Honda HRC's Chase Sexton is finally avoiding those late-race errors that cost him so many times in the past. He's now won two of the last three races in Monster Energy AMA Supercross, but time is running out, as he sits 18 points back of Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Eli Tomac. Sexton now sits second in the standings after Cooper Webb crashed out of the Nashville race over the weekend.
What's Chase thinking now? He answered questions in the post-race press conference.
Chase, congrats on the win. It’s a day race, so how did you deal with the early start time, and how did you feel throughout the day?
Chase Sexton: It’s super cool to be here, we haven’t been here since 2019. For me, the day races have been working out, waking up early. But again I felt tired all day. By the main event, I felt solid. Track was really gnarly and I felt like I rode a solid main event. It’s awesome. I felt like the crowd was pretty loud, especially toward the last couple of laps, when Eli and I were kind of going back and forth a bit there. The crowd was pretty vocal and I feel like we have a pretty good turnout.
What’s the process like for the next couple of weeks, while you’re still mathematically in this championship? But you also know the Pro Motocross Championship is coming. How do you balance that?
I’ve actually been riding outdoors once a week for the last couple weeks. I’m not fully shifting my mindset for outdoors, but definitely starting to prepare. I’m still on the same setup I was last year, so it’s a pretty smooth transition. It’s been fun switching it up, it helps with supercross, corner speeds come back. I think it also helped for this race. Outdoors you have to pick lines, and the tracks get torn up. A track like this, it was torn up. Outdoors just kind of opens up your mind a little bit.
![Sexton and Tomac]()
Sexton and Tomac Align Media ![]()
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Talk about the track conditions. It was really beat up.
Yeah I think we had kind of similar conditions the last two weekends. Obviously last it week it rained, but before that it was really hard packed, but it had soft pockets, as well. Today started out, I guess it was a little wet in practice, just from watering and the rain the last few days. It got dry and you had those soft pockets, and The dragon back got really chewed and the last whoop was like a wall. You had to get good speed going off of it and you couldn’t back it down at all. As far as the whoops, they’ve been small the last two weeks, but I think they get sketchier like that. The get like these inverted cups at the top. I had a good line in the main event that saved me. I was skimming and then I would triple out. All day I was not super comfortable in those.
You’re now up to second in points. So what’s your mindset from here forward?
Yeah my mindset remains the same, like Eli said, a lot of things can happen, but he’s got a big points gap. Now that Cooper didn’t race tonight it moved me into second. I just want to go out there and put my best foot forward and try to win these last three races. That’s the goal. We’ll see what happens. My riding has been good and I’m just stoked with how I’m riding these rougher tracks these last few weeks. It’s been a struggle I guess the middle part of the season just making mistakes. I’m just riding better in the second half of the moto. Just stoked on that.
You’ve just won your fifth main event. How does that feel?
[Laughs] Yeah five wins doesn’t feel like a lot when you’re sitting next to these two [Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen].
Nashville - 450SX Main Event
April 29, 2023| Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Chase Sexton | 23 Laps | 53.679 | La Moille, IL  | Honda CRF450R | |
| 2 |  Eli Tomac | +14.513 | 53.325 | Cortez, CO | Yamaha YZ450F | |
| 3 |  Ken Roczen | +29.756 | 54.330 | Mattstedt, Germany  | Suzuki RM-Z450 | |
| 4 |  Colt Nichols | +34.374 | 54.805 | Muskogee, OK | Honda CRF450R | |
| 5 |  Justin Hill | +39.895 | 54.222 | Yoncalla, OR | KTM 450 SX-F |
When we have a race like today and we lose riders, we see riders go down, does that creep into your mind a little bit? Like “Today could be the day, let’s just back it down?”
Yeah it’s tough, losing guys, especially this late in the series. You have to be on your game on tracks like that. It makes it more of a prize to be focused. That’s how I try to look at it—you try to look at the positives and not the negatives.
How do you feel for the upcoming Pro Motocross Championship? And how do you compare that to supercross? Do you feel more comfortable in motocross than supercross?
I’m definitely excited, I had a good outdoor season last year and the confidence is higher than it was last year. As far as supercross, I’m definitely getting more confidence. It was definitely a learning curve, but I feel we’re getting closer and closer to where we need to be. Outdoors, I rode it two weeks ago and I felt like a fish out of water. On Tuesday I had a really good day. I rode two motos and I got my confidence back. Didn’t take too long. It was fun. You’re riding in Florida and it’s sandy and when you come back to the house you’re covered in sand. So, it’s fun and I’m looking forward to a good summer.
With only two races to go and the points gap being pretty big, do you find it hard to find the motivation to push beyond your limits?
I would actually say it’s the opposite. I don’t want to ride over my head by any means, but if I have an opportunity in front of me to win, that’s what I’m going to do. With Eli, with the way this track was, with how sketchy it was, I knew he wasn’t going to push, to where if I pushed him he wasn’t going to fight back. I started just clicking off my laps and I had a good flow. I didn’t feel sketchy at all. I’m offensive on the mentality side right now. That’s the position I am in, where he has 18 points to play with.
