What was up with Tomac?

The white James Stewart

I can't think of any rider ever being in Tomac's head other than perhaps Barcia in Arlington 2020.   Tomac is the only one in Tomac's head and that's all it takes for him to have one of these nights.  I'd like to think it was just Tomac being overly conservative, but he hasn't looked great since his crash in A2, with the exception of maybe Daytona and that was only the main event.

His shock was a little off

He's human... Sheesh. 

J. Sloan, is that you?

Barcia and roczen looked comfortabe and mostly in control. Hell even AC did fine after narrowly avoiding a first lap yardsale. To even let craig by at the end is just weird. Theres race management and theres phoning it in (for him). Really is quite the enigma. 

I was just getting the guys riled up. 

I was privileged to be at this race.  Tomac sucked.

That sums it up accurately.

Yes.  GoMac or SlowMac.

We’ve seen Tomac have these kinds of rides before. I honestly believe it was a combination of a super gnarly track, not comfortable on the bike, riding tight and old enough to know it’s better just to finish and collect some points rather than potentially hitting the deck and hurting him self pushing above his limit.

Think we’re all reading a little too far into his result tonight and I fully expect to see him back on the box next weekend.

It’s a new bike. We haven’t seen it in all conditions yet. He doesn’t have a base setting for past races in these exact conditions or any other riders settings because it’s brand new. 
 

He’ll be fine. Has 5 wins. More than double anyone else. 

Webb has less bad days than Tomac and crashes less than Tomac and Sexton. Last bad race for Webb was Houston. Funny how even with a concussion-possible crash Sexton got up and just finished a few positions behind Tomac. 
 

I don’t think Webb is in his head. Been there, done that,

Tomac is  near the end of his career and isn’t going to risk getting hurt (perhaps getting hurt more if he is nursing an injury) to be up front. 

At A2 he was lucky he wasn’t hurt. Maybe that is in his head. 

This guy gets it.

Wasn't up front so going for it was pretty risky. Got a little bad luck there in the end and maybe he had a couple moments that made him reel it in safer. 

This is crazy, but this Eli Tomac might be human after all.

Don't forget, he has a long history of having weirdo races. He might have shaken his reputation as being a rider who could have a random 10-15th place at any given race, but if the stars align then that weirdo ride might happen again. My money is on Tomac returning to his normal self next week and we forget about this race.

I don’t believe he’s as comfortable on the new bike as he was last years, especially when the track gets beat down. 

Tomac was off all day, we got there when the doors opened and could see it every time he hit the track. I agree with others here who believe he isn't as comfortable on the new bike when things are sketchy. He has hit the ground a couple of times which is rare and it happens when he is pushing the edge. They still have a few things to work out I believe.

Otherwise, the track sucked a** tonight. I haven't seen an Indy track this bad in the last 10 years, looked like they were riding on dogsh*t all night. No one really looked good other than Sexton in the first early qualifier. He was the only one that looked smooth and "comfortable" for a short while. We are going to Detroit next week and I hope it is better...

I don’t care if the track is “super” sketchy.. He can’t get 8th and think it’s ok!

Maybe get 4th or 5th from a conservative ride, that’s acceptable, not 8th ffs ! AC just came off the couch nursing an injury and still beat him, justify that!?!? It’s a joke!

He may as well have sent it a bit and ended up on the ground, then got 8th pffft.. Sexton wadded and got lapped, Eli made 3 points on him lol

Congrats Eli, the door is now open for Webb!

Exactly. This place sometimes, sigh. 

Sadly I have a feeling your right. At the midway point I thought he was gonna go full "Beast Mode" but then he got passed by Craig. Maybe an injury that he is keeping quiet? Should've at least got AC.

Tomac is my guy. Followed him since the amatuers and was at Hangtown when he won his first ever pro race. He definetly wasn't himself tonight, I think he might have an injury that happened during the week that is being kept under wraps like last year. Getting gapped by AC and passed by Craig? An off night is one thing, but that is a different story.

Blue pig is what's up. When the track is granly this big mama cant turn and feel right. its a pig good on motogp track style.

u mad ?

It does beat me why a company makes progressive changes to a bike that was already working.  Classic 'If it isn't broke, keep fixing it until it is'.

You get something that works, leave it the heck alone.  Morans.

Agree. He looked so much better on the previous generation bike. Although, he also didn't look great on the '22 at the beginning of the SX season either. At one point it seems they figured something out and the rest was history. I'm sure the same will go with the new one in due time. 

Was definitely weird. Though for sure towards the end he would move up a couple spots to at least 5th. Yet he loses a spot on the last lap. 
Shame no “journalists” in this sport will ask him any questions about this in fear of limiting future access. Heck even in Green Bay they ask Aaron questions about his play after a bad game, maybe the press conference should require more than podium riders attend…

Could be a million things.

looked to me like him, the bike and the track were all on different pages tonight and nothing was jelling.

Some races with hard whoops like San Diego he looks great, then some other hard whoops like Daytona de doesn't look great.

Some rutted whoops like Oakland he looks awesome but then some other rutted whoops like Indy he doesn't.

I think he hasn't found a stable setup for that bike yet

Clearly the bike setup wasn't working all day. It was still off during the heat race. For all we know they changed something after the heat race in the hopes it would fix the issues and unfortunately it made them even worse. 

The other explanation could be a mid-week injury that we don't know about. 

With this idiotic line of thinking every manufacturer would be doing what Suzuki has done.