Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Hayes was clearly shaken after Saturday’s race. Two practice crashes and the Young incident left him looking out of sorts. And sore. To make matters worse, his wife had a rough weekend at the track, too.

In the second race, he got down to business and was lapping quicker than his pole time in the early laps. It was vastly different than Young’s spectacular Saturday, but equally as impressive. Not even some late arm-pump issues ("This is the worst place for it because of the Esses," he said) could cut into his lead.

Despite the crashes and the guest-starring role in the Blake Young Show on Saturday, he left Atlanta with a slight points lead. The six pole and laps leader bonus points have all gone to Hayes this year. That's his points lead right now.

Emerging Rivalry

There’s clearly a rivalry between Hayes and Young as anyone would expect, although to this point both have tried to be professional about it. Both are respectful of the other’s ability in public. The older rider Hayes always says the right thing and for his part, Young has, too.

The Yamaha vs. Suzuki deal is more contentious. The Suzuki camp isn’t happy about how Yamaha lobbies AMA Pro. They don’t like the technical allowances Yamaha gets and then there’s the electronics thing… virtually the entire paddock wants to restrict Superbike electronics significantly, with Yamaha pretty much the sole holdout for the status quo.

It remains to be seen if this thing gets nasty or not. It doesn’t really have to because Hayes and Young may shake hands after the race, but between the green and checkers they ride like they hate each other, with just a modicum of quarter given for safety’s sake.

Next up is Infineon, which happens to be Young's (and Suzuki's) weakest track. Hayes and Yamaha just split wins at Daytona, which they hadn’t won in 15 years, and Road Atlanta, where they’d never won a Superbike race. It will be interesting to see if Young and Suzuki can do the same.

I can’t wait.