Had it not been for two mid-race incidents with Chase Sexton, TLD/Red Bull/GASGAS rider Justin Barcia might have walked away from last weekend’s Monster Energy AMA Supercross race at Daytona Int’l Speedway with a podium finish.
But rubbing is racing — an idea the man nicknamed “Bam Bam” is quite familiar with — and as such, Barcia was forced to settle for a fourth-place finish behind the Honda HRC rider. With his recent slew of sixth- and eighth-place results over the past five weekends, coming up one spot short of the podium was a bitter pill for Barcia to swallow.
“Honestly, I feel like I had the speed to catch Cooper [Webb] and Eli [Tomac], but who knows what could’ve happened,” Barcia said. “Definitely was a little bit mad after the race, but no hard feelings.”
His result in Daytona is still one of the best of his season so far, second only to his third-place ride at round three of the series in San Diego, Calif., on Jan 22. With a taste of the podium fresh in his mind, to say Barcia is fired up for this weekend would be an understatement.
Lucky for him, and perhaps unlucky for his competition, the upcoming race inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is one that he circles on the calendar every year. Why?
“It’s funny, I just have a good feeling,” Barcia described. “I like the dirt and the layout of the track always seems to benefit me, so I’m always stoked to go up to Indy.”
The No. 51 GASGAS rider has found a sprinkling of success at the stadium in the past, including a second-place finish there last year — notably, his best result of 2022. Should Barcia repeat last year’s performance or collect his sixth career 450SX victory, Indy may easily remain his favorite stop on the circuit.
As he waited for his flight on Thursday afternoon, Barcia spent some time scrolling through YouTube, watching race footage from his latest visits to the Midwestern city to better strategize for Saturday’s event.
“I’ll watch races from two, three, four years previous. You can kind of see the dirt a little bit, get an idea, see what you did good and bad and fix that for this weekend,” Barcia said.
While the 10-year veteran of the 450SX class is no stranger to navigating the ups and downs of Supercross, he can’t help but be enthused by his strong run at Daytona.
With Tomac, Webb and Sexton pulling ahead as the top three in the title fight, Barcia is hoping to apply pressure to the trio and climb up in the championship standings — he currently sits seventh, 54 points behind Tomac who leads.
“The speed, the determination and the fitness are all there. It’s just the few little things in our way. So for me, it’s the same thing as Daytona — go out there, get a good start, be in the top five and hunt those guys down,” Barcia said. “I know we’re capable of doing it, so no excuses. Just go out there and do the work.”