The Champion in the Room

Eli Tomac was not on par with his usual, top-shelf level last week in Indianapolis, and he has now confirmed it was due in part to a sore neck he was battling. After getting a bad start the champ just couldn’t seem to move up, spending most of the race trailing Kawasaki riders Jason Anderson and Adam Cianciarulo. To make matters worse, Christian Craig got by him late, demoting him to eighth and handing the points lead over to Cooper Webb for the first time this season. How will Tomac rebound in Detroit? -Aaron Hansel

Successful Return

After missing two weekends of racing due to a wrist injury, Adam Cianciarulo came roaring back at Indianapolis and notched the best finish of his season, a sixth. It’s not surprising to see Cianciarulo finishing in sixth, he’s got the skills for that and more all day, but to see him ride better than he has all season after getting injured was a bit of a surprise! Will he be even better in Detroit? -Hansel

Midseason Surge

Maybe it’s not fair to say Justin Barcia is surging all of a sudden, since he’s been pretty darn fast all season, but man, he's taken it to another level the last two weekends. In Daytona he logged the fastest lap of the race. In Indy, After winning his heat race, he went out and rode extremely strong in the main to take second. He was closing on the lead too, and had he had an extra lap or two, may have been able to win the whole thing! We’ve seen Barcia collect wins in the past, but he’s in a big of a drought at the moment—he hasn’t won a race since the season opener in 2021. If he keeps his current pace up, however, he could break that streak in Detroit. -Hansel

Back on Top

Whether or not you’re a fan of Ken Roczen, you have to admit his return to the winner’s circle in Indianapolis was amazing. It was also about as feel-good as it gets, with the crowd, and Roczen’s competition, showing him all kinds of love after he rode a great race and withstood immense pressure from Barcia to get his first win of 2023. It seems as though Roczen and the boys at Progressive Insurance Ecstar Suzuki have got some key things figured out. Can he deliver another win in Detroit? -Hansel

New Ownership

If you weren’t paying attention, you may have missed it, but Cooper Webb quietly took ownership of the red plate in Indianapolis. He did it about as sneakily as possible too—he was third on the night! Usually nothing short of wins is good enough to unseat someone like Tomac, but when it comes to Webb, you’ve got to be on guard no matter what. What direction will Webb take it in Detroit? Will we look back after the season and mark this as the point when Webb took over the 2023 championship? -Hansel

Still In It

Chase Sexton was fast in Indianapolis, but unfortunately, as we’ve seen a few times this season, he went down. On this night he ended up tenth, his worst result of the season by far (before that a fifth in San Diego was his worst finish). Yet somehow his championship health wasn’t dealt a huge blow, thanks to Webb finishing third and Tomac eighth. What could have been disastrous resulted in Sexton trailing Webb by 13 points, and Tomac by 12. Sexton is still in the thick of it, but a win in Detroit would really help him stay there. -Hansel

Running the Table

Newsflash, Hunter Lawrence is pretty good on a dirt bike. So much so that his worst finish so far (a third in Arlington) wasn’t even off the podium. The rest of his races? He’s won ‘em all. We’re at the point now where you have to start wondering if he can win the rest of them too. He’s got the speed to do it, that’s for sure, but then again, anything can happen in racing. Does anyone think Lawrence cleans the rest of the season? -Hansel

Years Past

Does anyone remember last year’s Detroit Supercross? In the span of a couple of laps Jason Anderson went down (resulting in a three-race slump before he went on to win the final four races of the season) and then Cooper Webb made a miscalculation leaving Chase Sexton with nowhere to go but land right on top of him. Last year, the riders mentioned Detroit getting hard and slick, which can lead to mistakes. In those conditions, and with every point and every position becoming more valuable, anything can happen, and it usually does. -Sarah Whitmore

Great Expectations

Jordon Smith, being 33 points behind Hunter Lawrence in the championship admitted after Indy he is no longer thinking championship. His focus is on getting a race win. It is no secret that Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing expects the same out of him. But with the East Coast series is winding down, will he get a win in before Salt Lake? -Whitmore

The Other Brothers

When you have brothers leading both the East and West Region in points like the Lawrence brothers are, all attention is on them. But what about the other set of brothers out there in the 450SX class? Josh and Justin Hill have been getting consecutively better every week and looking more comfortable on their Team Tedder KTMs. Justin placed a season best ninth in Indy, only one spot behind Tomac. With similar soil in Detroit will we see him, or maybe both brothers break into the top ten again? -Whitmore