Just 0.002 separated Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin in the first race at Road America this past Saturday in a thrilling finish to the MotoAmerica Superbike race. It was so close, the announcers were about to say that Herrin had taken the win until Beaubier edged past him in the final inches.

The battle actually came down to Beaubier, Herrin, and Tony Elias, with Elias going down on the final lap and the trio engaging in war of words after this race.

First, watch how the race ended:

“It’s frustrating to have him go by you on a straightaway and dive on the brakes as hard as he can, blow the apex of the corner and then just squirt it off the corner and us not being able to do anything with it,” Herrin said of Elias, according to Revzilla.

“I saw Toni go under Cam in turn one and thought, ‘Oh, that’s pretty dirty.’ Then I passed Toni into the chicane. I went to the left and then kind of squirted out to the right. Had the pass on him. And then he just closes the door and leaves nowhere to go so you just run out of space. And that’s exactly what he did to Cameron in Canada Corner. He goes on the brakes, Cam’s got the pass. He releases the brakes, closes the door thinking ‘Screw the guy behind me, I don’t care about him.’ And then when you hit him he cries about it. It’s really dangerous. If nobody’s going to say anything, I am.”

“He’s one of the ones who talks about safety all the time but I saw him almost make Cam crash twice in one lap,” Herrin added. 

“I think this is racing,” Elias said. “Racing is what Cameron did all the race. Racing is what Josh Herrin did all the race. Racing is what I did all the race. Dirty for me is not the correct word to say what has been the race. For, me dirty is what happened in Canada Corner when somebody falls and loses 25 points.”

“I knew the laps were winding down and I needed to get aggressive if I wanted to win this thing,” Beaubier said. “I made a couple of aggressive moves but I felt they were clean. There’s a difference between aggression and kind of dirty. Yeah, he might have got sucked in a little deep into (turn) one, bounced off me and I got angry. I gave it everything I had on the last lap just to do something. I lined him up going into Canada (Corner) and I went in there not thinking we were going to hit. I didn’t realize he went down until I came around the next lap and his bike was sitting by the Airfence.”

“I know we’re fighting hard out there but sometimes I think it goes a little overboard,” Beaubier said.

All three riders and teams meet with Race Direction, but no penalties were handed down.