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INTERVIEW 2015 SUPERCROSS AND 450 MOTOCROSS CHAMPION RYAN DUNGEY P56 ing for me," Dungey said. "With Aldon [Baker], my trainer, and Eddie [Chavez], my bus driver, and on the management side of things and so forth. And to be able to support people like that, there's a big responsibility there. You've got to recognize the position you're in sometimes and how grateful you are, and the fact that you can actually be a blessing in somebody else's life, too." At 25 years old, Ryan Dungey understands something that a lot of CEOs twice his age have a hard time with: His success supports other people, and he has a responsibility to them, not just himself, to put in every bit of effort he can muster in order to remain successful. "Everybody puts in a lot of effort, and we all work too hard not to try and accomplish every- thing we can whenever we can," Dungey said. "Also, if I look back at my whole career, and everything I did and all the effort I've put into it, I've worked too hard to throw in the towel now! Until I feel like it's time for me to retire, I'm not going to half-ass it! We've come too far to throw in the towel." Although throwing in the towel actually did cross Dungey's mind in 2014. >>HUMAN AFTER ALL When you put so much into racing and winning champion- ships, even being second-best isn't good enough. In 2014, Dungey finished second in both the Supercross (behind Ryan Villopoto) and motocross (behind then teammate Ken Roczen) championships, and although most racers would consider that a successful year, most racers aren't Ryan Dungey. He was frustrated with his inability to get his bike set up the way he wanted, and he was inside his own head so much that he was constantly wondering if he was training correctly and eating cor- rectly, and more. He was con- "AFTER LAST YEAR, I PROBABLY WOULD'VE SAID THAT AFTER THIS YEAR I WAS GOING TO BE DONE." stantly second-guessing himself in every aspect of his racing life, and in hindsight to finish second in both championships under those conditions is remarkable. "I definitely found myself in a tough position last year," Dungey said. "After last year, I probably would've said that after this year I was going to be done. Not that I wanted to be, though; I knew in the back of my head that I was probably just over-thinking things and that I had too many good years left not to go forward. I knew that deep down. But there were times last year that were tough. They tested me. They even brought the worst out of me It also takes smarts to win titles; Dungey has plenty of both.

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