Cooper Webb has proven to be one of the best clutch performers in supercross history. That doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t there, or it doesn’t impact him, or that winning a tough one gets any easier. As he and Chase Sexton elevate their game, the battle intensifies.
"There's always pressure, right?" says Webb. "That's what makes the sport what it is. I think sometimes it can eat at you and it's tough and mentally it's draining and stuff like that. But you got to look and take it as an enjoyment. And you know, I'm 29 years old and I get to have that pressure of being a champion and maybe again and having the red plate and stuff like that. But it's not easy. I don't think anyone wants the stress of what comes with it. But with that being said, that's part of when you do execute, at least the two times that I have, it means so much to you. So yeah. We'll see.
“I think this one's honestly been a lot different,” said Webb when asked to compare this title fight to previous years. “It's been very heads up between me and Chase [the last few weekends] and that's a little bit unique. Since the break, have really gone back and forth and raised our level. We see it throughout the day in practice and heats and everything. It's more one on one, I guess you could say, compared to the others.
Webb also took one of his biggest losses ever straight-up to Sexton last week.
“Last weekend, was a bit of a defeat, right? So it was been a good week, but a long week,” said Webb. “Whenever you have bad races like that, it's a long seven days. It was getting to a point where we needed to do something, and I was definitely able to execute in that main event, got the holeshot and was able to sustain the pressure from Chase the whole time, which wasn't easy. It was a lot going on. The track was tricky. It was one where it could catch you off guard if you kind of wanted to catch a flow, at least for me. Lappers were tricky and just trying to change lines as the track broke down was tough. A much needed win for sure.”
This was a great race, with a raucous crowd ready for its first supercross hosting in over 40 years, weather that held out and avoided the mudder many feared. Webb and Sexton, with the championship hanging in the balance, started 1-2, essentially, and it was a 20-minute chase to the checkers. Webb has proven a master at dealing with pressure and late-race close scenarios, but this one didn’t feel assured.
“Not until the checkered came,” said Webb. “Yeah. I saw his mistake [Sexton went off track in the whoops] and I tried to capitalize and do a couple good ones. That was my one mistake because I missed the one rhythm, the on-on-off around the same time, a few laps after that. So I was trying to get away when he made that mistake. But he was able to recapitalize really quick and run a few tenths faster and got right back. So it was tough. I mean, it's always hard when you're out front, you don't really see where you're losing or gaining. But you are also in a situation that I think it was a little bit difficult to pass tonight, and I knew that. So just trying to ride consistent laps and honestly, the lappers too were a little tough tonight. Like they were getting out of the way, but we would catch him very quick and there wasn't much they could do because of the ruts. So kind of managing them was honestly difficult, especially the one rhythm had a really bad kicker. You're jumping beside some guys while doing it. Until the checkered flag came out, I didn't think I was safe. You know, I was just trying to click off laps as best as I could.”
To that end, Webb might have looked solid, but he didn't feel that way when pushing the pace that hard.
“It's easy to look back at the race and go, oh man, it was well executed,” said Webb. “But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of little mistakes you're making that you're trying to adjust. If you feel like you’re getting caught, you're trying to make a change, but you don't know what to change. So it was it was really mentally tough main event. You know, I think we were truly going for it. And at least from my end, I feel like we were both in a position where we wanted that win bad. And I think we both showed that.”
Webb, in his search for every last inch of performance, even let his team tweak the setup on his bike for the first time in awhile.
“Yeah, we made a shock change. First time in like two years,” he said. “It's always a little bit of a risk, in my opinion, when you do a bike change after having great success throughout the year. But I felt like it was a much needed change that helped me be a little bit better, a little stronger, helped me in the whoops, stuff like that. We'll fine tune it this week and hopefully, you know, get it even better.”
| 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 |
Webb must keep searching. This win makes his title pathway look easier, as now even if Sexton wins the final two races, Webb can clinch the crown with two seconds. But he knows second is far from guaranteed.
“Everyone keeps saying, oh, you know, get one win, get one win and mathematically it's over,” he says. “And it's like, dude, that ain't the case. You think it's easy to go get second every night? No it's not. And so there's anything that can happen. It's motorsports. We are giving it our all, and these guys like Justin [Cooper] and Kenny [Roczen] and AP [Aaron Plessinger] and Malcolm [Stewart] they're giving it their all too. They can be in the mix on any given night. So yeah, I mean, it's a big relief in the sense of, yes, I guess if you were to look at us going one and two mathematically does help, but that's not guaranteed by any means. So I think for me it was more just to stop the bleeding. Especially after last week.”
The pressure remains. Webb is still on guard. He still has his old moxy, though. After the finger-gun salute went back and forth between he and Sexton the last few weeks, Webb threw in a rock-the-baby motion after the race this time. He didn’t deny that it was a bit of a message.
“I had to switch it up, man,” he laughed. “I got finger banged. So you gotta come up with something new, right? I think at the end of the day, there's tension and there's rivalry right now. But I do have a lot of respect for Chase and always have. And I think we're some of the best that we'll ever do it in the sport is my personal opinion, the generation we have right now. So a lot of respect. But I definitely want to kick his ass.”
