Rockstar Enery Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart returned to the podium at round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross championship in Birmingham, racing to three consistent 450SX Triple Crown results despite a heavy fall and an ailing hip sustained during the afternoon sessions. Hear directly from Stewart following the race in this Five Questions feature.

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Malcolm Stewart, second time on the podium this season. Did you find it difficult after the win in Tampa to get back on the podium, and was there a little bit of a winter slump for you?

I felt like I rode so well in Tampa, and then I’m finding myself not even getting top fives after. It was hard to fight for those, which just goes to show how this field can change. One [good] start or anything like that can just set someone up, everybody’s riding so phenomenal, and I think everybody’s got their suspension and everything dialed so as the season goes on it just gets tricky. So yeah, I kind of felt like I hit a bit of a flat spot, and I don’t know, maybe the day with Justin Hill loosened me up a little bit. I’m really stiff right now! But no, I felt really good, connected with the whole track. My team manager Nate [Ramsey], he was like, “Dude, you look so good, just go out there and and give it everything you got and let’s see where the cards fall.” And here we are on the podium.

It’s been a couple of years of the Triple Crown now. Any updated thoughts on whether it works?

Nah, bro, I ain’t trying to…I ain’t trying to be that guy, but I’ll be alright if they kind of clip it.

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This is the second visit we had to Birmingham, [which was] much better than last year. We got to see how this dirt is, and springtime in the south and all that, so could you give me your feedback on your thoughts down here and how the fans were?

When I think of Alabama, I think of Mill Creek. That was always one of my favorite tracks growing up in amateurs. So like Chase [Sexton] said, Monster Mountain, Mill Creek, these events come to mind. The dirt was actually really good tonight, so I was hoping, and we kept our fingers crossed, that the rain stayed away and we could do some good racing.

After that crash you had in practice, you got up a little slow, but you finished that session. Obviously, after the first and second main, you had a great ride but didn’t make it to the podium. How much did that affect you tonight?

Yeah, it’s kind of weird, but as soon as I got off the bike, it was hurting. Quite a bit [actually], just hit my hip pretty good, gave myself a nice little charlie horse, and we did everything we could. Dr. G helped me out, but I mean it’s racing, you know. We’ve got a job to do, so I just put my head down and toughed it out, then I can cry later, so that’s kind of where we were at.

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You were in pain when you got off the bike, you had a pretty good stinger to your hip. Do you think that might have been a little bit of a distraction to help you not think about the pressure?

You know, sometimes I think it goes back to the old saying that riders ride their best whenever they go down in the first turn or something, and they’re loose. I don’t know why, but [it] kind of felt like for me [that pressure] was something I didn’t have; all I had to do was just go out there and do the best I could. Obviously, it did hurt, but I think that helped me out because I wasn’t too worried about anything else but that, and sometimes it’s just the mental thing, and again at the end of the day, we did everything we could and we got on the box. I’m hurting now, but it feels good to get another podium.