00:00In Nashville, let's go!
00:04Great start, Justin Cooper, look at that!
00:06The 32 out in front, we've got two riders down at the back.
00:10Hunter Lawrence slots in the second.
00:12Yeah, Justin Cooper's always been a great starter, so has Hunter Lawrence,
00:16but as today goes on, you're going to watch these guys,
00:19that first corner get really slippery.
00:22Wow, did you see Justin Cooper jumping through the whoops?
00:24Haven't seen many people do that all day long,
00:27and he just comes out firing the first lap of the heat race.
00:31That is going to be a really good line later on,
00:34main event time, as those whoops become more challenging,
00:38cupped out, dry, and slick.
00:40I feel like Justin's been riding really good all year,
00:42but ever since that, he got that win over Eli, that Triple Crown,
00:46I believe it was at Indy, been a different rider so far.
00:50It really feels like he can win these things.
00:52And you think about it, you talk about the SMX playoffs, okay?
00:55Justin Cooper, he came into the playoffs last year,
00:59he's the number one seed, and throughout his career,
01:01he continues to get better as the series goes on, so no surprise.
01:06Bottom box, the fourth, Monster Energy Kawasaki of Chase Sexton.
01:12He didn't fall, he just got a shocker of a start,
01:14and is having to work his way through this field.
01:18Yeah, it's been a struggle so far this year for number four,
01:21Kawasaki Mustard to Kawasaki Chase Sexton.
01:23We know how fast he's always been his whole career,
01:26but I think he's really fighting the inner demons right now,
01:30you know, just the mental battles.
01:31It's a different spot than he's been in in his career,
01:33and it's going to take a lot to get out of it.
01:35This bad start today is not a good one either.
01:38I want to give a shout-out to his teammate
01:39who just got overtaken by Cooper Webb.
01:41That was a terrific start by Garrett Marchbanks,
01:44and he was running third until Webb snatched that away from him.
01:47Now he's going to try and hang on to fourth spot here
01:49ahead of Joey Savace.
01:55First full-time year on a 450 for Marchbanks,
01:58and with each and every round that goes by,
02:01RC, he's looking more and more comfortable.
02:02Well, he is, and he's been able to put repetitive laps in
02:06throughout the year,
02:07working closely with that race team
02:09at the Monster Energy Kawasaki Factory Racing Team,
02:12and it's great to see his progression.
02:14You can see the confidence building each and every week.
02:20This is the fight for getting into ninth place.
02:23Shane McElrath on the 12 on the inside line.
02:26Vince Friese ahead of the four of Chase Sexton.
02:30So they're scrapping it out,
02:31and Chase has got to get by at least one of these guys
02:33to transfer straight through to the main event.
02:35And James, when I watch the number four of Chase Sexton right here,
02:38it just seems like that urgency isn't there at the moment.
02:42I know it's congested right now.
02:45It's early in this heat,
02:46but definitely doesn't look like he's taking chances.
02:49No, you're 100% right,
02:50and yeah, I was going to say that as well.
02:52You can tell by he's just standing up in the corners,
02:54and like you said, there's a lot of traffic in front of him,
02:57but Chase could make some of these passes if he wanted to.
03:00You can just tell he's not.
03:01Something's going on.
03:02I don't think we'll have a problem with getting qualified,
03:05but the number four doesn't look normal to me.
03:09Cole Thompson's doing a nice job just behind Dylan Ferrandes,
03:13and they're ahead of these guys here.
03:14That's Vince Friese on the 719.
03:17As he goes through the sand,
03:18there's Cole Thompson on the 66.
03:21But he's in an immediate transfer position.
03:23Always a bonus for these guys
03:25when you don't have to go through to the last chance qualifier.
03:28This would be huge.
03:32A little mistake out there.
03:34Should have McElrath.
03:36There we go.
03:38So Chase Sexton gets Shane McElrath,
03:40so now finally moves up into the top nine.
03:46Oh, big jump there from Thompson,
03:48and he goes over the back of the berm.
03:49Yeah, yeah.
03:51I saw a couple guys do that earlier.
03:53Just they try to get on that rhythm.
03:55If they get it off,
03:56that 90 degrees corner comes out so quickly,
04:00and it being slippery with these rocks,
04:02just have a hard time getting it.
04:03Stop.
