"My Yoshimura Suzuki guys did a great job putting the bike back together," Young said. "I mean, when I got back on the thing it was like when I just got off of it, it was so perfect. And I wasn't too happy about starting on the back row. I didn't feel like that's where I should've been placed. But that's I guess that's the rule.

"I got a spectacular start. I tried to settle in but I found myself trying to get a breath and it was pretty tough. I was taking a lot of short breaths -- I don't know if it was a result of the crash or because of the adrenaline.

"Once I got to the back of Josh, it seemed like he had a pace that I didn't think I could keep up with but maybe try to do something toward the end there and get a wheel in and mount a pass. I would have been happy to come away with second today. Josh came up in the inside on the last lap. He came up there pretty fast and I knew it was going to be tough to get slowed down there and I just squared him up and took it back."

Despite being defeated in another close dogfight, Hayes was quick to pay tribute to Young's performance: "For him to be able to get his stuff together and get back out there and race the way he did... bravo. Man, I think it's a great story. It was a hero ride and it's great for our sport. Big congrats to him."

That doesn't mean Hayes would back down the following day, however. He proved untouchable on Sunday, reminiscent of his Friday ride at Daytona. Hayes (who crashed twice on Friday) and Young (feeling the effects of his Race 1 crash) were both beaten up heading into their rematch but still proved to be the class of the field.

In a dominant display, the Mississippian clicked off multiple laps under his pole mark and broke Young's pursuit early en route to a dominating payback ride on Sunday.

The win was the first-ever for Yamaha in the Superbike category at Road Atlanta.

"I'm excited about it," Hayes said. "This has always been a pretty good track for me and I've always had pretty good speed here. I've gotten outfoxed at the line a couple times by Blake here. So I'm glad to be able to put one together this afternoon and put some good strong laps down.

"It's not how I expected the race to go -- I expected another battle. It's a lot easier on my ticker to be able to get away a little bit and ride by myself and do my own laps."

And true to the trend established a year ago, even though they are even on wins (2-2), Hayes has garnered every possible bonus point this season and currently sits six points ahead of Young in the early title fight (116-110).

Hayes remarked, "I don't think I can change my game plan and I doubt he's going to change his. We seem to be splitting wins and it's great for the series and a good show. I don't know what I would do different quite honestly because I feel like my plan is one that works and has brought me to a couple championships. I think it's going to be a lot of this season."