Mladin also showed a bit more emotion than usual on the cool down lap, stopping to acknowledge the fans and riding into the pits pumping his first with his Bob Hannah replica helmet in his hands rather than on his head.

"I've got 68 class wins and I've only got two at Laguna Seca. This is the second, so any time I can do good here I can be pretty competitive in most places. It was a good race and we tried hard and the bike felt good. That was nice."

Runner-up Spies made no excuses. "We got off to a decent start and Mat came by us. We just tried to get in behind and get into a rhythm and it just keep stretching and stretching. We just didn't have the pace today. Did have the speed at all. Once we had a sizable gap on third place we just put it in cruise control and brought it home. There was no way we could run with him today."

Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates picked up his first Superbike podium of the season, pressuring Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking heavily before finally taking away the position on lap 25 of 28. He held onto the British-born star's late bid to earn a seventh podium finish in a row by a scant 0.052 seconds at the flag.

Yates said, ""The race was pretty good. We didn't have such a good starting position but we got off the line good. We got by quite a few guys and started picking guys off. I was able to keep chopping away and getting by guys and we got up to a podium position."

Third factory Suzuki runner Tommy Hayden was right in contention for the podium in his return to action and ultimately took an impressive fifth.

He was followed by younger brother Roger Hayden, who also mixed it up with the group for much of the race before taking to a solid sixth.

American Honda's Neil Hodgson overcame Yamaha USA's Jason DiSalvo on the final lap for seventh, while DiSalvo's teammate, Eric Bostrom, and Hodgson's teammate, Miguel DuHamel rounded out the top ten right on their heels.

The AMA Superbike Championship will pick back up in two weeks time at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 1-3.