Trey Canard was certainly fast enough to podium—was the fastest qualifier and won a heat race—but a mistake on lap 13 in the main event pushed him back to seventh. “I just didn’t ride well; I was tight, picked poor lines and didn’t fix my mistakes,” he said in a team statement. “Then I jumped too long on a section, landed in a hole, missed the brake and went off the track. It was a bummer, but I’m glad I got the points for seventh. That’s better than nothing, and I’m walking away healthy so overall that’s an okay night. It’s a long series, so hopefully we can improve and keep moving forward.”

It was an up and down return to Monster Energy Supercross for Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel. After setting the quickest time in the second 450A session (good enough for second overall behind Canard), Pourcel struggled to an eighteenth place finish in the main. "First supercross race back after a long time,” he said in a statement. “In the main there was a red flag that didn't help because I was in a good position from not the best gate pick. The restart I got pushed off the track. We are here to learn and I know I have the speed. Jason [Anderson] is riding good; he won tonight and I can learn from him too. We will just keep pushing with the team and try to be with him in the top 5."

Broc Tickle finished outside the top ten for just the fourth time since 2014 at Anaheim. Tickle, who finished eleventh, said it was a pretty rough day. “I struggled throughout the day,” he said in a Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s RCH Suzuki statement. “I had a hard time getting comfortable and the track was awkward for me. As the day went on, I improved and ended up 11th in the main, so that’s not too bad. Obviously, not where I wanted to be so I’m looking forward to improving next week.”

Let's look at some notes regarding lap times.

450SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	4	1:01.954	2	1:03.815	Eli Tomac
2	1	1:02.104	9	1:03.177	Jason Anderson
3	3	1:02.169	2	1:03.750	Cole Seely
4	2	1:02.333	15	1:03.542	Ryan Dungey
5	15	1:02.488	2	1:05.553	Justin Barcia
6	7	1:02.513	4	1:03.660	Trey Canard
7	5	1:02.608	16	1:03.564	Ken Roczen
8	8	1:02.912	4	1:04.405	Davi Millsaps
9	6	1:02.945	7	1:04.139	Chad Reed
10	9	1:03.556	6 & 7	1:04.294	Dean Wilson
11	10	1:03.653	9	1:04.544	Justin Brayton
12	14	1:03.869	6	1:04.974	Marvin Musquin
13	11	1:03.898	3	1:04.600	Broc Tickle
14	12	1:04.173	5	1:04.895	Jake Weimer
15	13	1:04.242	5	1:04.994	Justin Bogle
16	16	1:04.493	10	1:06.514	Mike Alessi
17	17	1:04.937	10	1:06.809	Wil Hahn
18	20	1:04.991	8	1:07.099	Tommy Hahn
19	18	1:05.194	5	1:06.965	Christophe Pourcel
20	19	1:05.257	6	1:07.868	Kyle Chisholm
21	21	1:06.012	3	1:09.008	Lawson Bopping
22	22	DNS	DNS	DNS	James Stewart

You would have thought, for sure, that Jason Anderson had the fastest time on Saturday night, right? Well, it's all about the early sprint laps in supercross, and that's where Tomac did his best work. Give Eli some time to work on the finishes—he's coming back from major injury.

Anderson hit his hot streak in the center of the race, lap nine. He then unleashed a flurry, running 1:02 laps all the way through lap 13. He threw in another 1:02 on lap 16 for good measure. By the way, when Anderson ran that 1:02.104 on lap nine, the next fastest rider on the track was Ken Roczen with a 1:03.134. So that means Anderson was a full second faster than anyone else on the track on that lap!

We can break Anderson's charge down even further thanks to the AMA's segment times, where they actually break the track into four quarters. Anderson did his damage in the first segment of the track, which would start at the finish line jump, and include the dragon's back, the sand turn and the tunnel jump. On that blazing lap nine, Anderson completed that section in 16.743 seconds. He was in second place at the time. The leader, Cole Seely, did it in 17.467 seconds, and third place Trey Canard did it in 17.961. That means Anderson was 1.2 seconds faster than Canard in that one quarter of the track alone.

The segment times also give you a clue about how tracks can change. Anderson's 16.743 through that segment was great, but out of nowhere, on lap 18, Tomac got through it in 16.742. Our guess is that the sand turn got quicker by the end of the night. Lines were changing throughout the race in that corner.

It was a tale of two races for Seely. He ran in the 1:02 - 1:03 range from the start until lap 12. Then hit hit 1:04 on lap 13. One lap later, he lost the lead to Anderson. On lap 20, he ran a 1:06, putting him into the clutches of Ryan Dungey, who did a 1:04 to make the pass for second. "I had the worst stomach ache of my life, and I’ve said that before but the nerves were just getting to me hardcore," said Seely. The opener does strange things to people.

