"The TT wasn't bad. We had tested a couple of weeks before, and had defined a few things that we needed to do to the bike to make it more competitive and I think we got it more competitive, we just have a little more to go on the KTM. We learn more and more about it every time we ride it, so we've got some ideas to make it better in the future, and we're going to start heading in that direction.

"As far as the race was concerned, we had a decent night. I won my scratch heat, and got a decent start in my heat race. On about lap six or seven, Brett Landes went by me, and he was absolutely flying. He looked to definitely be one of the guys to beat at the TT. Unfortunately for him, I guess he caught his brake lever on one of the hay bales going into the right-hander, and he went down with two laps to go. That handed me the heat race win and guaranteed me a front row start for the main event.

"The main event comes along, and I got off the line third or fourth, and I think I got passed by (Joe) Kopp on the first lap, and I didn't move a position from then on, the rest of the race. Those guys up front were going real good. (J.R.) Schnabel was jamming, and (Johnny) Murphree was going good. Kopp appeared to me to settle in, and I pretty much just settled in as well. The top four places didn't change hands at all for the rest of the race, so it was probably a little bit boring for the fans, but I know the heat races and semis leading up to that were pretty exciting. It was just one of those things where you had three guys up front that were going really good, and they were all going about the same speed, and nobody could make up any time on anybody. Positions were set, and we got ourselves another top-five finish and looked forward to the mile.

"Typical Springfield. I said this last year - probably the best Springfield Mile ever - until the next one. I was running the pace with the top guys most of the day. In the scratch heat, I was able to eek out a win over Bryan Bigelow - we had a good little battle going. In my heat race, I got to race with my buddy Johnny Murphree, and he got the better of me in that one.

"In the main event, I got a terrible start, and with the high crosswinds we were having all day long, it made drafting difficult, especially down the back straightaway where we were out in the open. I think there was more passing in the corners than there was in the straightaways, which is odd for there, it's usually the other way around. I struggled the first half of the race. I don't think I got any further up than sixth or seventh in the first half of the race. I was mired back in tenth-eleventh, right back in there and a couple of holes opened up and I got to the front. I took the lead going into turn one on the last lap for the first time in the entire race ,and I was out of position at that point. With the heavy winds down the back straight, I was a sitting duck for the draft, and I tried making a break and couldn't do it. Three guys went by me going into turn three, I came off turn four fourth and came up short at the line. If the finish line would have been in turn one, we'd have been good, it just wasn't there. It was a great race, pretty clean for the most part. There was a little bit of slide-jobbing going on because of the multiple lines going through the corners, everybody single-filed off the exits. Things got dicey a few times, but overall it was a pretty good event. We were just a bike length short at the finish line.