Mladin in Superbike: Age and wisdom trump youth

It's the last lap of a 15-lap sprint race in the AMA Superbike Championship season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Suzuki ace Mladin and teammate Ben Spies have been trading turns at the front for the entire race, distancing themselves from a chasing pack, including a hard-riding Miguel Duhamel and a comfortable Neil Hodgson.

Still, Mladin has found himself in a very bad position on the final lap. He's leading Spies as the two exit the infield for the run through the chicane and into NASCAR turns three and four. Conventional wisdom—and a lot of race wins—says the second-place rider will draft around you at the line and steal your win. Both Spies and Mladin have seen it happen countless times, and as he exits the infield right behind Mladin, it looks like Spies has played the perfect race.

But he doesn't count on the lengths the six-time Superbike champion will go to in an effort to abandon the point.

With Spies right behind him as they exit the chicane, Mladin seems to visibly slow. It's a move everyone's seen before, but not at this position on the track. Usually, the sucker bait happens in the infield. But Spies was too smart there, and Mladin didn't even try it.

And at first, it looks like Spies won't take the bait. But when Mladin actually turns his head to look back at is teammate as he slows—wouldn't you love to know what he said in his helmet at that moment—Spies twists the throttle and squirts into the front.

Gotcha! Right where Mladin wants him.

While Spies charges into the banking, likely lamenting getting suckered, Mladin sets up and executes the perfect draft-pass-to-the-line finish, overtaking his younger teammate by little more than a bike length at the finish.

"I knew in the early laps that Ben would be there through the end," Mladin said. "I set it up through the chicane there a little bit, and got the job done. Those sorts of races can go either way. It's pretty easy to look good, but pretty easy to look bad, too.''

"When he looked back, I pretty much never let off.'' Spies said. "I saw him, and right when I clicked into fourth, I went ahead. Then I was just figuring I was going to be that guy who got drafted around and got beat at the line.''

In third, Duhamel stayed ahead of a chasing Hodgson to bring home third.

"I feel like I could have ridden a bit better, but I'm really happy to be on the podium,'' Duhamel said.