"Kenny's having a great season, has won a couple of races and has put together a year much like I have," said Carr. "I've been in this position before, Kenny hasn't. So it'll be interesting to see how he and the others respond to the tight points chase that we have going." Noteworthy is the fact that Carr had numerous point races go down to the wire with AMA flat track legend Scott Parker. In fact, during Carr's '02 title run, Chris and Johnny Murphree were separated by only 11 points with two races remaining.

This past race in Farley, Iowa, Coolbeth took the overall with Carr racing to second place. During the week off Carr won the AMA Hotshoe Series race up in Sturgis, South Dakota, then put in some serious practice time on the KTMs in order to prepare for Peoria this weekend.

"It's funny. I can walk down the street in Sturgis, thousands of bikes and people and nobody has any idea who I am," said Carr. "Peoria's a different story. They've been racing there for 60-some years and it's an event that's welcomed by the city of Peoria. So guys from our series, including myself, are definitely noticed around town there. It's a great scene."

This past June Carr raced his KTM at a warm-up race at Peoria, scoring a second-place finish in the 15 lap race. Coupled with his training time at Sturgis (actually on the KTM 450 vs. the 505cc bike he'll race at Peoria this weekend), Carr said he spend a good three days preparing for this weekend's race, one of only a few where he'll run the KTMs this year.

"100 mph on a motocross bike this weekend's gonna be a blast!," said Carr.