CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 55 ISSUE 17 MAY 1, 2018 P63
conditions had made the Salt
Lake track extremely challeng-
ing and tricky.
And Musquin didn't crumble
knowing that Tomac, who still
hadn't forgotten the move that
Musquin had put on him the
week before at Foxborough,
was making up ground after
getting off to a bad start.
"I was definitely looking at
Eli [Tomac]," Musquin said,
"because last year he killed
it here, and today he killed it
also, but sometimes it's not the
fastest guy that wins the race.
You've got to be very consis-
tent. The whoops were really,
really tough. We just tried to be
safe and we got it down. Obvi-
ously Eli went down. That's
quin said. Musquin added that
he didn't know that anything bad
had happened to Anderson dur-
ing the race, and that's just how
his mechanic, Frank Lathum,
wanted it. "I only knew when
Frankie told me after the race,"
Musquin said.
Lathum purposefully kept that
little gem of a secret to himself,
revealing none of Anderson's
misfortunes on Musquin's
pitboard, not wanting to ruin his
rider's concentration. It worked.
Musquin rode what was a near
mistake-free race on track that
was unforgiving to mistakes. Un-
usually hot, dry, windy and dusty
DEADLOCKED
"I think it's super important," said
Justin Brayton of his battle with Blake
Baggett for fourth in the champion-
ship. The two are now tied on points
going into the final round. "My best-
ever in a series is tied for third, which
put me to fourth because it was [Ryan]
Dungey I was tied with, but he had
won some races that year. So it's
important for sure. Top five is always
a goal in the overall championship for
me, and to lock that up tonight is cool,
but the ultimate goal now is to get
fourth in the championship and to beat
Blake next weekend."
BUSY PLACE
The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Team
mechanics for Jason Anderson and
Dean Wilson were quite busy the first
Briefly...
While pursuing Baggett for second
place, Tomac lost control of his bike
and clipped Baggett's back wheel.
