250SX East title favorite Colt Nichols has turned his attention to the ‘big picture’ of clinching a first-career Monster Energy Supercross title this Saturday night after battling to third on the podium at Salt Lake City 1.

Nichols has placed one hand on the trophy due to Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Christian Craig being injured in qualifying, however, was unable to seal the series with a round to spare as Jo Shimoda (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) broke through for his first win.

“It was a bit of an emotional night, really,” Nichols admitted. “My main rival Christian goes out, the focus changes quite a bit and I kind of just botched that start pretty hard. I didn’t really do anything right on it and I didn’t ride very good in the beginning of that main.

“Once I started putting it together, straight-up kind of ran out of time and took way too long to find my stride. I was really struggling to get into a flow, making little mistakes… I noticed Jo was out front – the one guy I had to beat [laughs] – and I was back battling for sixth or seventh. It is what it was, definitely a different perspective to be in this position.

“Overall, I felt like I got it together pretty well at the end, but didn’t quite get it at the start. At the end of the day, I just didn’t really execute the way I needed to tonight, regardless of what was on the line or what our situation was. I feel like I was good enough to win and I didn’t.”

Despite being somewhat frustrated with his performance, which saw him complete the opening lap of the main event in sixth position before eventually climbing to P3, Nichols managed to maintain perspective as he now carries a 23-point advantage over Shimoda entering the finals at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

“Going into the day I was up eight points, now my next closest guy is 20-something away,” he added. “If you told me that going into the East/West [Showdown] that I’d have that kind of a lead, I would have been pumped – perspective is good, the big picture is nice. We’re healthy and will live to fight another day next weekend.”