The Tampa Shakeup: Sexton Goes Down, Opens Door for Stewart’s Win and Webb’s Points Gain

The second door (big picture), the championship. Cooper Webb smiled and rubbed his hands together.

Sexton entered race day in Tampa up two points on Roczen, nine points on Tomac, ten points on Webb, and 20 points on Jason Anderson. In Tampa, Webb came through second behind Stewart, Anderson third, Justin Cooper fourth, then Sexton fifth. Roczen officially scored 21st place and recorded only one point. And again, Tomac 17th but now he is out for the immediate future.

Leaving Tampa, Webb (96 points) cut five points out of Sexton’s lead (101 points) and jumped all the way up to second as both him and Anderson (third, 84 points) now sit above Roczen (fourth with 83 points).

Jett Lawrence was already out with his knee injury. Webb knew how big of a day it would be and he knew he had to take advantage. Throw in Roczen's DNF, Sexton's crash, and Tomac's now leg injury, and things are opening up for Webb, Anderson, Stewart, and others. 

Webb was feisty from the get-go this weekend, qualifying well immediately and winning his heat race. We know he’s a gamer when it comes main event time, but there seemed to be an extra focus to start the day better.

“It’s no secret, it’s a bummer with Jett [Lawrence getting injured] and it sucks, you want to race the best, but I mean we are all realistic,” Webb said in the post-race press conference. “In my opinion, it opens it wide open. It’s an opportunity. These don’t come often, and I wanted to make the most of it.”

Although he has been solid so far five rounds in, Webb starts to catch fire a handful of rounds into the season. Sexton still has the points lead, Roczen will not go down without a fight, and Stewart has some momentum. But Cooper Webb is in the exact position he likes to be in: the hunter. Who will take advantage of the situation come the Detroit Supercross this weekend?