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SUPERCROSS ROUND 7 / FEBRUARY 17, 2018 AT&T STADIUM / ARLINGTON, TEXAS P74 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS final qualifying position) when he was run wide in the final turn. He went off the track and careened onto the start straightaway where he hit Ka- wasaki privateer Chaz Braden head- on. Braden said on Instagram that he came away with an injured knee, and Ames a possible leg injury. You can watch the crash here. BIG WINNER In the first 450SX heat, after Bar- cia broke his hand, AutoTrader/ JGR Suzuki's Weston Peick came through the pack like a freight train. A couple of laps into it, he took out Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin who seemed not even to have suspected anyone was there. Peick swept his front wheel, then continued forward to win the heat race—the second heat-race win of his career. When asked if he was going to keep being "physical" like that in the main event, he skirted the question: "The track's tough tonight. It's super-slick and re- ally rutted, and it's definitely getting technical. It's only going to get more technical tonight." GOOD DECISION Colt Nichols almost sat out the 250SX East opener due to a shoulder injury he suffered late last year, but he decided to give it a try anyway and came away with second place on the night. "It's honestly unreal," Nichols said. "It's really a blessing just to be here. I booked my flight last Sunday. It was such a last- minute thing. I've only been on the bike for a few weeks, and we were really just contemplat- ing showing up, but I said, 'I can lose the championship if I'm not there,' and we decided to show up and give it our best. And it just hap- pened to be second place tonight. I know there was a lot of carnage, but to escape this race on the podium is huge." DEALING WITH IT Eli Tomac had an outstanding per- formance in Arlington, but the races on his way to this point have been just about 50/50 between wins and DNS/DNFs. "It's where I always feel like we're supposed to be, but the season's been rough for us," Tomac said. "But it's dirt-bike racing, and you've got to deal with it. All you can do is charge forward and look forward to that next weekend and make it happen like we did tonight." Tomac now trails Jason Anderson by 70 points in the championship with just 10 rounds left to run. ROAD 2 RECOVERY On race day, Team Honda HRC helped support the Road 2 Recov- ery Foundation by providing two of the Arlington auction winners and their families an inside look at the team's tech truck, along with a signed set of Cole Seely's Troy Lee Designs riding gear. "We had two packages this week in Arlington, and both sold for a total of $2086, which is the highest for the year so far," explained Lori Amstutz, Road 2 Recovery's Director of Marketing and Public Relations. "With the sup- port of the teams like Honda HRC, R2R is able to donate over $50,000 towards the Alpinestars Mobile Medical Unit this year. We really ap- preciate everyone's support." McADOO-OVER Geico Honda's Cameron McAdoo wouldn't mind resetting round one and doing it all over again. He man- aged to avoid the first-turn carnage in the 250SX East main but tangled with a rider in a separate incident shortly afterward. The crash left him with a broken finger but he man- aged to finish out the race in 13th. "I got together with another rider on lap one and was stuck in his bike for about a half of a lap," he said. "I ended up with a small fracture in my right hand but did everything I could to fight forward and ended up 13th." McAdoo says the bone is not displaced and the injury will not require surgery. He will be evaluated this week to determine his status for Tampa. BEING HONEST Blake Baggett was asked at the post-race press conference what he feels it's going to take to get that first SX win of his career after finishing third for the third straight race. He looked over to his right and said, "I guess these two guys [Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin] not show up, that would help." CN Briefly...

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