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Brad
  • 2 days ago
2026 Round 9 450 Triple Crown Race 2
Transcript
00:00Race 2 here in Indy, on a night of Triple Crown action, Hunter Lawrence with a really good start, Tomek
00:08with an even better one, it's the championship contenders and then Cooper, Justin Cooper on the inside.
00:19Oh, it's going to be key right here for the 96 to stay right on the rear tire of Eli
00:26Tomek, not letting get away.
00:31Talk about these whoops, how they're becoming, oh, look at this.
00:34Inside, Hunter Lawrence saying, yep, I don't want to give up this red plate, I'm happy to have it and
00:41I want to keep it.
00:42He's tried a couple times to make a move there, oh no, Kenny goes down.
00:46Roxen on the ground and Plessinger.
00:49No.
00:50Oh, Plessinger's hurt too.
00:55Oh, massive blow for Kenny.
00:57Race 1 winner on the ground.
01:01Rarely do you see Kenny make a mistake like that, you just have to wonder if he had help there.
01:08Oh, such a bummer.
01:11Now these whoops becoming jumpers right there.
01:15That's going to help Justin Cooper.
01:19You know, this is going to help, actually, if Justin Cooper is able to kind of slow up Eli.
01:26That's going to allow Hunter Lawrence to close the gap here.
01:34This is really good stuff for Justin Cooper.
01:37How long can he stay out in front?
01:39How long can he sustain this pressure?
01:41Let's have a look.
01:42Center of your screen.
01:43Oh, Kenny messes up.
01:44Oh, he looked around for Plessinger.
01:47Oh, my goodness.
01:49Wow, Kenny was looking back.
01:52He knew that he had made a mistake and there was nothing, nowhere that Plessinger could go.
01:58Oh, he gets sideways.
01:58That's what happened.
01:59So he slows down.
02:00He's like, I'm not jumping.
02:01And look at this.
02:02Oh, my goodness.
02:05Just nowhere for AP to go.
02:08Thank goodness no one hit Aaron after that.
02:11That was tough.
02:12There was shades of A1 between Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barsha.
02:17Meanwhile, this goes on at a really high rate of knocks.
02:21This fight for the lead between Justin Cooper and Eli Tomac.
02:25Tomac's been able to gap Hunter Lawrence just slightly to give himself a bit more breathing room as he works
02:30on the lead of this race.
02:32Again, these are old teammates last year.
02:36Eli looking good.
02:37Let's see if Eli can rail this berm and make a move down to Whoops.
02:42Ah, look at that.
02:44Great riding by Justin Cooper to guard on that and block Eli's run through the Whoops to make a pass.
02:51Important for Justin Cooper.
02:53These are his first laps that he's led this year.
02:55It's a big confidence boost.
02:57Here's Tomac.
02:58Look at him square that up.
03:00He's been working this line right here for three laps in a row.
03:03A little bit of hip and shoulder and get out of my way.
03:07The crowd love it when that famous number three hits the lead.
03:17Nice pass by Eli Tomac.
03:21Redemption from that first moto.
03:24Her first race.
03:25He is not going to be denied.
03:27Now the pressure will shift to Hunter.
03:30See what Hunter can do.
03:32He's lost some ground.
03:34They're the top two runners.
03:37Meanwhile, let's not lose sight on the fact that Cooper Webb's fourth.
03:40Joey Savace is in the top five.
03:42Prado, after another really good start, is sixth.
03:46Then Malcolm Stewart.
03:48Christian Craig.
03:49Garrett Marchbanks.
03:50And Mitchell Harrison in the ten.
03:52I'm really impressed by Prado, again, just coming back after a couple weeks off and to really just jump back
04:00into where it didn't even look like he lost anything.
04:03Pick it up where he left off.
04:04Will?
04:06And he talked earlier.
04:07We heard that soundbite, Ricky, where he talked about kind of being good enough, if you like, after the shoulder
04:12injury, that AC separation to ride.
04:14But talking to him earlier, I mean, he's not healed from it.
04:18There's still pain.
04:19He talked about some pain that developed a week after the initial injury that led to another MRI.
04:25He said he's got a little bit of instability in that shoulder, so he's kind of having to sort of
04:28sit on the bike a little bit more sensual, as he put it, to not put too much pressure on
04:32that shoulder.
