Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: Indianapolis 2

250 Class

The Good: Michael Mosiman | 3rd Place

It was one of those "coulda woulda shoulda" races for Michael Mosiman as he was out front and seemingly pulling away from Colt Nichols and Christian Craig early on in the race. Then Max Miller went down right in front of Michael and he had no where to go but right into Max. It was a great show of awareness by Michael to get hard on the brakes to minimize the impact, but it still messed him up big time in that section and Colt was able to get by him. Michael seemed to lose a bit of his intensity from that point forward and he never reached his early-race pace again. Christian was also able to get by him as a result, and Michael crossed the finish line in third place. It's still two podiums in a row for Michael, which judging by his remarks in the post-race press conference is boosting the heck out of his confidence. If the incident with Max Miller hadn't happened, would Michael have actually held onto the win? Who knows, Colt is very strong towards the end of race, but I do think Michael will win a race before this season is over. 

The Bad: Jett Lawrence | DNS

The entire day was a disaster for Jett...from his crash in qualifying that busted his nose, to his crash in his heat race that busted up his shoulder, to finally the realization by him and his team that he could not race the Main Event due to how much pain he was in. It was the right decision to pull him from the starting gate, and it'll be interesting to hear what kind of injuries he has considering he still raced the LCQ.  I would be shocked to see him race Indy 3 even if it is a minor set of injuries. He's out of the championship now, so what's the point? He might as well give himself time to heal so he can have a chance at a couple of more wins this season. 

The Ugly: The AMA

It was a rough night for the AMA. We had the Mitchell Oldenburg situation, which apparently wasn't as egregious as I initially thought. Basically, the AMA pulled Mitchell from the starting gate of the LCQ because they thought he was lining up on a second bike. The Muc-Off Honda team then took an AMA official back to their pits to prove that it was the same bike that he rode in the heat race, and the AMA realized they made a huge mistake. So the AMA decided to let Mitchell line up on the second row as a 23rd bike in the Main Event since they felt like they had stripped him of a chance to qualify. Of course, this led to the confusing moment for all of us viewers when Jett Lawrence pulled off of the starting gate and Mitchell pulled into his spot. The AMA could have avoided the confusion by sending some sort of explanation to the TV crew, but they neglected to do that so that's on them. Now, why wasn't Bobby Piazza (the fifth place finisher in the LCQ) on hand to take Jett Lawrence's spot when he pulled off? According to the AMA, they do not accept alternates for normal Main Events. It didn't look good at the time, and the AMA has caught a lot of flack for it as a result, but it sounds like the lack of an explanation before the gate dropped was the the biggest mistake that the AMA made in this situation.

We also had the situation where it appeared like the AMA official at the finish line ended the race a lap early. As of writing this article, I haven't seen any sort of statement from the AMA on this. When you're the organization that officiates the series and you mess up, you should probably address it....

450 Class

The Good: Aaron Plessinger | 5th Place

There was a lot of chatter about how Aaron Plessinger appeared to let Cooper Webb by on the last lap without even attempting to challenge him, and that's fair. We all tend to think that a racer's mindset should be to fight until the very end, regardless of fatigue. I still think that Aaron had a really good race, though, and he is definitely trending in the right direction in what will be a huge year for his 450 career. He has now gone 7-9-5 in his last three races, and he seems to be showing the most progression we've seen from him since his rookie year. I don't necessarily think he'll be in the mix for a podium this season unless a lot of stuff goes his way, but I think it'd be considered a successful season for him if he can finish in the top five multiple times. I'm very interested to see how his next three races go. 

The Bad: Adam Cianciarulo | 6th Place

Adam was fast early on in the race but he started to fade fairly quickly. He was able to give Eli Tomac a good battle for a few laps, but once Eli made the move it seemed to be over for Adam. He didn't have much fight and he made a mistake in the whoops that just set him back even further. If I had to guess, he was either dealing with arm pump or the elbow that he had surgery on to fix a nerve issue. Arm pump is bad enough too ride with, but I can't imagine riding a 450 Main Event with a nerve issue in my elbow. I think Saturday will give us an indication of how the rest of Adam's season will go.

The Bad Bonus: Jason Anderson | DNQ

Jason Anderson's season went from bad to worse on Tuesday as he dislocated his finger without even crashing in qualifying and had to sit the night out. It was just another set back in what has been a very challenging start to the 2021 season for the former champ. He did post an update on Instagram, and the gist I got from it is that he won't be on the line for Indy 3 and there is no timetable for his return. I think this is the right move, especially if he has some other small injuries that he hasn't made public and he wants to give them some time to heal as well. Get well soon, Jason!

The Ugly: Marvin Musquin | 11th Place

To be fair, Marvin did get a bad start in the Main Event so it's not like he started fifth and faded back to 11th. I believe he also had a small crash around the time he had made the pass for 10th place which didn't help things any. But still, Marvin is in a bit of a skid when it comes to results so his inability to recover from a bad start just makes things seem even worse. His finishes over the past three races are 13th, 10th, and 11th, so it's time for him to have a huge bounce back race at Indy 3. His spot at Red Bull KTM for 2022 may come into question if this trend of results continues for the majority of the season. 

Words by Grant Dawson