Speaking of strange, a note for the consistency of Dean Wilson. He ran identical lap times, down to the thousandth of a second, on laps six and seven. So, Dean literally didn't beat himself at Anaheim.

By now you know Justin Barcia suffered an epic and unfortunate fade due to arm pump, falling from second to tenth, before crashing and taking 15th. We looked at Barcia's laps, and noted he ran in the 1:02 and 1:03 lap time range until suddenly going 1:05 on lap seven, and then staying in the 1:05 to even 1:07 range most of the rest of the race. Look at Barcia's time on lap nine compared to what he did earlier in the race. Again, strange things happen when dudes are nervous at the opener.

Lap	Time
2	1:02.488​
3	1:03.294​
4	1:02.690​
5	1:03.335​
6	1:03.435​
7	1:05.121​
8	1:05.456​
9	1:07.224​
10	1:05.601​
11	1:04.733​
12	1:05.630​
13	1:04.870​
14	1:04.297​
15	1:06.509​
16	1:17.405​
17	1:09.496​
18	1:09.935​
19	1:09.756​

250SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	1:01.392	4	1:03.416	Cooper Webb
2	2	1:01.397	2	1:04.108	Jessy Nelson
3	4	1:02.256	6	1:05.047	Jimmy Decotis
4	3	1:03.210	5	1:04.746	Zach Osborne
5	5	1:03.759	5	1:05.621	Jordon Smith
6	9	1:04.181	5	1:06.926	Mitchell Oldenburg
7	6	1:04.268	5	1:06.379	Alex Martin
8	8	1:04.368	2	1:06.690	Joey Savatgy
9	21	1:04.392	8	1:06.868	Chris Alldredge
10	17	1:04.409	6	1:05.445	Christian Craig
11	7	1:04.741	5	1:06.250	Colt Nichols
12	18	1:05.187	7	1:07.521	Cole Thompson
13	13	1:05.288	4	1:06.345	Mitchell Harrison
14	15	1:05.822	5	1:08.054	Zach Bell
15	14	1:05.828	7	1:07.897	Fredrik Noren
16	10	1:06.123	4	1:07.451	Kyle Peters
17	19	1:06.167	6	1:08.746	Kyle Cunningham
18	11	1:06.330	3	1:08.229	Hayden Mellross
19	12	1:06.357	6	1:07.838	Cole Martinez
20	20	1:06.900	4	1:10.266	Maxime Desprey
21	16	1:06.971	2	1:09.012	Trevor Reis
22	22	1:07.491	2	1:11.571	Chris Howell

Look at this, Webb's best was barely better than Nelson's. How did he make up so much ground, then? Persistence. By lap four, Cooper was in his groove and started making up tenths on Nelson. Nelson gave it everything he had, but when Cooper made the pass on lap 10, it was over. Nelson went from 1:03s to a 1:05 on lap 11.

Cooper Webb	Lap Time		Jessy Nelson	Lap Time
2	1:02.748​		2	1:01.397​
3	1:01.898​		3	1:01.547​
4	1:01.392​		4	1:01.881​
5	1:02.332​		5	1:02.741​
6	1:02.411​		6	1:02.717​
7	1:02.142​		7	1:02.591​
8	1:02.651​		8	1:03.714​
9	1:03.384​		9	1:03.563​
10	1:03.143​		10	1:03.996​
11	1:03.531​		11	1:05.851​
12	1:03.630​		12	1:05.415​
13	1:05.264​		13	1:06.565​
14	1:05.661​		14	1:06.867​
15	1:07.638​		15	1:08.670​

More news and notes

The book on GEICO Honda’s Jordon Smith and Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Chris Alldredge in their rookie season was: fast, but can’t stay off the ground. Neither did anything to dispel those concerns on Saturday as both made mistakes. Smith’s was costly, as he was in the running for a podium before washing out the front end. He did rebound to finish fifth. “Last year [rookie pro season] I got a fourth but it was a come-from-behind race, so this time it was good to run at the front of the pack,” he said. “I just need to get used to it. I can definitely take some positives from it.”

Alldredge finished twenty-first on the night. "We made the best of the situation tonight... I know we have the speed to run at the front and I'm very capable of racing for podium wins,” he said. “I'm looking forward to riding during the week, putting down some laps, and working on what I know I need to improve…"

Christian Craig’s return to supercross came with a lot of ups and downs. Craig certainly showed speed, but crashed early in the main after tangling with Joey Savatgy. He crashed again later in the main and finished seventeenth. “[I] Went into the main and knew I could run top five or get on the podium,” he said in a statement. “I ended up tangling out of the gate with someone. Made some quick passes, was going to pass [Joey] Savatgy and I clipped his front wheel. Pretty much ended my night, my wheel hit his footpeg and it broke a couple spokes in my front wheel, I had to pull into the mechanic’s area to get them pulled out. I went back out there and salvaged what I could. I’m healthy and looking forward to next weekend to show what I’ve got.”