HINES
VOL. 53 ISSUE 24 JUNE 21, 2016 P77
side of him. Tracks like this and
Du Quoin and Indy, when it's
kind of dug up, you can go in the
corners and not have to follow
someone. We can get it on."
Once back in the lead, Mees
pulled to over a two-second lead
at the finish.
"I was just struggling through
the middle of the corner and he
was better," Smith said. "I could
get in with him and I could come
out with him, but in the middle
he just instantly got me. He
could hammer the throttle and
I couldn't and for whatever rea-
son, I couldn't figure it out. They
threw a new tire at us. I didn't
really feel any difference. Of
course I was struggling, so I'm
going to blame the 'new thing.' It
wasn't the tire; Jared was just on
it today and beat me. I was look-
ing for that one ounce of rubber
that was down out there on the
line I was running. I could just
barely get hooked up to it. I don't
know if it was me or the bike but
I couldn't be sideways and make
up any time. As soon as I did I
would lose time. I was kind of
trying to pole-putt through there.
I could hear them back there
grabbing a handful. I would fol-
low him through there and watch
what he was doing. The next lap
he could just stay hammer down
on the throttle and I couldn't do
that. When I grabbed a handful,
I went backwards and he went
forward. It's just different bikes
and different riders."
The restart was potentially
race-changing for Mees, but it
it for the restart and got a good
jump. Jared missed that shift
and made it even better."
"I missed a shift off the restart
and Bryan got ahead of me,"
said Mees. "The very first lap I
dove it underneath Bryan and
I knew he was definitely not
carrying the corner speed that I
was. The next time that I went in
there, I went in higher than him
and rode right around the out-
Smith. "I saw the red flag and
thought it is going to be tough to
beat him, but I'm going to give it
hell the last five laps."
On the restart for the five-lap
dash to the finish, Mees spun
off the line, got sideways and
missed a shift, handing the lead
to Smith.
"I tried something a little dif-
ferent on the original start and it
didn't work," said Smith. "I fixed
