As you might expect, the 17 year old Geico Powersports Honda rider was still taking it all in.

By Jim Kimball

MXlarge: Justin you made the box on your very first supercross – what are your thoughts?

Justin Barcia: My thoughts are – well I guess I don’t have any thoughts right now – I’m just up in the air right now going crazy!  But it was a really good race; although I did have one big mistake.  Actually I talked to LaRocco (Mike, Team Manager) just after the race and he said “what did I tell you not to do - and then you did it!”  You know, I probably could have won that race, or finished second – but I still finished third so that was good.  We had some little issues that we are going to work on now and come out swinging at Atlanta.  Overall it was a good night; I definitely had amazing starts here.

What was the mistake?

Oh, it was just a just rookie mistake; that’s all I’ll say (laughing)!

Okay; let’s switch to how were you feeling after practice?

Well, during the practice sessions, and the heat race, I was definitely nervous.  I felt as if I was just riding crappy; riding too tight, and just worrying too much.  But later during the race I had that mentality where you just want to win – and you forget about everything else.  That’s what I did tonight, and it worked out really well.   Coming into this, of course I would have loved to win, but it was up in the air – only the God above knew this outcome.  But I was focused on making podiums – whether it was in this first race or another one.  I knew that with all the hard work that I put in that I “could” be on the podium. 

All your success as a rookie in the AMA Motocross championships last year must have helped give you confidence for supercross.

Yeah; you’re right; it did give me confidence as I did do well for my rookie season as an AMA pro – especially with my results at round 1 in Glen Helen.  So I really tried to approach supercross with the same mentality; I definitely want to do well; I am a racer, and racers want to win.  I just needed to try to relax and do my best.

Now that you have raced Supercross; how did it compare to Motocross?

It’s crazy; Supercross is just ridiculous!  You know I had never raced inside a dome or stadium before; I’ve never seen or heard this many fans before!  So, it really was a pretty big deal; I have just worked on trying to avoid the stress, and get my head together.  You need to just try to stay relaxed, and keep from getting pumped up.  Probably like any rookie would say; motocross is just more natural than supercross – at least at first.

What have you been doing since the motocross season to prepare for 2010?

After motocross ended I went home and took a few weeks off; after that I just trained and worked my butt off getting ready.  I just focused on supercross right away to especially work on my cardio; I knew that was one area where I needed some improvement – so I definitely focused on that.  I also rode much more than I ever did in the past – and just kept pushing.

This is going out some months now, but based on you great success as a rookie in AMA Motocross last year; will you be a title contender this summer?

For sure I want to be a title contender; I want to be the best that there ever is, and ever was.  Like I said; I am a racer and I want to win – that’s how we are!  It will take a lot of hard work because there are a lot of good riders in the class.  I’m just going to have to fight through all the training, work, and pain and tough it out.

With that said, I see that Mike’s (LaRocco) is looking for you; is there anything that you want to add?

Oh definitely; I really want to thank everyone at the Millsap’s Training facility for getting me here, and of course my parents who have been with me the entire time – through the good and the bad.  All the guys on my team at Geico Honda have been great and really stuck behind me through all the testing ups and downs – thank you!