Honda has extended Christian Craig’s fill-in role with Honda HRC through the remainder of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross season, the team announced on Twitter today. Honda announced last week that Craig was filling in for just the Atlanta and Daytona rounds of 450SX.
In his debut with the team last weekend, Craig led laps in the first (7) and third (4) main events of the Triple Crown format. His 6-7-5 finishes were good enough for fifth overall.
“I hate to see anyone get hurt, especially someone so close to me. Cole is like a brother to me, and also someone I look up to, so it was such a bummer to see him get hurt,” Craig said in a statement after Atlanta. “But it opened the door for me to ride in the 450 Class and gave me an opportunity put in some better results than I had last year on the 450. I had a couple days on the bike and just came into it with an open mind. I didn’t have any expectations except to be proud of myself and how I rode. I think that showed in how I performed. All day was solid. I had some decent qualifying and just went into the night show confident in myself. I’ve been working a lot on the mental side of things so it’s time to finally show it. I led a lot of laps tonight, both in the first and last motos. Being up front with those guys isn’t something you can practice for; you have to just do it and learn from it. It was fun to ride with those top guys. I’m looking forward to next weekend in Daytona and am hoping to keep building off tonight. Fifth is a personal best for me, so I’m pretty happy with this, but on the other hand I’m hungry for more.”
Craig, a full-time 250SX rider with GEICO Honda, was sixth in 250SX West Region points before moving to Honda HRC. This is the fourth fill-in stint with the team for Craig, who raced two rounds of Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the entire Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship with the team in 2017.
The team is currently without both Ken Roczen and Cole Seely, who are out for the remainder of Monster Energy AMA Supercross.
