A great track placed inside University of Phoenix Stadium gave us a fantastic night of racing, from the heats through the mains. Challenging rhythm sections and decently large whoops allowed the riders to either make up big time on their competitors or lose big time. 

In 250SX, Aaron Plessinger was the fastest rider on the track and grabbed the fourth supercross win of his career over Shane McElrath and Adam Cianciarulo. With the win, he steals the red plate from McElrath and Joey Savatgy, who were in a tie. 

In 450SX, Eli Tomac went wire-to-wire and cut a big chunk out of his championship deficit. He now trails Jason Anderson by 36 points and finds himself only one point behind Marvin Musquin, who has struggled with a shoulder injury.

Let’s dive into the lap data to figure out how these races were won and lost with this week’s Sign of the (Lap) Times. First, our traditional lap time charts.

450SX Class — Main Event — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1st	55.679	2	57.125	Eli Tomac
2	2nd	56.076	4	57.135	Justin Barcia
3	3rd	56.271	7	57.151	Ken Roczen
4	10th	56.651	8	58.226	Josh Grant
5	12th	56.678	10	58.551	Cole Seely
6	4th	56.764	9	57.722	Jason Anderson
7	9th	56.840	6	58.004	Blake Baggett
8	6th	56.877	2	58.140	Weston Peick
9	5th	56.937	4	57.786	Marvin Musquin
10	7th	56.939	5	58.061	Justin Brayton
11	8th	56.989	5	58.024	Cooper Webb
12	11th	57.076	6	58.155	Broc Tickle
13	13th	57.464	6	59.340	Malcolm Stewart
14	14th	57.655	5	59.771	Vince Friese
15	16th	58.094	11	1:01.098	Tyler Bowers
16	19th	58.433	5	1:00.774	Chad Reed
17	15th	58.477	5	1:00.173	Dean Wilson
18	17th	58.592	5	1:01.862	Justin Bogle
19	20th	58.816	5	1:01.656	Benny Bloss
20	18th	59.626	5	1:01.441	Jake Weimer
21	21st	59.749	5	1:01.107	Matt Bisceglia
22	22nd	1:00.605	3	1:01.220	Alex Ray

250SX Class — Main Event — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1st	57.013	7	57.789	Aaron Plessinger
2	2nd	57.216	4	58.062	Shane McElrath
3	4th	57.282	5	58.700	Joey Savatgy
4	3rd	57.424	5	58.105	Adam Cianciarulo
5	17th	57.569	4	59.811	Mitchell Oldenburg
6	5th	57.670	8	58.725	Chase Sexton
7	10th	58.149	5	59.032	Christian Craig
8	6th	58.163	5	59.428	Bradley Taft
9	8th	58.497	5	59.474	Mitchell Harrison
10	7th	58.525	7	59.549	Justin Hill
11	11th	58.805	5	1:00.475	Phil Nicoletti
12	9th	59.160	3	1:00.749	Kyle Chisholm
13	14th	59.726	16	1:01.087	Hayden Mellross
14	13th	59.860	4	1:01.575	Justin Starling
15	15th	1:00.182	7	1:02.097	Jean Carlo Ramos
16	12th	1:00.390	8	1:01.461	Cole Martinez
17	16th	1:00.445	7	1:02.333	Killian Auberson
18	18th	1:00.481	4	1:02.533	Martin Castelo
19	19th	1:00.823	4	1:03.279	Brandan Leith
20	21st	1:00.834	7	1:02.670	Ryan Breece
21	22nd	1:00.172	6	1:02.246	Justin Hoeft
22	20th	1:01.688	8	1:03.473	Carlen Gardner

450 Heat 2

As I was watching the supercross broadcast on Monday night and was just about to finish up the second 450 heat race, everything seemed pretty normal. Anderson had a decent lead, so I started to get up off the couch to make myself a pizza so I could have a solid snack ready for the main events. Then, suddenly, on the second-to-last lap, the broadcast cut to a shot that showed Broc Tickle, Cole Seely, Vince Friese, Blake Baggett, and Cooper Webb nearly wheel to wheel in the rhythm section before the whoops. 

I thought it was pretty interesting how each rider got to that position, as Seely and Baggett had an issue off the start and had to work their way forward throughout the heat race while Friese, Webb, and Tickle all seemed to steadily work their way backward. I charted out each rider's distance behind Anderson so you could see how they eventually got bunched up with just a lap to go.