04:04Meanwhile, let's go back up front,
04:06and something has clicked late in this Supercross season
04:09for Justin Cooper
04:10because last week, JT, on the podium,
04:16he's just kind of found a new rhythm,
04:19and he's headed towards his fourth career heat win,
04:23if he can keep it here.
04:26Yeah, he looks pretty good.
04:28JT.
04:29Yeah, just watching, J. Cooper,
04:30you're so right there, Lee,
04:32and I'll tell you what's really important
04:33about this particular heat race.
04:35Justin Cooper wants to jump the whoops.
04:37That is his preferred method through them,
04:39but typically, he needs to wait
04:40until later in the program,
04:42and that main event for it to be effective,
04:44for it to be this dynamic,
04:46this early, bodes really well
04:48because typically, the whoops are going to deteriorate,
04:51and blitzing will become slower
04:53to be effective here.
04:55If he gets a start in the main event, guys,
04:57this may be the chance for him to get that win.
05:09Guys, Hunter Lawrence in second right now
05:11in this situation.
05:11We saw that awesome graphic,
05:13the bike graphic that we showed,
05:14that kind of dip that we saw out of Hunter.
05:16That was at the Detroit ground
05:17after a huge crash at the end of the whoops
05:19that lost him a lot of points.
05:21Well, leading into the next round,
05:23that was last weekend in St. Louis,
05:25we did find out after the fact
05:27that he had a sore wrist from that.
05:29He told me that he was kind of trying to ride through it
05:31the week leading up to it,
05:33but he did finish third on the podium
05:35and said afterwards, no, it was a problem.
05:36So I checked in today, see how that was.
05:38He didn't ride barely at all this week.
05:40He said it's time to rest.
05:41He was getting therapy from Doc G,
05:43his physiotherapist there,
05:44and said this week, honestly,
05:45he's barely even noticing it.
05:47I did see it taped up,
05:48but a big improvement for Hunter Lawrence.
05:49Oh, you can see some urgency right there
05:51with Hunter Lawrence,
05:52but I want to point out,
05:54this is a type of track,
05:55and James was talking about it a few laps ago.
05:58He talked about how slick those 90-degree corners is.
06:00This is a track that's going to be difficult
06:02to make up time.
06:03Why?
06:04Because of those slick conditions.
06:05It's very marbly and slick,
06:08and when you apply that pressure,
06:09you're going to break that back end loose.
06:11You're going to start to spin,
06:12and you're not going to get the forward motion
06:15that you need to possibly make up time.
06:18So when you make a pass,
06:19it's going to have to be planned out.
06:21It's going to have to be done with precision.
06:26In the closing laps of this first 450 heat,
06:31does Justin Cooper get back-to-back heat wins
06:34in successive weeks?
06:36We'll see.
06:36Big launch into the sand section.
06:39Oh, rider down.
06:41They'll see the white flag next time,
06:43signifying one lap to go.
06:45Watching this track here, James.
06:47It's looking like it's going to be
06:49fairly difficult to pass on
06:51with these 90s,
06:52and like we talked about how you mentioned
06:54how slick it is as well.
06:55Yeah, no, I agree,
06:56and I think what you're going to have to do,
06:57you just have to be patient,
06:59get up on that guy,
07:00and when you get close to him,
07:02kind of make an aggressive pass
07:03like what we saw with Seth.
07:04Fair but aggressive,
07:05and try to hold these guys off
07:07because even with the whoop section,
07:08I don't think Blixen is really going
07:10to help these guys enough
07:12to tonight.
07:13And again, like you talked about,
07:15be right on that rider in front of you
07:17when it's time,
07:18you make the move.
07:19What you can't do
07:20is make a failed attempt
07:21because when you do that,
07:23you lose so much more time.
07:25this has been a terrific ride
07:28to start this national weekend
07:31for Justin Cooper
07:33aboard the Monster Energy Star Yamaha.
07:36There's been a rapid increase
07:38in the confidence level,
07:40the comfort level,
07:41and look at this for conviction.
07:43Heat win second in a row
07:44in two weeks
07:45for Justin Cooper.
07:47That first career main event win
07:50may be getting closer
07:51than we think.
07:52I was just thinking
07:53why you said that.
07:54We might see something special
07:55here tonight
07:56in the main event.
07:57Today,
07:59Hunter Lawrence.
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