“The bike’s fantastic. We went out there and we had some problems. I was just riding around. We put on a soft tire because you kind of have to and just went and picked up the pace a little bit. The bike kind of went around the track by itself. The R6 is fantastic. Yamaha has outdone themselves when they built that bike. That’s pretty cool because we didn’t have it completely set up. We had the bike up for Fontana and we kind of had to bring it back to Daytona. This is a weird track, a different animal. ”

 

“Here we are. We should have a better bike tomorrow. Those other guys just better look out. The good thing about Daytona is it doesn’t matter if a guy’s got a little jump or not. There are so many great guys out there. They’ve got that Duhamel mentality where they grab on to you and they race you to the finish. I think it should be one of the best races over the weekend tomorrow.

 

“Well, the way I imagine it is, there’s going to be a few people that are gonna be strong and head the race. Then there’s gonna be a few more guys that are just there to hang on and a few more guys that somehow just claw themselves and hang on. The worst situation that could happen to you is to somehow go from first back to about eighth or who knows 10^th. I don’t how many guys or how deep the field is gonna be. I imagine we’ll be one of the front riders, pulling everybody around. That’s what I’m hoping so we never lose that top four position because those are the easiest spots to win from. That’s my plan. That’s the rest of their plan as well.”

 

“Qualifying went really good. It’s only the second time we’ve ever put it on the front row. Usually I’m a horrible qualifier, but I think we’re putting it together pretty good this year. The Yamaha couldn’t work any better, Dunlop tires are awesome. My whole crew here at Yamaha is working really hard, I think it’s ready to put together a good year.”

 

“Yeah, were pretty happy with the front row. The front row is the plan. I’d probably be disappointed if I wasn’t on it. Front row is where we need to be. I think we can do good.”