Josh Hayes and Blake Young Interview | Differing Outlooks

On Young becoming a more complete racer:
JH: “I think Blake has probably always raced fairly well. There were times I’ve had to race against him on a 600 (in the past) where I thought he maybe raced a little dirty. He had a real bad tendency to not draft all the way past you before he pulled over in front of you and put you off the racetrack. It’s an effective racing strategy, but it’s not very respectful to the people around you or the safety of the people around you. I talked to him a time or two this year, because we were staying really close together and the battles weren’t one pass and the race was over—it was going back and forth a lot. But what he really learned to do is he became more of a student of his situation—‘I have a bike that does this well and how do I use this tool to beat what my opposition has?’ I’m in the same boat. I have to find the strengths of the Yamaha and figure out how to get the most out of it so I can figure out how to beat those guys. That’s why I was making the moves I was making at Ohio. I knew where the strengths were and I only had a couple of opportunities, so I had to try to make the most of them and fight with the tools that I had. I think he improved that this year. [Another is that] he knew that he couldn’t give me two or three laps up front, because I can go pretty fast and I can get away. He better take those chances for a lap to hang on and make an opportunity and make a pass happen so that he could bring my pace back down to his. And it was a strategy that worked for him many times this year.”

BY: “I think I learned a lot. I knew I had the speed. I felt like I didn’t really know how to apply it consistently enough. I’m telling you, when I got injured and I sat on the couch for a long time, that really was an eye-opener for me. I had a lot of stuff I had to change and think about and kind of rework, so to say. I felt like this year I really needed to grow up quick. I felt like this was it. I needed to put in a great effort, I needed to train hard, I needed to not do some of the things I did in the years past and just be more focused and dedicated. Maybe in previous years, I thought maybe I could get away with not giving it my all and just get by. It worked sometimes but most of the time it didn’t. So, I think you saw me really put forth a really good effort as far as maturity goes."

On the pressure of Young taking the championship lead late in the season at Mid-Ohio and accusing Hayes of over-aggressive riding:
JH: “When he led the points leaving Daytona, it’s the first race of the year. There’s so much season left. You’re not thinking about championship then. You got to wait until you get halfway into the season and see who’s there and who’s not. By the time we got to Ohio, the writing was kinda on the wall. We’re halfway into the season, there’s three of us that are players every given weekend. When it was that late in the season and Blake thinks, ‘Hey, if I win this race I can take over the points lead,’ it was a lot of pressure, because the championship was really starting to become a big part of how you approached racing the series. And I think when he had gotten the championship points lead, all of a sudden he didn’t want to be treated that way, because he had a lot to lose if things go wrong. You start thinking about every single point along the way. I think my quote was, ‘Blake finds himself in the points lead and he doesn’t want somebody racing like Blake around him. Throwing it in there, making mistakes, whatever it takes to get to the front, a guy riding with nothing to lose,’ which is a lot like how Blake rode a lot of the time. We laughed about it, because I understood. It didn’t make much sense, but I’ve been in that position before.”

BY: “I feel like every time he passes me, there’s a theory behind that pass and why he did it. I didn’t think that one pass he made (where Hayes stuffed it up the inside of Young in Turn Nine during the closing laps of Race One at Mid-Ohio, before Young re-passed Hayes on the last lap to take the win) made any sense. Wasn’t a last lap move. Maybe it was a ‘Hey I’m here, now that you’ve got the points lead, I’m going to race you harder.’ I didn’t really like that. I know it’s just racing, we’re both out there fighting for the win. I don’t know, it definitely kinda changed the way I thought about racing with him. And I’m sure maybe he felt that way once or twice about me this year. But I have all the confidence in the world in Josh. I know he’s going to race me clean. I know he’s not going to do anything to jeopardize me and him; I hope he feels the same way about me. I just thought it was pretty close. Maybe he was trying to throw me off my game a little bit—try to get in front of me, slow me up, get me off my rhythm. At times that’s how you’ve got to race.”

On the experience of being in a championship fight at the final round in New Jersey:
JH: “When you look at the last weekend of the season, experience came down to a lot of it. Friday’s and Saturday’s performance I was able to go there and not feel as much pressure because it was a position I’d been in before, and it was something that was quite new to Blake and I think it played in my favor. Sunday’s race was really exciting, but I think the work to win the championship was done on Friday and Saturday.”