But we start with the bad news. Last week I was writing about the inconsistencies in the rules regarding red lights, cross flags, and timing and scoring, and how if SMX wants to be considered a major league sport, we can't keep having minor league problems. Well, this week was the careful-what-you-wish-for part of that whole concept. No one really likes to report other people's bad news, especially when it's a deeply personal issue involving someone you've known for a very long time. When a rider is suddenly absent and the rumor mill—and especially social media—starts churning out clickbait reports, police reports, and even mugshots, well, journalists have to dig in and see if there's any real flames beneath all that smoke. In the case of Jason Anderson's absence from the Daytona Supercross, unfortunately, there was. Just like there was back in the day when Ron Lechien was arrested and subsequently fired or Jeff Emig in Lake Havasu or James Stewart with a police light in his vehicle or Jason Lawrence for brawling with fans at RedBud or whatever they found in Davi Millsaps' locker or the Lucas Mirtl saga with the Lawrence brothers and so forth and so on... 

In the case of Anderson, a mugshot popped up on Instagram on Sunday, and by Monday, people were digging into the public records of Orange County, Florida. By midday, the team was preparing a statement. Not long after that, Jason himself put out a statement:

"I want to speak directly about the recent situation. I take full responsibility for my actions, and I'm truly sorry for the hurt they've caused my wife and family. We are asking for privacy right now as my focus needs to be on my family. I'm stepping away indefinitely to give them my full attention and to work on being the husband and father they deserve."

So what exactly happened, and when? According to the police report, the Andersons got into a heated argument. It spilled outside, and in front of their neighbors, one of whom called the police. They arrived, and Jason was arrested and booked on December 15th. The charges were then eventually dropped in February. The couple has since been working privately on their issues, but then it became public earlier this week.

Given that the whole thing happened back in December, and the charges were dropped in February, it would appear that Anderson was hoping the whole unfortunate situation would stay under the radar, just as it had for two and a half months. But then he missed the Daytona race, the mugshot found its way onto social media, and the calculus changed for everyone—the rider, the team, and the sport in general. Whatever the circumstances, he was a former champion/current competitor with an arrest on record for domestic battery. As embarrassing and unfortunate as it was for the athlete, it was now news for the public. This takes us back to that major league/minor league conundrum. ESPN would have been all over this if it were an NFL player or NBA, NHL, MLB, whatever. I think the general moto media was too, though not in the clickbait style of throwing any and everything out there—rumors, hearsay, conspiracy theories, etc. Until the arrest record could be found and authenticated or a source within the team came forward or the athlete himself put out a statement, no responsible journalist wants to be the source of what turns out to be something entirely different from what was initially leaked/posted on social media. I imagine ESPN and other networks and news outlets are that way too with more mainstream sports, but in those cases, there are many more eyeballs on the sport, and thus many more sources, some reputable, some not. That's the nature of media in our modern world.

Here's hoping that Jason Anderson and his wife and family find their way through this whole ordeal.

Nick Fisher and Kyle Slone. Godspeed. (DC)

Sadly, last Thursday, on the way to the Daytona Supercross, two motocross friends from Waverly, Ohio, died in a car crash in West Virginia. Nick Fisher, 28 years old, and his brother-in-law Kyle Slone, 23, were killed in the accident. Nick was the owner and CEO of DirtWRX Unlimited. He also worked as a project manager for Waste Management at Kenworth. He and his wife, Michelle, had two children, Elena (7) and Makayla (5), with a third child, a boy named Eli, due in August.

Kyle worked at Pegasus Industries, Chillicothe, Ohio, as a warehouse shift supervisor. He and his partner, Clover Hope Smith, had a daughter together named Emmy.

Kyle Slone's funeral took place on Wednesday in Waverly. Funeral services for Nick Fisher will be held tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at Botkin Hornback Funeral Home in Waverly. Burial will follow in Evergreen Union, where Kyle was buried. The family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the funeral at the funeral home.

The family asks that casual attire be worn to represent the moto community.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Nicholas C. Fisher Memorial account at Atomic Credit Union, 190 Waverly Plaza, Waverly, Ohio, for his children's futures.

There will be a raffle for racing gear and various items this weekend at the Henderson Arena Race in Jackson, Ohio. All proceeds will be given to the families of Nicholas and Kyle to help take care of their kids.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

This Indy event matters a little more than most for the 450 championship contenders. With the gap between the duo of Hunter and Eli back to Webb and Roczen pressing 20 points, the timing is critical. Going into an off weekend, it feels improbable that a 25-point lead could be overcome when accounting for not one but two of the world's best racers. They simply can't let the lead increase from here. If they take it back down to the mid-teens, that creates positive momentum into the weekend off and renewed hope. Further distance to the red plate would create disappointing and dwindling sentiment.

It's easy to think one random race means more than another, simply from recency bias, but I think this one truly does. The Triple Crown event into an off weekend changes the mental dynamic. Add in the aforementioned points cliff, and things could take a deciding turn in the Circle City. For the front two, they may not be as focused on that aspect because they have a two-man battle brewing. For a rider like Webb, though, he would be locked in on the situation. 

He's a master of strategy and would know how pivotal this race is for future aspirations. He said after A2 that it could have been the nail in the coffin. If things don't go his way Saturday, this time it might be true.

Triple Threat (Mitch Kendra)

With the Monster Energy AMA Supercross paddock in action this weekend at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC Racing) Series in Alabama, and the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) in Argentina, moto fans have a lot to follow on Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday brings us the ninth round of 450SX, the third round of 250SX East Division, and our second Triple Crown (crossing our fingers this race is as good as the Houston SX Triple Crown was!), plus the qualifying motos for the MXGP of Argentina opener, as well as the ATVs at the Talladega GNCC. Then, when the SX paddock is heading home on Sunday, the bikes will be battling at Talladega Superspeedway while the points-paying motos will be in action in Argentina.

