Mat Mladin (#1 Yoshimura Suzuki, fourth place and six-time series champion):

Q Mat, you came from 21st after the restart to finish fourth, just dicing through the field. Tell us a little bit about your afternoon.

A I was not happy about the red flag, because I certainly have a mental issue with the clutches on our bike. In the second start, I didn't want it to be that bad, but I certainly wasn't going to be first in the first corner. I was just trying to roll off the line, just to make sure that we didn't have to come in the pits or something silly. It could've turned out pretty bad. And then the first couple of laps were interesting, going through a few of those lads back there that I'm not used to dealing with. But yeah, it was a good fun race. I seen Neil up there and I had about +8 with 10 to go, and I thought I'd try and make a move and get going a little bit. But I had the championship there, too, so I took it a little bit easy. It was a good race. Thought I might get up there, but it was good fun.

Q A very, very strong year, with 10 poles and 11 wins. Tell us some of your thoughts on winning this championship.

A The year was a good year, for sure. Suzuki delivered us a motorcycle this year that certainly made life quite a bit easier than last year. But in no way was it easy, for sure. We had a couple of problems that certainly kept the championship interesting until the last race. It's nice to win six of them, but as everyone knows, I've signed up for another three years, so I'll be disappointed if I don't have nine in three years from now.

Neil Hodgson (#100 Austin Ducati, third place)

Q Neil, having gone through this season now, you've got a year of American track experience under your belt. How do you feel on this year?

A It's been interesting. It's been frustrating the last sort of three rounds - at Laguna onward. Obviously that was a disaster, and then I couldn't ride around Mid-Ohio to save my life. I was like a novice, really. And then VIR was a struggle, and then I've come here and I really like the circuit here. It's probably the - I'd say it's probably the best for me, the best of the year. A fun track to ride. Obviously the last corner's horrendous, and that's being nice. It seems strange, because we're all on the stage, and Vincent's there, and unfortunately he's paralyzed, and we all feel horrendous for him, and we all go out of our way and raise as much money as we can for him. You know, it can be avoided. If any one of us fall and crash in that last turn, that's the sort of state you're going to see us in. And you know, we're paid to race, and we'll race. That's our contract, and we know the sport's dangerous. But it can be made safer. I know it sounds like a scratched record. I've been impressed with the safety in America this year. The tracks are actually safer than I thought they were going to be. But going into that last turn, it's horrendous. I know all the riders feel the same. So that's what I think about the circuit.

Q On the race this afternoon, you did have a bit of a go with the #98 bike of Jake Zemke. Tell us a little bit about getting by him.

A I closed in on him, and I definitely had a top speed advantage, which was quite nice. I just drafted him - I'd just turned in to go underneath him, and he came in, so it was a bit closer than I would've liked it to have been. But he was good on the brakes, and he was good everywhere else. I couldn't really pass him anywhere else, so I had no option, really, but to pass him there.

Ben Spies (#11 Yoshimura Suzuki, second place)

Q Ben, you made a strong charge to catch up with Aaron at the end of the race. Tell us about that.

A Before the red flag - I wish there was no red flag, but - it was one of those deals, we put the same tires back on the bike and the thing didn't seem the same, I wasn't seeing eye to eye with the bike. Just I was doing the best I could, trying to conserve and get up on the podium. We got into lappers and I saw Aaron coming back to me, and then one lap I think he was behind a group from One all the way to Six or Seven, and I caught right up to him. When that happened, I decided I was going to put on a charge and see if I could try to make it interesting. I came out of Seven and the bike was completely straight up and down, and it spun really bad, way worse than usual, and got a bit of a vibration on the back straightaway, and I just checked up a little bit and looked around and lost a few seconds, just to make sure everything was intact. And brought it home in second.

Aaron Yates (#20 Yoshimura Suzuki, winner)

Q Aaron, a really strong race. Did you have any moments out there? It looked like you were able to check out. Ben did catch up with you at the end, and we heard from Ben about that. Were there any moments of concern out there for you?

A No, not too much, really. The race went really smooth. I tried getting up the outside of one lapper coming up to the bridge there, and got off on the paint, and it was pretty slick and stepped out good. I guess that was a pretty big moment. But other than that, we got off to a good start. With Ben and I just driving up to the bridge there, I just felt I had pretty good grip, and I just tried to put the power down, and it went right up the inside of Ben, and I got by him. Once I had a clear track in front of me, I just tried to do the best I could, and run some clean, consistent laps, and got us a little gap and made it comfortable.

Q Mat, are you going to do anything special to celebrate?

MLADIN: I guess we're going out to dinner with Suzuki and stuff, and then I don't know. Probably give them a piss. Get a little bit drunk. [Laughter] I've got some surgery happening in a few days from now, just to fix up my ankle that I hurt in Daytona in January - repairing a couple of small fractures in there from January. And start preparing for next year.

Q What exactly happened on the restart?

MLADIN: We've had a few issues with the clutch, that have been fairly well documented. I just certainly wasn't going to have an issue in the last race today. I would have preferred to start in the back of the grid rather than have an issue with the clutch, obviously. I got a very poor start. I wasn't hoping to get one that bad. But it was good enough for today.

Q Was the red flag today more appropriate than the one yesterday?

MLADIN: There was some stuff on the track, so yeah, for sure. Not much they could do about that.

Q Earlier this morning, Aaron, you said they'd done some work on a couple of issues on your bike from yesterday. Obviously they fixed it.

YATES: Yeah, they looked at the data and thought we felt like the front was probably too soft yesterday, and made some changes, and we didn't have the problem today. Everything felt good. Mat wasn't up there pushing us, and it was a pretty comfortable pace. It was a good day for us, and Suzuki.

Q Aaron, could you talk about your trouble through lappers? You had about a five-second lead, and it went down to nothing.

YATES; Yeah, well, you know, I kind of got into cruise mode out there, so I was taking it easy there, just conserving. I got up to like a +4 or something, and I was like, "Well, hell, I'd rather not push hard, just cruise around." The tire was starting to feel kind of funny on the right side, but still was fine. I just figured well, I'll save it, and if anything happens towards the end, I'll be able to go. As it turned out, that's how it was.

Q Neil, yesterday you said it was kind of frustrating because that was all you could get out of the bike. Did you do anything to make it better?

HODGSON: No, I think I really went slower. Mat, obviously - I didn't know he'd gotten an horrendous start, but I assumed he was just using his head to keep out of trouble. That's why I'm here.