Photos by: Hoppenworld

During the 2015 silly season, Justin Barcia was one of the biggest names available to sign, and the JGR/AutoTrader/Toyota/Yamaha team opened their checkbook pretty wide to acquire the kid they call Bam Bam. With any high dollar signing comes high dollar pressure, but Justin’s inability to find the podium on his new JGR/Yamaha during the 2015 Supercross season left some questioning JGR’s decision to sign him and others questioning everything from Justin’s heart, his decision to leave Honda for Yamaha and everything in between.

Opinions and questions can quickly change in our sport, but while Justin’s podium at Glen Helen and his win in the mud two weeks ago at Budds Creek quieted the critics, it didn’t silence them. That didn’t happen until Justin held off the former two-time 450MX Champ and current red plate holder, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey, for thirty-five minutes during the second moto at Red Bud last weekend.

Any time someone gets their first-ever win in the mud, there’s always an asterisk next to the win, with people questioning if it was just due to the conditions. Well, Justin answered that question mark and removed the asterisk by holeshotting and winning moto two at the 2015 Red Bud National with Dungey breathing down his neck. In the end, Justin went 2-1 on the day to claim his and the JGRMX’s first-ever back-to-back victories.

After Justin’s win, we talked to him about his day at Red Bud, how much more this win meant than winning in the mud, possibly being chosen for the 2015 MXoN team and much more. You can hear what Justin had to say in his “Race Rewind” interview below.

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Congrats on your day Justin. Talk us through it. Obviously first moto you led for a while before losing the lead to Dungey, and you led the second moto from the gate drop to the checkered flag.

Yeah, for sure. First moto I got a good holeshot. Ryan [Dungey] closed in, made the pass, and I got back on him again. I wanted to get the position back, and I got caught up in a little bit of lap traffic. Ryan rode super good. He kind of pulled a little lead, and I kind of just stayed where I was at and pushed through the whole moto. It was a good first moto. I was happy with it. Obviously I always want to win, but second was just as good as a first in the first moto.

 

Obviously you built a lot of confidence last week. Did that feed into this week and how you performed as well?

Oh, for sure. I talked to Jeff Stanton, my old trainer, this weekend and I was like, “Everyone’s going to say I just won because I’m good in the mud,” and I told him I wanted to back it up this weekend in the dry conditions. Somehow I was able to do that! It feels really good. The confidence was definitely high, but it’s just like any normal week: train hard, do the same program and come in here wanting to do good. I struggled in practice pretty bad today. I think I had the whole team a little nervous. The first practice wasn’t the greatest. I was riding a little tight. The second practice I took a handlebar to my leg. It swelled up pretty good. It seems like days like today you struggle a little bit but somehow you find a way to push through it and achieve what you want.

 

That handlebar to the leg, was that the left-hander after LaRocco’s Leap?

Yep, that didn’t feel good at all. It’s still super swollen but not too bad. Doctor Navarro worked it out, and it’s all good.

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Second moto you were leading. You know you have Ryan Dungey behind you. Mentally, what were you going through, knowing he could capitalize on any mistake you may make?

Oh man, it was gnarly! He kept me honest the whole time. I think the biggest lead I had was almost three seconds—at one point I think he made a mistake— but it was like a second the whole time. I just had to stay on it and make the least mistakes. Ryan was good in the back section, I was good in the front section, so it kept the race super close, super even. It was unbelievable. It was, for me, just hammer it down and try to put in solid laps and keep the gap. Obviously I want the gap to get bigger so I can cruise the last couple laps, but that didn’t happen.

 

I asked this last week but it’s kind of the same thing. How hard has it been to rebuild yourself? You’ve been down for a little while, like a year ago with injuries and stuff. How hard has it been to get to the level where now you can beat anyone straight up on any track.

I’ve been through a lot for sure the past few years. Switching teams, injuries, injuries after injuries, stuff like that. But I’ve just kept motivated and put the right people behind me and made the right decisions and just trained through the hard times and never gave up. It’s paying off for sure right now but it’s definitely been a struggle. I’m really happy the decisions I’ve made and the place where I’m at right now. Obviously, two wins in a row is great. It’s not easy for sure. I know it’s not going to happen every weekend, but we’re making up a lot of good points right now. Just pushing through it.

 

Is this one almost bigger than last week because like you said, it was a mud and Dungey had crashed and all that?

Yeah, for sure. This is a bigger win here for sure. Red Bud is an extremely challenging track. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve crashed here super hard. Broke my nose here a couple times! This place is brutal. For how good my bike worked today and the way the team worked together and the way I rode from going from riding really bad in practice to riding super good in the motos, it’s pretty special for sure.

 

Is it a coincidence that when you’re riding better that starts get better as well?

