Three hundred and seventy-eight days. That’s precisely how many days came between Pierce Brown’s crash while leading the Tampa 250SX East round main event on February 8, 2025, and his recent 250SX East main event win at Arlington on February 21, 2026. Well over a year out of action for Pierce Brown – he broke his T5 vertebrae in the Tampa shunt - and astonishingly, the native of Sandy, Utah, was able to line up and win the first supercross main event he came back for and competed in. Now entering his seventh season in the sport, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team member has displayed podium talent and speed all along the way and looks at 2026 as a year to “put it all together.” Still feeling the glow of winning his very first supercross main event by 2.4-seconds over rival Jo Shimoda, we tracked down Brown and got his take on it all.
“I’m just hanging out on the couch right now,” said Brown, taking a breather before this Saturday’s 250SX East round set for the whooped-out sand of Daytona International Speedway. “I just got back from the track. We rode a little bit today just to keep things sharp.”
And has the magnitude and importance of the Arlington, Texas, 250SX East win finally sunk in for Pierce Brown?
“Yeah, yeah, I think it has,” said the 23-year-old. “Definitely, Sunday morning on that flight home, I was pretty stoked. Yeah, I mean one thing about this sport is that those types of wins are cool, but they’re pretty short lived because we need to be on our A game for next weekend and just the rest of the season. Yeah, I mean we enjoyed it, but it’s just eyes forward for now.
“I’m speechless about the win, honestly,” continued on Brown. “For so long I didn’t think that would be possible… Really, ever possible. But to come out the first race back and win, yeah, it was special for sure. I mean it meant a lot to me and especially all the people around me. It especially meant a lot to the people around me that saw me at my lowest, you know? I mean there was definitely a lot of doubts and question marks along the way. Yeah, I’m stoked.”
And so are all the friends, family, sponsors and hangers on within the Pierce Brown camp.
“Yeah, it’s funny you say that,” laughed Brown. “It’s definitely not a bad thing how everyone has come around. It’s nice when you show up to the track and everyone is stoked, you know? It makes the week leading into the next race a lot easier and it takes the weight off my shoulders. No, it’s funny because like I said, I spent so much time off and, on the couch, last year. Yeah, I mean I didn’t really hear from anybody. Everyone was just doing their own thing, and I was just kind of written off. Now it has completely changed. Everybody wants to be your best friend and wants to be a part of it. Right now, for the ones that were there when I was at my lowest, those are the people that I have really been keeping close. It’s honestly life. The world keeps spinning with or without you. Especially in this sport. Like we’re talking about, one minute you’re everyone’s top story. Then, like I did last year, you can go an entire year without really racing at all and I don’t think anybody even thought about me. No, it’s funny how things work. Yeah, just to be in the position I am with how much time I took off, it is special, for sure.”
It was certainly a special win considering Brown was, for all intents and purposes, out of the loop and off the racetrack for an entire year.
“Dude, I mean it was tough,” explained Brown of the layoff. “I didn’t really know what the future was going to hold a year ago today, you know? I was doing everything I could day in and day out to get back to racing and back into the form that I was in when I went out... There was a question mark on if I was going to be able to make it back because the level elevates. The young kids come up, and these kids are getting faster. Keeping up with them is tough as it is but missing so many races and so much seat time as a whole was also tough. It was something that I wasn’t really sure I was going to be able to overcome. We worked day in and day out and we just focused one day at a time for the first six months. Then I got back on a bike in October and then that’s kind of when things changed a little bit. I was able to see the progress come quick. Everything kind of came back feeling-wise. I just wanted to come back and prove to myself that I could. I’ve had more than plenty of seat time now. Just to get ready for this East season, it was four months of preparation, and I needed every bit of it. I was hungry every day. I knew I had a lot to make up. It was definitely time needed and it was well spent.”
Brown claims that, performance-wise, he didn’t really know if he had the speed to be competitive straight off at AT&T Stadium.
“Yes and no with the speed coming back,” explained Brown. “You never really know what everybody else has been doing. One thing about the Star team is that the level we ride at every day, it’s race winning pace. Whether you like it or not, it’s at race pace. We’re riding with Cooper Webb and Justin Cooper and all of my teammates. Everybody has been riding really good all off-season. Having them is like a training tool. It was good because I knew if I as able be as fast or faster than them, it was race winning pace. Cole Davies had a really good year last year and he’s elevated his game this year and he was kind of my carrot to chase. I had plenty of days when he was faster than me, but those days that I was faster than him, it definitely did a lot for my confidence.
“Coming into round one at Arlington, I knew I was in a good spot, and I knew I could win. It was just a matter of doing it, you know? Everything is always crazy at round one. Everyone is super-excited to get back to racing. For me it was mainly just staying out of the chaos. That was my main goal, and I think I ended up doing that really well. For next weekend at Daytona, there are a lot of guys that are hungry, so it’s going to be fun. I’m just ready to put my best stuff forward and see where we end up. And my goals for next weekend at Daytona aren’t really any different than they were at round one at Arlington.
"It’s still early in the season and I know it’s important just to keep my foot on the gas and to make sure that we execute and that I’m riding to my potential. Getting a good start is really my main goal. If we can walk out with a podium or another win, that would be great. I mean it’s important to really maximize points wherever we’re at. I’ve still missed a lot of racing. There are a lot of scenarios that I haven’t been in yet. Being out front at Arlington was definitely good for me. In my career I really haven’t ever really started up front and led those laps, so I’m normally a comeback from the back of the pack kind of guy. I’m known for some bad starts. Coming through the pack has never really been an issue. Handling that pressure up front is something that I’ve never really had the opportunity to test myself with. Being able to do that at Arlington was really good. Like I said, we’re still learning and it’s still early. We’re just going to take it round by round and day by day and see where we end up.”
