Round 14 of the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship took place this past weekend inside of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The suspense in the 450-title fight is beginning to build and Cooper Webb’s path to the championship is clear. If the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider can win at least one race, it will give him the ability to finish second to Red Bull KTM’s Chase Sexton, given the scenario the duo goes 1-2 the rest of the way. But three wins for Sexton here in the final three rounds would give him the title over Webb.
Webb started out the day strong, qualifying first in the first qualifying session. In his Race Day Live interview after the session, he commented that he, “Had long week recovering from his gunshot wound,” referring to Sexton giving Webb’s patented finger gun after the main event last weekend in Philadelphia. Webb backed it up in the second qualifying session with the third fastest lap, just one tenth off teammate Justin Cooper’s top time. Webb went on to win his heat race and things seemed set up nicely for Webb heading into the main event.
In the main event, Sexton grabbed the holeshot with Webb in tow and it looked like we could be in store for an instant classic between the two championship rivals. Coop kept Chase in check for a few laps but eventually lost touch with the Red Bull KTM rider. Webb was losing over a second a lap at times and Sextons lead eventually ballooned up to nearly twenty seconds! Sexton’s dominant victory cut Webb’s points lead down to just nine points.
At the post-race press conference, Webb stressed how critical the back-to-back whoop sections were in the outcome of the race explaining, “I need to blitz the whoops if I want to win, that’s the bottom line. I tried there for a little bit and just could not do it right. We have been working on it, but tonight there were ruts through every single whoop. It’s genuinely impressive what Chase did there. I need to work on that clearly and I feel like for me, that’s where he was night and day better. Early I stayed with him everywhere else, but the whoops he would blow my doors off and then it was catch up from there. I feel mentally I’m almost better knowing, in my opinion, I was on par everywhere else, but it was the two sets of whoops that really killed me tonight. Probably there should have been a bigger gap if I’m being honest.”
Cooper acknowledged the championship battle stating, “Yeah, I think it’s great for the fans, right? It is great for the fans, it’s great for the sport, it makes it fun. It’s what it is all about, right? You train your ass off to be in these situations when you sign up at A1, to be in a championship fight towards the end. I think for me I’m leaning on experience and just being here doing it with some amazing riders and now it’s with Chase. If it were me selfishly, I wish I could run away with the thing, but that’s not the case. I am just going to stick to my thing, we are both hell of competitors, so it is fun for everybody.”
Cooper also spoke with PulpMX’s Steve Matthes and credited Sexton on being his dominant performance saying, “Philly I was bummed because I feel like I let that main event slide. Tonight, he was the better rider and the whoops were working really well for him. I wasn’t great there and that’s what won him the race. Got to kind of tip the cap sometimes.”
Webb talked about the challenge of how to balance pushing for the win without taking unnecessary risks that could cost him valuable championship points. “I tried blitzing a few times and just wasn’t working for me.” He admitted. “It’s tough because I’m in a spot where if he blitzes and it wins him the race, great. If he blitzes and crashes out, that’s potentially his championship. I’m still riding that fine edge where if I crash out in the whoops and do not get second tonight, we got an issue. With that being said, we’re going to work on whoops this week.”
Webb plans to head back to the Star Racing Farm in Tallahassee this week and work towards making improvements for the whoops. He told Matthes, “Tonight was interesting with such a long run in. That is where the short legs make it hard to keep my bike planted. Gilly’s (Ricki Gilmore, Star Racing suspension tech) already got some ideas.” Webb even credited his young 250 teammates, admitting “We’re going to work on whoops this week and gain confidence and I think Haiden and Davies will be there. I need to be on par with Davies in whoops. He’s showing that that’s the way to do it. I’m still cool, calm, and collected. I like my odds, I like the position I am in, I am ready to go.”
The need for Coop to snag a win to clinch the title is all relative to him and Sexton going 1-2 to close the year. The only other time a duo has had 1-2 finishes for that many consecutive races to close the season would have been 2003 where the podium was Chad Reed, Ricky Carmichael, and Ernesto Fonseca for the final six rounds of the series. Matthes asked Webb if he thought that was a realistic scenario. He replied saying, “I think we are the best two by a good little margin. With that being said, every weekend is different. You are going to have certain guys that are fired up. I think JCoop is riding well, Aaron is riding well, and I think if Kenny heals up more, he can get in there. You still have these great, incredible guys. Me and Chase are just getting better and better and better and we’re riding at a very high level.”
The four-race Northeast swing of the championship will conclude this weekend at a new venue. Round 15 takes place inside of Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There is an early threat of rain for race day, which could easily throw a wrench into the Sexton-Webb 1-2 finishes to close the season. Rain or shine you can guarantee tensions will begin to rise between the two title rivals down the stretch.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC  | 365 |
| 2 |  Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL | 363 |
| 3 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 281 |
| 4 |  Malcolm Stewart | Haines City, FL | 277 |
| 5 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 271 |
