Mat Mladin (#7 Rockstar Makita Suzuki, winner):

Q Mat, you've had a lot of good wins here, but this one looked like you really dug down deep for this one and got the measure of the field. Talk a little bit about it, and how you and the bike felt.

A Obviously it's nice to get any win. Obviously with a lot of new stuff this year, and all the rest of it, it was nice to get one today for Suzuki and keep that Suzuki win streak alive. I don't know what it's up to now, but it's obviously getting up there. We look forward to getting to the next race. The boys get home, do a bit of work, and have a look at a few things, and see if we can't come out of Fontana and have a bit of a gap.

Q Good start for you. You got off, you were doing very well, and then you let the other guys get by you probably in the first third of the race. Were you saving your tires? Was that part of it? Tell us a little bit what was going through your mind at that point.

A I sort of tried to go at the start, but I just couldn't get down to the sort of lap times that I really thought I may be able to. Obviously the guys were close enough coming out of the chicane to be able to pull past. And then about half race, there wasn't really anything happening out there, so I just thought I'd try and get back to the front and push as hard as I could, and at least try and have a bit of a gap leading out of the chicane. I think that's what happened.

Neil Hodgson (#100 Corona Extra Honda, second place):

Q Neil, you were right there. You had a great run. It looked like it was very good fun for all of you guys out there. I think you got credited with leading a lap there on lap four or five. Talk a little bit about it. Did you think you had the bike to catch Mat?

A Yeah, I think today I did. Mat had no advantage at all, machinery-wise. He rode a really good race and didn't make any mistakes, and pulled it at the last five laps. But yeah. I'm pleased. Pleased with second. It was really close, obviously. It always is here. I was just thinking then on the way here, I passed Roger Hayden last year on the last lap there, and I beat him by the same amount, like nothing. So I'm sorry to the Hayden family for that. [Laughter] But obviously we're all racing. Like I said outside, Tommy would have beaten me clearly in that race. He'd got 20 bike lengths before we got into the chicane, and then he got held up and I gained it all back. But like Mat said, I'm looking forward to Fontana. Had a good test there. And enjoying my riding. Team's working well.

Tommy Hayden (#22 Rockstar Makita Suzuki, third place):

Q Tommy, it looked like when you started the last lap, you may have been able to make a run on Mat. Instead, you got held up by traffic and eventually had the photo finish there. Talk about your race in general. Do you think you could have, on a clear track, maybe made a shot for the win?

A I'm not sure. I think I might've had a chance. I had it closed down to within a bike or two, so with the draft I think maybe, maybe if I got through the chicane a little better, I could've made something happen. I'm not sure. But I didn't. It didn't work out. I felt like I was riding pretty good. My bike was definitely working very well. Considering where I came from, I think the result is all right, but Mat being a little wounded today, I felt like today was my chance to try to get a win, and it didn't work out. I tried hard and came up a little short.

Q Mat, a closer Superbike race than we've had in a while. On the surface, it looks like the new format, new rules, made it that way. Is that the case?

MLADIN: [Deadpan] That's what it was, Dave. [Pause] Absolutely. I think everyone tried, but Ben and I had a machine advantage and that's how we won so much. [Scattered laughter] We won the race. Does it matter if you win by a second or by ten seconds?

MODERATOR: That was the 73rd overall win in AMA Pro Nationals for Mat Mladin.

MLADIN: So I've probably proven myself by now.

Q Tommy, let's talk about your race with some guys we don't have here right now. Talk about who looked good out there when you were running in P4, P5.

HAYDEN: Well, I got through pretty quick up to Larry [Pegram] and Neil. They, we all kind of had our advantages and disadvantage, it seemed like a little bit. Overall, it felt like as the race went on, it was, looked like getting easier for me. I had, it seemed like, had a little better grip than them, so it seemed like it was playing into my hands a little bit. It seemed like they were fighting it a little bit for traction, more than I was. So overall, there was, I think, like I said, it was kind of a give and take, and everyone was riding well.

Q Tommy, you said something on the podium about the start procedure changing?

HAYDEN: Yeah. It's a completely new starting procedure. There's no boards. I guess we go when the light goes off. I didn't know. I specifically read the rulebook last night, because there was stuff yesterday in the riders' meeting, and stuff that I wasn't aware of. And I thought I'd already read it once, and somehow I keep skipping the starting part, I guess, because I can't, I didn't know what we were supposed to do. I guess I really don't know. I mean, I was tenth, I think, in Turn One. So that's something I have to figure out. My fault.

Q Forgive me. I'm not up to speed on why you're wounded. You look like you're really exhausted at the end of the race, Mat. Could you go into what Mr. Pegram referred to earlier as being "wounded?" You really looked very tired at the end of the race. Did you put out everything you had?

MLADIN: Yeah, no, we - listen, we've got a couple issues, but other than that, as I said, we won the race, and that's all that matters.

Q What was it on the start line with the Pegram bike?

MLADIN: All of a sudden people have got generators on the start line of a race, powering tire warmers. It's just I've never seen that before, and it's not part of the rules. So I said something.

Q Beyond tire warmers, how does the Ducati look to you guys? Does it look like they have a bike that'll be competitive at all the races?

MLADIN: Seems that way. Looks like it's pretty speedy.