04:33So what he's dealing with now, he even surprised himself with.
04:36He told me I wasn't expecting that out of qualifying.
04:38So to get through the night and to do it the way he's doing, I think it's surprising everyone including
04:43himself.
04:44Yeah, I mean, well, another thing too, Will, is, you know, he's been pretty open about how he needs to
04:49get this experience.
04:51You know, a lot like last year.
04:52Listen, I know it was a rocky road with the team he was on last year, but at the same
04:56time, he got hurt at round two or three, and those are lost opportunities that he could never get back.
05:02So even though he's 100%, I normally don't think it's great if the riders don't come back, if they're not
05:07100%.
05:08But in his case, I feel like he has the ability to ride at 80% and not overdo it,
05:15but still, again, get that much-needed experience of Supercross.
05:18This is on the East 12th Supercross race, right?
05:21That's what we have to keep in mind.
05:22Right.
05:24Man, how about Justin Cooper?
05:27JT, he's sticking with it.
05:29I'm so impressed by this ride, Ricky, because, you know, his whole career, it's been about getting really good starts.
05:35He has so much sprint speed, but that typically leads to a good result.
05:38But in this 450 class, he struggled at times to match pace at the very tip of his spear.
05:44Not so much right now, because I really figured the way that race one went, Hunter Lawrence would be able
05:49to close and put pressure.
05:50He hasn't been able to, but that's really credit to Justin Cooper's pace.
05:54He really hasn't let Eli Tomek get away.
05:56Oh, and he's close it up, in fact, in this last half a lap or so.
06:00By the way, points as they run.
06:03Tomek leading the way over Hunter Lawrence.
06:06This is going to be interesting.
06:07There's still six minutes left in this, plus a lap.
06:10Tomek missed that very inside after the finish line, and look at the 32 just reels him right back in.
06:17And, again, I go back to the whoops section.
06:19I mean, it is going to be super important, and it's going to become very difficult.
06:26Later on here in this race, look at Justin.
06:29Check this out.
06:29Here we go.
06:30Cooper saying, hey.
06:33Power move.
06:33I have been the hero at Daytona last week, but I'm not done with it here.
06:37I want to get a race win.
06:38I don't want to speak for Eli, but I don't think that Eli could ever have seen that move coming.
06:43And I wasn't anticipating that as well, but Cooper is absolutely, Justin is absolutely feeling it right now.
06:51Wow.
06:52And look in the background.
06:54The longer this race goes on, the closer Hunter Lawrence is getting as well.
06:59Let's talk more about the leader.
07:01Will?
07:02You guys talked about the confidence that Justin Cooper needs, and the team were talking about exactly the same thing
07:08earlier.
07:09And they said this might be the one that gives him that.
07:11And they cited the fact that he'll be able to jump through the whoops, and that's kind of his more
07:15comfortable option.
07:16And as you said, Ricky, that's kind of happening to most of the riders here.
07:19But they also said that ruts are something that he seems to be a very technical rider, very intelligent rider,
07:25and that he talked after qualifying about how he's able to pick the rut.
07:28He's able to see it and finesse the bike with that technically good form that he has, and put his
07:35will right in it.
07:36So just a lot of reasons why this is going to be a confidence-boosting weekend for Justin Cooper.
07:41Never won a race in 450 competition.
07:44A triple crown race, and of course, not a main event.
07:47So this is huge.
07:48For him to go past Eli Tomac, he's got four minutes left.
07:52If he can hang in there, this would be incredible.
07:56There you go.
07:57Look at the left side of your screen.
07:58Justin Cooper, fastest man through sector two.
08:01That three-pack of jumps.
08:04Look at that.
08:05Ah, now Eli Tomac starting to jump through the whoops.
08:09Whoops, wherely do you see that?
08:11And again, I think they just become too difficult and too risky to blitz them like that.
08:18Incredibly hard to keep your balance and stay in a straight line.
08:22And I think this is going to help Eli in this situation.
08:24Ah, he misses that inside again.
08:26And I think the way that also that Justin Cooper rides is he doesn't push the bike super hard compared
08:33to a rider like Eli.
