in the race. A couple of exciting moments, I guess, in there with some traffic. I think I went off the track twice. I can't really blame too much of anybody except myself. I put myself in a couple of bad spots, but I knew I had a little time that I could work with, so it was okay to stand it up, run a little wide, and get back going again. Like I said, I had the race that my team planned to have. Everything went to plan. We showed up with a good motorcycle that ran the whole race. My Dunlops were amazing. At one point, I had about a +4 or 5 second gap, I'm not sure who it was - I think maybe Neil was pretty close behind me - and I was working my way through traffic, and then all of a sudden the gap got pretty big. It was probably my 23rd lap on the tire, and when he pulled in, I said, "Well, if I'm going to do it, I need to do it now, whether I'm on the old tires or not." I kind of wanted to see what kind of pace I could run, and I put down a couple of good low :40s, and I said "I want to make sure I drive the nail in the coffin on this one." Then I did a pit stop and came out with some fresh rubber, and that gave me a little breathing room, and it was just a good race. Arai has been with me for a long time. My helmet was perfect. My vision was good the whole race, and there was a lot of trash flying around out there, but I felt pretty good. Teknic's done a great job on my suits. I've got some new boots this year with TCX. Our equipment is great. I was really comfortable out there. It was just a perfect day, and everything went like it was supposed to.

Chaz Davies (#57 Attack Kawasaki, second place):

Q Chaz, there seemed to be a lot of wind out there. How did you deal with that?

A Actually, it wasn't too bad. Like Josh said, there was a lot of trash flying around. Especially coming into One, actually. One time I had a little of a slip into One with the front, and I thought that was trash. But the wind generally, it wasn't too bad. It affected us, but you do 69 laps, you soon adjust to it.

Q What were some of the highlights of the race for you?

A The first stint, if you like, wasn't very good at all. We had something wrong with the rear of the bike. I was getting a lot of vibration. I dropped off and dropped off, and was really just trying to nurse things around the banking. I was just fearing the worst. It was getting worse and worse every lap. That's when I came in. I saw Steve came in, and then I was like, "I've got to go in the next lap," because I was hanging out and hanging out. I thought, "I can't stop too early, otherwise it's just not going to work out with the fuel stops." So I stopped the lap after Steve did, and then luckily, for our next one out, everything was fine. The bike was running as it felt in practice, and it felt immaculate. And then only did I really start feeling comfortable. And after that, I just sort of put my head down. I could see Steve in front, and then I could see Neil just in front of him. Josh was gone by that point. And then, I saw myself up in fourth, and I was right there on the edge of a podium. I just sort of kept my head down. I also had a couple of dicey moments with traffic, and ran off the track a couple of times, I think once or twice in the chicane. That's pretty scary, because you know how much it rained last night. I was just as upright as you can be. I think if you measured it, I probably would be exactly 90°. That was pretty scary. So anyway, we got through that, and just tried to keep it clean. The last 15 laps, I started to worry about my pit board a little bit. I wasn't sure if it was showing 2.2 or 22 seconds, so I just kept going and going until I was really confident, because I don't like looking behind, neither.

Steve Rapp (#15 Attack Kawasaki, third place):

Q Steve, you won last time but you came in third here today. What was the difference?

