"As far as the races were concerned, there were basically two guys better than I was. In the heat race, (Jay) Springsteen had gotten out early and he had set sail early on. We had a red flag and it allowed me the opportunity to kind of regroup a little bit, and I got a good start, and, combined with him (Springsteen) missing a couple of shifts going into turn one on the single-file restart...we would have had our hands full.

"We ended up getting the job done, and it ended up unfortunately for Jay, because I don't think I would have had anything for him in the heat race. We caught a break, ended up winning our heat race, and sat on the front row for the main event. The track had shaped up pretty good, real smooth on the bottom, yet it was a bit hard and real deep up high, however the track was a bit on the dry side, so traction was at a minimum.

"I got a great start, I was out front, led the first four or five laps until I pitched it away between three and four, and when that happened, Geo Roeder got by me and Joe Kopp got by me, and those guys kind of split while I checked my shorts for a couple of laps (laughs.) Those guys were gone, and I ended up having a great duel with Kenny Coolbeth. He and I swapped third place - probably twenty times - most of the passes would come in turns three and four. He'd get me going in, I'd get him coming out - a classic case of high/low in three and four. It was a great battle. It seemed like we swapped positions numerous times on numerous laps, and it was a lot of fun riding with him. It was a cool, clean race and those other guys were out front and gone. I had nothing for them.

"As far as Kopp's fuel deal, I think it's unfortunate for Joe that he got busted. I'm not going to pass any judgment on him, because I honestly don't think that he knew his fuel was illegal. It's one of those things where once the appeal process runs its course I hope for the best. I hope he gets the win that he deserves, but I also hate to see somebody win when something is suspect but not tested. If the table were turned, people would be crying foul in we had illegal fuel. Whether his fuel was illegal or not probably wouldn't have made a difference in this particular race, but rules are rules and everybody needs to abide by them.

"I hope things work out for everybody and we still have ourselves a good points race. It's certainly going to be a lot more difficult for Joe if he's found to be in violation of the rules Points go out the window in a hurry that way. I hate to see that happen to anyone, but we have rules for a reason.