I have no idea how this whole thing works, to be quite honest with you. (laughs) We definitely found a good motor package at Glen Helen. My chassis has been really good, my suspension’s really good. It’s like you put all the little puzzle pieces together. There’s always things you can make better and we’ll keep working on that, but today was a really special day.

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Did you ever worry that you wouldn’t get back to this level? I know you expect to be at this level but were you ever like, man, I don’t know if this is happening?

Yeah, I’ve been beat down before for sure. I don’t know how many times I can keep getting hurt and doing this. But I’m still pretty young so I get over it pretty quick and I just keep fighting back. I don’t know what else I’d do besides ride dirt bikes. I really enjoy racing. It’s fun and especially days like today makes it even better.

 

Your season has obviously turned the corner for the better. Is there something you could point to from just even a couple rounds ago to now?

We obviously wanted to win right away but kind of like I said, you’ve just got put all the little puzzle pieces together. I hired Buddy Antunez on probably like the third round of motocross so I would say that was a big help for sure. I’ve always been bad about not shifting my bike and revving the hell out of it. (laughs) I still do that, like I said in practice today, that’s what I was doing. The team was on me pretty good. You’ve got to shift that thing if you want to do good today, pretty much. Luckily I got the holeshot and just kind of rode how Buddy’s been telling me to ride, and second moto same thing. So I would say Buddy’s a big part. Off the track I’ve been training myself. I don’t have a trainer off the track anymore so I’d say that’s been good. I’ve been learning a lot. Me and my mechanic Ben ride bicycles together, so that helps. A lot of little things have changed, not huge things, but I’d say it’s all coming together.

 

It looked like you were having a lot of fun at Budds Creek. Has that fun kind of come back after Budds Creek and now carrying into Red Bud?

Yeah, for sure. Budds Creek was good. I like the mud. I had a big lead at Budds so I was able to have more fun doing whips off the singles and just fun stuff like that. It brought me back to my amateur days riding in New York at some local tracks just having fun as a little kid. That’s kind of how I felt last week. This week unfortunately practice didn’t go that good and I was kind of a little down about it&mdas;I wasn’t too happy. I didn’t think the day would turn out like this but I just kept positive and got two holeshots, so that helps hugely.

 

You’ve been coming on strong here as of late. A few months we’ll have Motocross of Nations. You look like you’d probably be a pretty good candidate for the MX3 spot there. What are your thoughts on potentially being chosen there? Would it be something you’d be interested in doing?

Yeah. I did Motocross of Nations twice now and we haven’t won the overall so I would say I would definitely be interested in doing that, especially with the new team. We’ve never been as a team so that would be pretty special for us to get picked. But it’s a little ways out still. We’re just going to keep on plugging away, being consistent, and try and get some wins. But I’d like to go for sure if I’m healthy and we need to get that number one plate back for sure.

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Can you talk a little more about having the points leader Ryan Dungey right behind you the entire race today. You never cracked at all under the pressure.

I would say that was the hardest earned win I’ve ever had for sure because Ryan was right there. It was within a second pretty much every single lap. He closed in on me in the back sections, I pulled a little on the front sections, but it all evened out. I’m sure at the checkered flag it was within a second. I don’t know how I kept a straight head that whole race. The lappers were really bad today. I don’t know what was going on with that. Off LaRocco’s Leap they don’t move out of the way, they just doubled the middle. So I had to take a few risky chances on jumping the leap and I was pretty nervous about that but I made the right decisions, luckily. This track’s a hard track to win at. It’s certainly rough, one of the roughest ones so far. The bumps are super square-edged, but had the suspension dialed today and it was all good.

 

We’ve got Millville coming up in a couple weeks. You think you can keep the ball rolling at Dungey’s hometown track?

Yeah, I think we’ll definitely keep the ball rolling. Not saying we’re going to win them all but definitely want to be on the podium and fighting for wins. I’ve done good at Millville before back in my GEICO days so that was good. Yeah, he’ll be hard to beat there. He’ll have the hometown crowd, and it’ll be challenging. It’s not just Dungey, you got Ken [Roczen] and his teammate and there’s my teammates. It’s never easy. These things don’t come easy. It will definitely be a tough at Millville, but I do enjoy that track. It’s pretty fun. It’s pretty open and our Yamaha is pretty fast, so it’ll be good.

 

I heard a fact that it’s has been six years to the day today when JGR won its first-ever overall here outdoors. So congratulations on adding to moto history.

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. The whole team’s been working extremely hard, and it’s finally paying off a little. Everyone’s extremely happy. The fans here today were pretty unbelievable. That guy with the shaved chest #51—that was pretty intense. You can’t beat this place. It’s awesome.

 

Well, congratulations once again, Justin.

Thanks.

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.