Geico Powersports Honda’s Trey Canard (Photo: Steve Cox) » More Photos

The odds were almost stacked against you, anyway, since it’s very rare that a champ wins the shootout.

A little bit, and I can see why it happens like that. It’s hard to win a championship and then go race for nothing. I don’t want to say it’s hard to focus, but it’s kind of hard not to be in a celebration mood. It’s something you’ve worked for your whole life, and once you achieve it, it’s hard to just forget about it and move on to the next race. I think that’s part of the reason, because when you win a championship and then you have to race two weeks later, it’s almost impossible to forget what just happened, and it’s hard to just let it go and just get your head into the next race. But I’m glad I came out of there with a third, and now we can move onto the outdoors, and it’ll be good.

Sunday night you got to stand up in front of a room full of people and speak, so that had to be pretty weird, wasn’t

it?

I was more nervous then than I have been on the line before! It’s one of your fears, and you’ve got to stand there and say the right things, and the spotlight’s on you and you can’t see anything, and you’re just trying to not say anything stupid. It was a cool experience, and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.

What was it like standing up on stage knowing that a lot of the people in the audience are the racers and teams that you beat for the title?

It’s unreal. It’s part of winning that you get this awesome feeling, and we’ve all had that feeling. It’s one of the best feelings in the world.

Do you have any idea where that trophy’s going to go?

I’m not really sure, but it looks pretty good!

Maybe in front of your treadmill or something so you can stare at it while you’re working out?

I’ll probably put it in the gym, for sure.