Windham, of Torco Racing Fuels Honda, won his second straight race on April 26 in Seattle to come within 10 points of San Manuel Yamaha’s Reed. Windham started out strong and led the race until a banner got caught in his rear wheel. He dropped back to sixth when he stopped to remove the banner, but managed to regain the lead in lap 17.

Still recovering from a broken shoulder blade, Reed fell to the back of the pack in Seattle after an early crash with Honda Red Bull’s David Millsaps before rallying all the way to second, passing Millsap’s teammate Andrew Short on the final lap.

“I don’t know what’s going on with my crashing, but I ran into the back of Millsaps and went down, and I just tried to come through and be smart,” says Reed. “This result feels good; I’d rather take a 10-point lead into the final than be 10 points down.”

With 25 points going to the race winner, Reed needs at least a sixth place finish to earn 15 points and cinch the championship. Reed owns the tiebreaker over Windham with eight victories this season to Windham’s four.