Aussie Chad Reed finished third in Atlanta despite a clash with Stewart on Saturday.

Australia’s Chad Reed says the only regret he has after Sunday’s controversial clash between he and James Stewart was that Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey were able to sneak through to steal the top places on the podium.

The TwoTwo Motorsports team owner/rider collided with Stewart on the 18th of 20 laps, and Reed is adamant that it was a simple racing accident that brought them both down.

“James put a hard pass on me earlier in the race, so I just put one right back on him,” said Reed. “I am happy to be on the podium but knowing I had a win in my sights and threw it away – that sucks.

“At the end of the race with 25 points on the line I would expect James to put it up the inside of me just as I put it up the inside of him. Unfortunately we both went down and gave these two kids a one-two.”

On lap two of the race Reed forced Stewart to make a mistake and passed the Yamaha rider to take the lead, a position he held until the second last lap of the race.

While Reed had pulled out to a five second gap, lapped riders held him up over the closing laps of the race, allowing Stewart to catch the him.

The duo battled bar-to-bar over the final laps and as they entered the whoops on the final lap, Reed dove to Stewart’s inside and the two collided, falling to the ground.

Villopoto and Dungey slipped past to take the first two spots while Honda rider Reed remounted and salvaged third place.

“Lappers cost me a lot of time but it was my fault,” Reed added. “I made the wrong call going through the whoops and ended up on the left side of Blose and there was nothing I could do it was the wrong move.

“I put myself in the position to win and I made mistakes like everyone else did. It was a good race, we all made mistakes but we all recovered and we were all fighting at the end.

“Every time I ride this bike I learn something. My fitness is great and the bike is set up well it is just a matter of doing more and more riding and figuring out the character of how the bike reacts.”

The in-form Reed now enters this weekend’s Daytona International Speedway round of the series as the pre-race favourite, the race marking the mid-point of the 17-race season.