The final round of what’s been a wild and unpredictable season came to an end on Saturday at the U.S. Army Ironman National, and the finale was just like the ten rounds that came before it—astonishing! To get a better idea of how and why things played out the way they did, we tapped former pro and NBC on-track analyst, Jason Thomas.

Let’s forego any questions on the track and conditions and get right into the 450 motos. Run us through the crash in which Haiden Deegan went down right in front of Hunter Lawrence and left him nowhere to go. How’d that happen, and is it a breach of etiquette to ride so close to the edge in that situation?
This was just racing. I can understand Hunter’s frustration because this misfortune continues to haunt him in key situations but Deegan was doing nothing other than trying to sprint on the first lap. Deegan owes nothing to anyone as far as the championship goes. Plus, there is zero love lost between him and the Lawrence’s. He was trying to go win his first race of the year.

How hard is it to regroup and get back up to race pace after a situation like that?
Normally, it’s not a huge deal, you just have to get going and mitigate the damage as much as possible. In this particular situation, though, the emotional panic had to be wild. The immediate, ‘It’s over, I blew it,’ reaction had to be hard to counter. Having poise when everything is crumbling around you is not easy but it is mandatory. Imagine if he let that turn into more mistakes instead of pushing forward. He didn’t know Jett was injured and could have wasted that opportunity if he didn’t gather himself.

Jett Lawrence was not himself in either moto, but most notably the first, in which he was powerless to hold off Hunter. Afterward we learned he’d reaggravated his foot in the first moto. Did you see where or how that happened?
I didn’t and was hoping he could specifically call it out so we might be able to find it on film somewhere. The track was rut fest 2.0 so it’s not surprising that he caught a rut. I actually thought to myself, ‘If you have an ankle or knee injury, this track is a nightmare.’ right before the first 250 moto. The TV vantage point did the track no justice on that front.

Hunter went after Jett a couple times in the second moto, despite not  having to pass him to get the win. Were you surprised he pushed in that situation?
I was a bit, but when I asked James Stewart about it he gave logical reasons as to why Hunter wanted to clear Jett. I think I would have likely sat back and followed Jett while monitoring Tomac’s progress. To each their own, and maybe that’s why James was so much better than I was.

Levi Kitchen looked like he had decent track position coming out of the first turn, but all of a sudden he was barely inside the top 10, then went down and had to come from the back. What was the trouble in those early laps?
I’m sure he collided with someone in the first lap chaos. Most of those ruts crossed each other and it was so easy to make contact with other riders in the fog of early lap war. Unfortunately, first lap debacles like this were a major reason why he was 14 points down entering Ironman.

Kitchen had one of the strangest looking crashes we’ve ever seen, as he was off the bike and almost running next to it coming down a steep hill. What the heck happened in that scenario?
He either crashed or the bike stopped running coming out of that corner before the downhill. He tried remounting at the crest of the hill, jumping on sidesaddle. Unfortunately, the bike didn’t fire and he got the timing/mount wrong and then was descending a nearly vertical downhill on the side of the bike. Add in early lap mud and this all makes sense. One of the most difficult aspects to portray is how steep the hills are at these tracks. Unadilla’s crash with Hunter, and Levi’s crash here, are prime examples of a hill not looking nearly as steep as it really is.

After clinching the title in the first moto (on his 19^th birthday!), Cole Davies looked like he was going to go for the win early in the second moto before eventually fading back to 13^th. This is something we’ve seen in the past when riders have clinched a title early. Walk us through what these riders are going through mentally out there, and why that translates into an inability to run up front.
I think it’s a combination of the “emotional drain bolt falling out” and a big adrenalin release after the first moto clinch. Further, the riders don’t really recover between motos because they are celebrating and talking to family, friends, team members, taking photos, etc. They fall out of their typical routine and likely go back to the starting line without getting their system back to neutral. Race day is all about routine and a huge diversion (even one as good as winning the title) can cause performance to vary widely. Think about a QB like Peyton Manning going through their pre-game routine. They would often talk about how important that routine was and if there was a lightning delay or something that changed the timing, it was difficult to manage. Racers are the same way. They are creatures of habit, especially on race day.