Saturday Night Live: Nashville

Another subplot met its end when Justin Barcia had a big crash off the dragon’s back right before the whoops. The Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GasGas rider, fresh off a win last week in East Rutherford, and having won his heat race, was running third when he crashed spectacularly, breaking his collarbone in the process. Barcia had been authoring a sensational second-half of his season, but unfortunately it’s over now.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for everyone, however. Chase Sexton, on a slick, dry track that could have easily reached up and yanked his front wheel out from under him, once again avoided the mistakes that have arguably become the norm for him in 2023, and rode brilliantly to not only devour a huge gap held by Eli Tomac early in the race, but to pass him with relative ease before breezing to the win. It’s been a few rounds since we’ve seen Sexton crash all by himself. Is this evidence of a course correction from the HRC Honda front man? We’re going to need more races to draw a conclusion, but these are good signs from Sexton.

“My mindset remains the same,” Sexton said of his supercross season. “Now that Cooper [Webb] is out I’m second in points. I’m just stoked with how I’m riding these rougher tracks in the second half of the season. I’m just riding better in the second half of the moto. Just try to win these last few races.”

Despite winning the race, ostensibly with ease, Sexton said he wasn’t comfortable on parts of the Nashville track.

“Last week [before the rain] was similar, hard in spots but there were soft spots,” Sexton explained. “The dragon back got really chewed and the last lap was like a wall. You had to get good drive off of it. The whoops weren’t big but I think they were sketchier because of that. They got like a cup on the top. All day I was not really comfortable in those.”

Tomac, who finished second on the night and now holds an eighteen-point lead over Sexton in second, had similar sentiments.

“That’s the condition that we had today, you get those soft pockets and dry dirt.” Tomac said. “After the 250 main I was like, ‘I hope they groom that dragon back because it looked like staring at a curb. They did groom it, but it was still tough. That’s just what you get when the track goes from wet to dry so quickly.”

The difficulty of the track is something that caused Tomac to ratchet his speed down a notch while leading.

“I got another great start and was riding in my zone, but I had a couple moments in the whoops, straight up, so I just backed it down,” Tomac admitted. “I basically backed down my pace. You saw dust, but there were some soft spots out there, and those pockets were really tricky. Chase was going fast as well.”

Roczen, who rounded out the podium, had thoughts on the tricky racing surface too.

“Toward the later stages of your career, it just sucks so you have to look at it differently. When I was younger I would just go balls to the wall. Now I kind of pick my spots and think ahead and brace a little bit more. It can still happen to any one of us.”

Roczen is also authoring some impressive highlights in the twilight of the 2023 season.

“I’m really pleased with it, because I have the stigma of going backwards late in the season and that hasn’t been the case this year,” Roczen said. “The track was gnarly and I sometimes get flashbacks to 2017 a little bit. So I just stay high in some of the lines. I just had a gap and stayed where I was at—I’m actually a little bummed with my riding, especially the first couple of laps. Overall, though, I can’t complain about a podium for me and the team. That’s my goal.”

Colt Nichols had an extremely solid fourth place, a career best, while Justin Hill rounded out the top five. After having been in the top-ten multiple times this season, a goal Hill had, he told us afterward he’d been getting greedy, and had wanted to land in the top five. Well he did just that in Nashville, and his brother, Josh, earned tenth, marking the second time in the season the Hill brothers have both finished inside the top ten. That’s cool!

Manluk/Rock River Yamaha/Merge Racing’s Grant Harlan, who was riding a 2023 Yamaha for the first time this season (he’d previously been riding a ’22), had an unfortunate crash off the dragon’s back and dislocated his shoulder. 

In 250 action, there were no changes in the main storyline. In fact, it played out like a Disney movie—the main character not only won the championship, but did it in style by also winning the race. Hunter Lawrence, who only needed to finish 20^th or better, led early, but was passed by Jordon Smith early in the 250SX main event. Lawrence would later benefit from a mistake from Smith, who went off the track. Lawrence seized the opportunity, took the lead, and checked out.

“As a kid growing up, I didn’t even dream of it, because you just watch it on TV, and in Australia, the sport is not that big there, and dad has a normal job and you think that’s what life is going to be,” Lawrence said after clinching the 250SX east title. “As a kid growing up, it’s not like, ‘I’m gonna be an AMA Supercross champion.’ It was just so far away. I think what makes it so good, we have a core group of people around us. They were all there, that same group was here today was there when we were at rock bottom.”

Coming in second was Jo Shimoda, who only recently returned to racing following a broken collarbone before the 250SX east season even got started.

“I’ve been telling everyone, I’m just happy to be back on the gate,” Shimoda said afterward in the postrace press conference. “It’s great to be back on the podium, but really just to be back on the gate, traveling. Just the routine. That’s great.”

Rounding out the podium was Smith, who had an opportunity to win his first race of the season but couldn’t quite make it happen. Still, Smith was focusing on the positives after the race.

“I had a good start and was running good laps at the beginning. I’m not taking these podiums for granted, my last one was in 2019, and then after that, there were times I didn’t even know if I’d keep racing a dirt bike. Just couldn’t get injuries figured out,” Smith explained. “I have a different perspective. When you’re there and you’re young, you’re on the top of the world and you feel like you’re never going to lose it. Then, you feel like you’re never going to get it back. I felt like I was running out of chances. I feel like I was in two different careers, before and after 2019.”