You’ve come a long way in your GNCC career. Obviously, you are still very adept at motocross and you’re a talented rider. But what has been the biggest difference between moto and GNCC?
It’s been the mental aspect. Honestly, my physical training hasn’t changed all that much from my moto days. If anything, it’s probably less. Back in my moto days, all I had to do was train and race. Now I’m married and have two children. I’m the team owner. I’m in charge of every decision. I do the budgeting, the marketing, ordering parts, and there’s only so many hours in a day. So, I try to make the most of what I have, and normally that's to ride instead of train. And GNCC is way more mental than moto. In motocross, if you make a mistake and crash, you never give up, but you realistically aren’t going to make up what you lost. There’s no time. GNCC is three hours. If you make a mistake, you do have time to make it up, if you can last that long, and it takes mental toughness to go hard for that long. I’ve had the physical part because I’ve always trained and ate right. But this mental ability to block it all out and focus and feel no pain is a different program for sure.

So take me through the John Penton. You went to Muddy Creek, hung it all out, went 12-10 for 11th overall, flew to the GNCC and positioned yourself in 2nd place right from the start. It seemed like Grant Baylor closed in on you toward to later part of the race, but then you twisted the throttle some more. Did you get a pit board or was that just racer intuition?
Well, I actually didn’t start in 2nd. I was about 5th, but I got passed by a few guys on the first lap. I had tried to conserve energy that day and skipped my warm up. It took me over half a lap just to get into race pace. Once I got there, I was able to pass those guys back and get into 2nd place. By then, Kailub had checked out. My mechanic, Mike Stryker, does a great job of letting me know what is going on at all times. On lap 4, he gave me a board that said I was +50 seconds on Baylor. On lap 5, it said +27 seconds. I knew it was the white flag and so I told myself, “Don’t save energy! Lay it out there!” I knew I was going either going to cramp up and fall over, or I was going to get second. There were no other options.

Wow. That’s mental toughness!
It’s what you have to do. I came into this last year knowing that I had a lot to learn, but I was really surprised at how hard it was. I often thought, “Man! Am I ever going to get the hang of this?” Sometimes I would start out fast and then I would crash. Other times, I just plain WASN’T fast. Or I would be fast in the open and get murdered in the woods. Seasoned guys like Barry Hawk, Steve Hatch and Rodney Smith would tell me that it was going to take time. They pointed out that I was a rookie. Yeah, I’d been riding dirt bikes my whole life, but I hadn’t been doing this. And at the end of last year, I wasn’t stoked on how I did. I don’t like not being good at something.  But I felt like I knew what to work on.

And so what happened over the winter?
Since I’d figured out what my weakness was, I started to focus on technical stuff. I did a lot of woods riding and even did some trials riding. I still motoed. I feel like that is my strength and want to keep that advantage, but my weakness has been roots and rocks, so I just worked on that. Plus, I switched to the Husqvarna 350 instead of the 450 I was riding last year. It seems to suit me better. I had a lot of sponsors come with me into this and they have all stepped up and helped me out. That’s been tremendous, too.

Take us back. What actually got you interested in GNCC?
I was getting married. My wife already had a daughter and I knew I didn’t want to be an absentee dad. Plus, we were going to have kids together and I thought back to how my mom and dad were always there for me, taking us to races. It was a family thing. Racing Supercross and motocross would require me to be gone all the time, so I’d actually considered GNCC since they are east coast only. I’m pretty good friends with Taylor Robert and he always goes to ISDE. He was talking with Antti Kallonen (KTM Team Manager) and told him how I was pretty good in off-road and had sprint speed. Antti called me and invited me to ISDE in 2013. I went, did pretty well and KTM started talking with me about doing something in 2014. It was just what I was looking for. I thought maybe I could try this woods thing and possibly extend my career a few years.

Looks like you are starting to get things figured out and are on track for the results you’re looking for!
I want to win! I started the season with a couple 6th place finishes, but in those, I knew I threw away podiums. I knew the mistakes I had made and have been working on them. I knew that if I kept pushing and working on my weaknesses, then I would get there. I finally feel like I’m a contender. I know what pace needs to be run and I feel like I know how to run it. I’m excited for the rest of the season.

Well, we are proud to have you as part of the GNCC Racin’ Nation! Congratulations on an incredible weekend! Who would you like to thank?
First, I’d like to thank God for giving me the ability and opportunity to do this. Mom and dad and my family for always being there and supporting. Airgroup Radiant Logistics, Rockstar Energy, Husqvarna, MSR, Leatt, Dragon Goggles, Dunlop, FMF, Steve Hatch Racing, Maxima, Mika Metals, Dubya, IMS, Renegade Fuels, Airoh Helmets, Spider Graphix, Acerbis, Gaerne Boots, TM Designworks, Guts Seats, FPS Racing, Asterisk Knee Braces, Galfer, DT1 Filters, Rekluse, Sunstar, Excel, Nihilo Concepts, WP Suspension, ARC Levers, Super B Batteries, Hammer Nutrition and Design Engineering.