A glance at this year's Arlington Supercross makes it look much like those in the past, with Cooper Webb sneaking off with a close victory (he's the all-time leader for wins at AT&T Stadium, with six victories). But this one actually wasn't the same. Webb was against the ropes in qualifying and his heat, even more so than usual even though Webb is not known for qualifying speed, and in the main, he most likely wasn't going to get to leader Jett Lawrence. Then Lawrence crashed, and Webb found himself having to fend off a challenge from behind, which is the opposite of how these races usually unfold. Could Jett have pulled a last-lap pass on the master of the last-lap pass? We'll never know, because Jett ran into the back of lapped rider Vince Friese.
It doesn't matter, anyway, because the results show Webb as the winner and now just three points behind Lawrence in the standings. He spoke about all of it in the post-race press conference.
It was a rough night for you. I want you to talk about that because it ended in fantastic fashion. But start with kind of the hardships you face and then take us through what it means to get this win here in your house in Arlington.
Cooper Webb: Yeah, like I said, it was a tough day, qualifying wasn't great. And then in, in the heat race, you know, I got a great start and just went backwards. So, just struggling with the track a little bit and my myself. It was good to really turn it around. I was pretty down after the heat. So it was good to just flip the switch and go and be competitive in the main event, [but] by no means that I think I would go and win. But I wanted to regroup and got a good start and put myself in a great position, and I rode a solid main behind Jett and, you know, obviously got a little bit of a gift there, but we were trying to catch him there at the end and then, you know, we were close. So who knows if maybe the pressure got [to him] there. But, either way, I'll take it. And man, it just feels awesome.
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Align Media ![The Webb family.]()
The Webb family. Align Media
Well, you say it's a bit of a gift, but you traditionally, when the track breaks down and gets tougher, you tend to step up and get better.
No, for sure. And it was tough. That section was really tough as the main event went on and it was hard to get that rhythm clean each lap. So, I didn't see it [Jett Lawrence's crash] entirely but, yeah, that section was really tough.
It was an awesome podium speech from you, specially the line of buying a suite here [Webb now has six wins in this stadium, most all-time]. It's crazy when a guy can be so good at a stadium, even when you're not feeling it. And obviously you have to pull yourself out of a hole tonight. Can you just brainstorm on what this place brings this out of you? Like, do you have any kind of feelings about why this building?
I don't know. You know, I think we all have our spot where we just are good at, you know, and we're going to, to Eli's next week [Daytona]. We just gel with certain places and cities and stadiums. And for me, I always really like this dirt and how the track breaks down, and it's typically a bit tighter and just fits my style. I don't know if I was growing up racing spring nationals [amateurs] in Texas and just the people, the, the environment's great. So, you know, I think that's just a little bit of it, you just get those good feelings. Even on the broadcast, it showed ‘19, when I passed Kenny [Roczen] and it was the closest race ever. And I think just that alone, like every time I see it's like, man, it just brings back a smile and just reminds me of like, hey, this is a great, great place and I am a bad dude. Like I said, it was much needed, to pull myself out of the hole early as the day went on. But, like I said, I never thought I would have won tonight, that's for sure. So, I'm stoked I did.
Can you talk us through the mental process of digging yourself out of a hole on a, on a day like today?
It was tough because I felt really good. Like, I went around and I do a lap and I'm like, “Oh, I'll be on the board” and you're not even close. So, that's tough. Normally it’s like, hey, I made mistakes or your bike set up is off, it's a lot easier to regroup when you're just slow. This was not easy. It's good to have a good group behind you and a lot of people that believe in you and just pull your head out of your ass sometimes.
In 2019, it kind of had some inklings of this season the way I see it, that kind of started off a little rough and now you're starting to come on. It. Does it feel like some of your past championship runs coming into the east and starting to get ahead of steam?
It's hard to say, you know, last weekend was really tough. So, we needed a great race tonight. Obviously winning here is huge and I think as the points get tighter, as we always say, headed to Daytona, it’s always important to be in the title fight, but this year doesn't feel like any of the other years, to be honest. I mean, I've ridden, I feel like the best I have and I don't have as many podiums or wins as maybe as I did at this point before. So, it's a stacked class. The field is really, really deep, a lot of fast guys and you have to be on you’re A game and I think you've seen, we've all been kind of all over a little bit. So, it's an awesome feeling to get a win and to be back closer in the points and just kind of re-establish things and get some confidence moving forward. And like you said, headed east and headed to some places I really enjoy.
Arlington 3 (West) - 450SX Main Event
March 20, 2021| Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cooper Webb | 26 Laps | 0:48.757 | Newport, NC  | KTM 450 SX-F | |
| 2 |  Ken Roczen | +01.351 | 0:48.749 | Mattstedt, Germany  | Honda CRF450R | |
| 3 |  Eli Tomac | +03.434 | 0:48.576 | Cortez, CO | Kawasaki KX450 | |
| 4 |  Justin Barcia | +05.586 | 0:48.794 | Monroe, NY | GasGas MC 450F | |
| 5 |  Jason Anderson | +15.282 | 0:49.152 | Edgewood, NM | Husqvarna FC 450 |
Obviously you were in behind Jett, you're kind of going back and forth. Look like the gap was kind of similar throughout most of the race. Did you kind of have a section where you were like, maybe you're gonna make a last minute push at the end? Obviously, he made the mistake. But did you have a section of where you're really gonna try and push, you know, last lap or last couple laps?
Honestly, I didn't know. I put a late race charge together and lappers can play a part. So, I was just really trying to push and get as close as I could. It was a tricky track with the passing points because it was super, super rutted. And then the sand really kind of changed a lot. I didn't really have anything planned at that point. It's tough when, tonight, we were doing really short laps. So, you don't really know how many laps you have left. So, I was just trying to get as close as I could at the end and obviously it played out well for me.
When you got into the lead, did you know how close Eli and Aaron were to you?
I could see Eli coming, you know, about halfway. I could start to see him creeping in and taking chunks out and I was looking at the clock going, man, I better get it together. It was tough, there was some lappers, one lap I missed the whole rhythm because a guy was down. So, just some tricky conditions and you wanna push but then it's easy to make mistakes. Either way, I needed to keep those guys behind me for sure.
When you won the Triple Crown, you seemed a little disappointed that you didn't win one of the mains. Now you’re won a feature against all these guys heading into Daytona. Does that change the confidence level or does that change anything at all?
For sure. I mean, it was great to win the Triple Crown but to not win a main was a little… you just wanna win, right? And so tonight, to win a regular main event and in those environment and in that situation, it felt really nice. I've been reminded by a buddy of mine that it's been exactly almost a year since I've won a main event. So, now I can tell him, hey, it's back to zero days.