A Well, to win this race, everything has to go right, and last year went perfect for us. It seemed like there was no other bikes on the track. It seemed like my tires were working perfect. It was just, that's what it takes to win, and this weekend we didn't have it. I made a lot of mistakes myself, and I put the crew behind a little bit. In the morning I crashed, and that didn't help at all. It just was one of those races where I didn't get the traffic breaks really good, and everyone else was riding really good. You have to ride perfect, and you have to get the good breaks in traffic, and you have to get really good pit stops. We had half of it, and just not all of it. But I felt like I was riding pretty good. At one point I came into the pits, I think for my second stop, and Chaz was actually in the pits already. So I went back out and had to do another lap, and then I came back in again. So it's just, when you have things like that happen, you're definitely not going to win. At that point you're just hoping for a podium. I was watching my pit board and it was reading fifth. And Jake passed me, Zemke, but my position didn't change ever, so I couldn't figure out what was going on. And then I passed Miguel and it still didn't change, and I was just confused by it, because I thought those would be the guys that would be in the top three, at least. So I was really kind of confused at that point, kind of like, "Why isn't it changing, and just staying fourth, fourth, fourth?" And then late in the race, it went to P3, and I think it was maybe like eight laps to go at that point, and a big gap, and at that point I just kind of put it on cruise control and just made sure we got at least on the podium, because I knew after having such a great race last year, that we had no place to go but down, and I at least wanted to get on the podium. So it was good. I have a lot of new sponsors. Dainese Leathers, they're back into AMA again. I'm still with AGV and it's really good for them. They've been two times on the Daytona podium. And Sidi boots. It was a good race for us. I'm happy to be here, happy for Kawasaki and Richard. Basically we came here with a whole new crew. We had probably nine new guys on the team that weren't here last year, and this is really their first AMA race ever. So you've got to be pretty happy with that. They had to go through a lot of stuff to get here, so I'm proud of them.

Q Josh, yesterday when they announced the acquisition, they said this would be the last time for Formula Xtreme in the 200. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to win this race in the last year of this format?

HAYES: For sure. I was lucky I won the last 750 Superstock championship before the class went away. That's kind of neat. I think that there was a lot of people that have been very critical of the Daytona 200 ever being Formula Xtreme. Everybody expects it to be the Superbikes. But I think that in the Formula Xtreme format, it proved to have some great racing. And for sure, we would have loved to have had all those top-seeded Superbike guys here. We had a few of them, we just didn't have all of them. It's great for me, after winning the championship two years in a row, to finally be able to get this win. This was my last chance to get it. That's great. Hopefully - hopefully - we'll all be on Superbikes next year and get to do it again.

Q Chaz, can you identify anything that you learned last year that you applied today?

DAVIES: Yeah, definitely. Getting out of the pits a little quicker. Finding a braking marker in practice to enter the pits. So basically them two things was what I worked on this year, getting out of the pits. I watched the video last year, and I was a little bit lax coming out of the pits, but this year I think I picked it up, and was definitely better in that area. Asides from that, just making - try and make - as sensible and as clean moves as you can on traffic, and try not to get too flustered by it. That's about it.

Q Josh, Neil seemed to think that had his ride not died with five laps to go, he probably could've caught you. Is that wishful thinking on his part, in your opinion?

HAYES: I was watching my pit board, and I was riding pretty comfortably. The gap wasn't really coming down unless I made mistakes. I'm pretty confident in what I was able to do, and I knew that when the tires were bad, that I could still go really fast. My Erion crew, I have a lot of experience with these motorcycles. I think all of us motorcycle racers are pretty confident guys, and if I were in his position, I probably would say the same thing.

Q Josh, you're starting to rack up the championships. You've got three AMA championships, and now you've got the Daytona 200. How does this rate among all the wins you've had? You've really started to gain momentum in becoming a dominant rider in the class.

HAYES: This is huge. It seems like I don't always necessarily start the seasons off so strong, and it feels good. Last year I thought I came here with the package that I needed to win, and it got taken - the opportunity to win got taken from us with the fuel problems. Steve rode a great race, and I wish I would've been there to make him work for it at the end. But yeah. This is huge. This is a great way to start the season. Unfortunately, I kind of wish Neil had gotten another Honda between me and these guys to give me a little room going into the next round. But I'm starting off better than I did last year, and I was able to win the championship. I know I have some really stiff competition this year, so it's good to get it kicked off this way. I'm going to do my very best to keep it that way. On the racetrack, I still believe I have the best motorcycle out there. The only bike that was able to pass me on the straightaway that I saw was a Honda, today. So I was pretty fortunate in that. The bike's just working really good. Hopefully I'm going to make these boys work all year.