08:35So in these difficult conditions where you have to kind of be patient because of all the ruts, the bike
08:42actually works better in that situation, which I think tailors to how Justin Cooper rides.
08:47And look, think about last year when he was teammates with Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb.
08:53He's the kind of the quiet guy in the background, but he's a fighter.
08:57And it's like, just because I'm the quiet guy in the background doesn't mean I can't be on the podium,
09:01which he was multiple times, or I can't win.
09:04Whoa, Tomac!
09:05Dude.
09:06That was close with Vince Friese.
09:08Vince Friese has been taken up the main line after the whoops all the way through.
09:14That could have been super ugly.
09:16Oh, man.
09:17Great save by the three of Eli Tomac.
09:20And that just bought Justin Cooper a ton of time.
09:24Well, and it helped out Hunter Lawrence as well a little bit.
09:29Man, that was close.
09:33In the first race, Hunter Lawrence is down.
09:39How bad is the damage?
09:40How far has he dropped?
09:42Uh-oh, he's looking at his something.
09:44He's looking down at his bike.
09:46Looks like the shifter's good.
09:49Let's see here.
09:50Keep it.
09:51He had time to play with.
09:52What happened?
09:54Oh.
09:54Oh, my goodness.
09:56Wow, what a save that was.
10:01That could have been way worse.
10:03And that's, again, it is a tough racetrack for the best in the business, and especially the lappers.
10:11I talked about it a little bit on the first race.
10:13It makes it so difficult, these ruts, for these guys to move from one side of the track to the
10:18other and give way.
10:19Vince Friese was on the inside.
10:21Cole Thompson was the bike immediately ahead.
10:24Have another look at that.
10:27And again, for him to get away with it, that could have been super ugly.
10:30Watch this.
10:31Boom.
10:31Boom, just smashes into Cole Thompson.
10:33Yeah, Cole Thompson just goes right to the inside.
10:37I don't think that Hunter was anticipating him to do that.
10:41I certainly wasn't either.
10:44And wrong place at the wrong time.
10:46Meanwhile, let's rejoice this special moment for this 28-year-old, Justin Cooper, aboard his Monster Energy star Yamaha.
10:56He has about two seconds over Eli Tomac with a minute left on the clock.
11:03As this track continues to go away, remember what Kenny said about how fast it gets ruddy and gets torn
11:11up?
11:11I think it's going to play into Justin Cooper's hands.
11:14So as long as he is able to maintain this pace right here, navigate the lappers, he is going to
11:22be in a great spot to possibly bag his first 450 Supercross win.
11:29Bottom box, Ken Rockson coming back after that early race fall and awkward incident with Aaron Plessinger as he is
11:38working on Shane McElrath.
11:40Yeah, for the overall, though, this is really going to hurt Kenny, sadly enough, because he looks so good in
11:47that first race.
11:48It looks great now.
11:49Just too much time spent down, picking his bike up.
11:52Luckily, he was okay.
11:53And then these races being abbreviated, only 12 minutes plus one lap, just not enough time to get the job
11:59done.
12:01This is such a special moment as the clock goes to zero for Justin Cooper.
12:05What a ride.
12:06He's been on the podium six times, but he's never in the Premier Class seen that checkered flag first.
12:13He's got one more lap to go, and then he will.
12:19I can tell you, if I'm any of these front runners coming into that third race, Diff, I am lobbying
12:26these lappers and just saying, hey, be aware.
12:30Be aware.
12:31But look at your screen on the left-hand side.
12:33Look at how close the points are right there.
12:38I mean, it's anybody's race.
12:39They're setting up for a beautiful third race.
12:41And that's why these Triple Crowns, they are just undisputed.
12:45The drama and the excitement that they bring.
12:49And the riders have openly spoken about the mindset factor of going into that weekend off next weekend in the
12:57best possible position.
12:58The highest note.
12:59Well, it doesn't get any higher than this.
13:02Justin Cooper.
13:03You're finally a race winner at the highest level.
13:07And he did it with a beautiful comeback move on Eli Tomac.
13:13Eli finishes second.
13:15Cooper went third.
13:17Hunter Lawrence recovers for fourth.
13:19But the spotlight and the attention is finally on this man here.
13:25Justin Cooper.
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