Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton is not quite out of this Monster Energy Supercross Championship fight. In Atlanta, he dominated to net his third win of this season, and when combined with off-the-podium nights for both Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac, he is back within 17 points of the championship lead with four races to go. After the win, Sexton packed up for the airport and flew to Austin, Texas to catch MotoGP road racing at the Circuit of the Americas. We found him there and asked him about the weekend.
Racer X: We see you here at MotoGP on a Sunday. What do you normally feel like on a Sunday? Are you normally beat? Tired? Sore?
Chase Sexton: This morning I woke up feeling like I raced an outdoor race, just because it was hot, well, not hot but warmer, so I felt a little dehydrated this morning. You’re a little sore and it’s hard to sleep. But overall I feel good. I definitely got more sleep here, because I flew here last night, went to sleep and got to wake up at like 8. Normally I’m getting up at 4 am to get to the airport. I actually feel a little better today than normal!
So we talked in the press conference last night, on Zoom. When you had the lead, you were thinking about how you have to finish this, you can’t throw it away. It’s crossing your mind?
Yeah, especially since, I didn’t pull the holeshot, but I got into the lead so early, I was like “I know I can do this I just need to execute the way I know I can.” It was good. I read the pit board a lot, and when I saw the 10-minute mark, I really tried to lock in. I really just wanted to get through the first set of whoops really good. That was the hardest part of the track. I felt solid and my speed was really good in the main event again.
Okay you said you made more bike changes. You also have said you’re only doing long motos during the week, and not even doing qualifying or heats. Is there something you can pinpoint now and say, “We’re good now?”
Yeah, like I said last week, I’m just focusing on the longer motos. I also think I’m gonna do a day of outdoors this week. I just try to always focus on the longer races and longer motos. That’s what you get paid to do. So this week I was like, “I’m not focusing on anything except the main event.”
But hadn’t you already started to trend your prep in that direction?
Yeah, I had been moving toward that, because the speed hasn’t been a problem. Just consistency. I tried to hone in on the last ten minutes of the race.
Did you mention you have really stretched your bike out?
Oh yeah, she’s long. [Laughs]
[Laughs] Probably looks like one of these MotoGP bikes when they set the ride height devices down?
[Laughs] Yeah, for real! The way their bike looks like on the start, that’s what my bike looks like.
So is it possible that this set up, maybe it’s worse when the track is fresh and smooth but it’s better when the track gets rough? Are we getting to the point with tracks and bikes where you almost need to give up a little bit early to gain in back late?
Well, I say that, but then my qualifying hasn’t gotten any worse.
But that was the theory?
Yeah, I just want to give myself more of a comfort zone. Less on edge the whole race. I don’t care about being better or worse in qualifying. We made bike changes this weekend, but just clicker changes. I haven’t really made many fork or shock changes. But I’ve got longer clamps on and she’s pretty stretched out right now.
So, I think you’re 17 points out?
Yeah. Win out. That’s it. Gotta win the rest of these races and I’ll be good. Or if Cooper and Eli get into it, it might give an opening for me.
Well, they didn’t even get on the podium yesterday.
Right. Anything can happen. 17 points is a lot but it’s definitely doable. We’ve seen crazier stuff happen.
So you’re thinking about it, at least.
Yeah. All I can do is go out and try to win. I’ve put myself in a position where I have to win races. [Laughs] Those guys are racing more each other, I feel like. I’ve kind of gotten that vibe. So if we can get Justin, Kenny and Jason up there, it could be interesting.
Last thing. Coming to MotoGP. Is it good to shake hands and meet people here?
It definitely is. It’s cool to meet different people, especially different riders and building relationships.
You get recognized?
Yeah, it’s crazy how many motocross fans there are here, especially Europeans. I know there are a lot of Americans here, but I feel like there’s a lot of Europeans. But everyone has been saying, “Good job last night.” That’s really cool. Most of my sponsors are here, too. It’s cool to have them and be part of this.
Only thing that could be better, imagine if we had a supercross here in Austin on MotoGP weekend.
Yeah, that’d be sick. Well, at one point we thought we were going to race here.
Yeah, for SMX race, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s right, that would be in the fall. We need to have a supercross on this weekend when MotoGP is here.
That’d be wild, yeah.
