RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 54 ISSUE 22 JUNE 6, 2017 P105
track and that race was the most
fun I have had in several weeks. It
felt good to just be battling at the
front and going for the win."
Hayden said his therapy
comes from being on the bike.
"The only therapeutic part
of being back at the track is
while I am on my bike and don't
have my phone," Hayden said.
"I know everyone means well,
but during the signings and pit
party with the fans everyone
keeps telling me they are sorry
for my loss. I just want to focus
and not think about, but I wish
Sunday night I could just thank
everyone and talk to them for all
death of his brother Nicky and a
few hours after his lap of honor
kicked off a 69-second moment
of silence.
"I thought maybe I could go
faster when I was in the lead. It
seemed like I was kind of stuck
in one speed and once these
guys got by me I was able to
pick it up," Hayden said. "It was
just hard because everyone was
braking so deep. I tried to get
close enough to them on the last
lap, thinking Cameron was going
to go up the inside of Toni where
he did, but I hit a little bit of a neu-
tral. All in all, it was a good race,
it's nice to be back at the race-
finish of the season, but he was
still relatively pleased with how
the day went.
"After the mistake and crash
I had this morning it was nice to
walk away with second today,"
Elias said. "I left the door open
in the final corner and got on the
gas too slow, allowing Cameron
to come up the inside of me. We
lost by nearly nothing at the finish
line, but we still lost at the end of
the day. If you take the right side
of the track like I did, it changes
too much, which causes you to
lose valuable time like I did."
For Hayden the third-place
finish came just 12 days after the
Roger Hayden overcame the
distractions over the past
couple of weeks and was in
the hunt for wins both days.
