A piece of the silly season puzzle has fallen into place now that Red Bull KTM has renewed a deal with Marvin Musquin to return to Monster Energy AMA Supercross with a deal for 2023. Marvin had a one-year supercross-only deal for 2022, also, so his contract for racing technically expired this May. Based on the strength of his season (fourth in 450SX points and one of only five riders to get a race win) the Frenchman will return to his familiar brand and team for another supercross-only season in 2023.

The deal was announced last night at the KTM Group's Rev Dealer Summit, held at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"Yes, we just had to make it official at some point. This year was good, there were a lot of changes, staying in California and working with DV [David Vuillemin], so yeah, I just want to have the same program and move forward and keep representing the brand,” Musquin said. Musquin is so far the only rider to take a KTM 450 SX-F to a race win in 2022.

It might seem obvious that Musquin would return to KTM, but Marvin was spotted this summer in California riding a variety of bikes, from two-strokes to even Husqvarnas, which got the rumor mill stirring. There wasn't much to that, though. 

"Basically I was just having fun," he explained. "I told my mechanic Frankie [Latham] that I wanted to do some riding, just for fun. So he said he would go and ask the R&D guys [production testing] if I could come. They said yes. So I rode some stock bikes, production bikes and I helped with some R&D. So one day they said they wanted me to ride a 450, but they said all they had was a Husqvarna. So I said, “Yeah, it’s fine, still an Austrian brand, but I just don’t want the other energy drink logo on there. I don't want to get in trouble. I'm a Red Bull guy.' So yeah I did ride that Husky, but it was just for fun.”

Red Bull KTM's lineup for supercross is now set. In June, Cooper Webb signed a contract extension with the team that will see him on the a Red Bull KTM 450 SX-F through the 2023 supercross season (with an option to race Pro Motocross available. Webb told us last night that although he did skip Lucas Oil Pro Motocross this summer, he is still interested in racing outdoors next year). Aaron Plessinger joined the team in October 2021 and is on a two-year deal (2022 and 2023).

Of course this leads to the question about Ryan Dungey, who came out of retirement to race for his old team this summer. Will be retire again after this season is over? Dungey told us after the Spring Creek National that he has some options on the table for 2023. We'll see!