I think I heard he works for Victory in some tech type capacity? Is he being (unofficially) company sponsored?

I'd be willing to bet yes. I think I read a bit about that on a previous IBR post.
BTW, it can only be good for Victory no matter what the result. If the bike gets into the top 10 it's going to play damn well for marketing. If the bike mechanically fails for whatever reason then it's a pro for the Victory engineering department.
There's just no downside here.
And I am very much hoping for Victory to post a nice result. Best of luck Victory for Second Place (cuz' I'm still rooting for BMW to finish first!).