Things looked good for another win once the early race mishaps and red flags were complete, with Carr right up front, running a solid second and chipping away at Kevin Atherton's lead until a brake problem slowed him and allowed young chargers Kenny Coolbeth and Shaun Russell to storm by as Chris watched helplessly and tried to maintain the best lap times he could.
Fourth place with no brakes is probably a lot harder to do than it might seem. Carr kept his corner speed high and held off the rest of the field. Second place points man Johnny Murphree struggled all night and failed to qualify along with his rival Bryan Bigelow, so Carr's points lead grew larger, now a massive 54 clicks.
It is possible for Chris to clinch his fourth AMA title this weekend in Tunica, MS even if Murphree or Bigelow wins the race. Only two other men in the history of the Championship have won more than three since that title designation began in 1954, and they're living legends: Carroll Resweber (4) and Scott Parker (9). Chris looks set to join the pair in the record books very soon.
"I was kind of conserving my tire a little bit. We had a bunch of red flags, a couple of guys going down and getting hurt - some guys that were really going fast last night. In the end, Kevin was leading, and I was chasing him in second, and we got to lap seventeen and I had narrowed the gap down and my tire had come in like I wanted it to, and I had saved the best for last.
"In the middle of my charge, we lost the brakes - we had a brake arm holder break on us - and we kind of had to soldier around the last three laps and finish fourth. It's unfortunate. We thought we had something for Kevin - he looked to be struggling really bad the last two laps, and we felt like we were in position to take advantage of that. We just didn't get a chance to prove it.
"It was a good finish for us as far as the points were concerned, but it was a tough night. It was one of those night where I think a lot of people - those that didn't hit the ground were relieved that it was all over. We certainly had a lot of crashes, and we didn't want to see that."