The GNCC Racing field was led by KTM teammates Ben Kelley and Grant Davis at the Wild Boar GNCC, but in the standings, it's Kelley leading Jordan Ashburn, round one winner Johnny Girroir, Mike Witkowski, and Craig Delong here early in the long season. Davis sits sixth at the moment, but expect him to move up the standings as soon as this weekend.

As far as the MXGP opener, there are a ton of storylines to follow. Team changes from Tim Gajser (now on Yamaha) and Jeffrey Herlings (now on Honda), which are both weird to type, are two of the big stories but not the only changes. Tom Vialle joins the MXGP field on his Honda, as does KTM's Andrea Adamo and Husqvarna's Kay de Wolf, all three of whom have an MX2 championship (Vialle has two). Unfortunately, a thumb injury will keep de Wolf out of his first scheduled 450 MXGP race. Hopefully, he joins the field at round two!

And for us East Coasters, hopefully spring weather is here soon so we can get back to riding our own bikes!

And here is a quick look at the opener in Argentina via Sergio Luis Clot:

Is Eight Enough? (DC)

The story of the year continues to be the orange success story that has been Eli Tomac and Red Bull KTM. Eli winning at Daytona International Speedway is no big shocker, but the fact that he's making the turn with four wins in eight rounds is a very big deal. He's not actually the points leader—the very steady Hunter Lawrence still has the red plate, albeit by a single point—but he has turned back the clock for himself and turned around the fortunes of KTM's SMX program. 

They had a miserable year in 2025, especially in the 450 class, and now have as many wins as all other manufacturers combined, thanks to Eli. And to have won Daytona, the single toughest race of all in Monster Energy Supercross, for an eighth time—and on a fourth different brand of motorcycle—is an incredible feat.

So how does Eli at Daytona stack up against other riders and their most dominant tracks? Dutch sandmaster Jeffrey Herlings won at the old Valkenswaard circuit (which is no longer on the MXGP schedule) in the Netherlands nine different times, including his first-ever win at age 15 back in 2010. Before that, Roger DeCoster won at the legendary Citadelle circuit in Namur, Belgium, seven different times. In supercross, Jeremy McGrath won inside Anaheim's Angel Stadium—the House that Jeremy Built—eight times in his first ten tries (though it should be mentioned that there was no Anaheim SX in either 1997 or '98, the prime of his career, as it was undergoing stadium renovations). Bob Hannah won the Pontiac Silverdome SX seven times in his first eight visits to the Michigan stadium, including three straight doubleheader sweeps ('97-'99). And then there's the GOAT, Ricky Carmichael, who has more wins than anyone at almost every track in Pro Motocross. His most successful track was Budds Creek, where he won 10 times in 11 years and 18 of 22 motos.

Flash Trivia: Who is the only rider to have beaten Carmichael at Budds Creek for a Pro Motocross overall?

Carmichael also ended his career at Budds Creek at the '07 MXON with a win in the MX1 division, though he and everyone else were upstaged that day by Ryan Villopoto.

For Tomac, the biggest challenge this time was once again hoisting that massive and very heavy Daytona trophy, which saw the hold come apart from wheels to the base. The trophy smacked him in the tooth on live TV, leaving him with a chipped smile. The Speedway is replacing the special trophy for Eli, which has been hand-crafted by a metallurgist artist for the past 15 or so years, though he's not the only one to have broken one. Apparently, James Stewart's kids broke his 2012 trophy while playing with it in the house!

Whither Sexton? (DC)

It's been another strange season already for Chase Sexton. He's won a race on the Monster Energy Kawasaki, and he's also looked out of sorts at times. Now he's out of this championship completely, having missed Daytona after a practice crash and now Indianapolis. No one is saying much from an official standpoint, but this is alarming. Sexton did not part amicably with KTM last year, having crashed out of both Pro Motocross and the SMX Playoffs. The move to Kawasaki would mean his third team in three years, as he left Honda for KTM after winning the 2023 SX title and is now on Kawasaki. For their part, Kawasaki was coming off of a disastrous year with Jorge Prado and Jason Anderson. Now the alarm bells are sounding again. And we have no idea what they are signaling, other than another disjointed year for both the rider and the team...

MXGP KICKS OFF (DC)

The 2026 FIM Motocross World Championships begin this weekend in Argentina with the first of 19 MXGP rounds. The season is shaping up to be an incredibly interesting one, with a lot of parallels to what's transpired here in America recently. Just as we had some high-profile transfers, like Jorge Prado going from KTM in MXGP to Kawasaki in AMA, and then back again, or Chase Sexton leaving Honda for KTM, and then KTM for Kawasaki, the Grand Prix paddock has had some major moves. After spending his entire career with KTM, Jeffrey Herlings is now aboard a Honda; the same goes for Tom Vialle, who returned from America and also got on a Honda for his move up to the MXGP (450) class. Tim Gajser left Honda after more than a decade in red, with five world titles to show for it. All three are expected to be in the mix, along with the defending FIM World Champion Romain Febvre, who is staying aboard the Kawasaki he won the title on, even while others like Prado and Jason Anderson (and maybe even Chase Sexton right now) have struggled. Also joining the MXGP fold are two more former MX2 World Champions in Kay de Wolf and Andrea Adamo, meaning that, when you add two-time champ Vialle, this is probably the first time in history that three former 125/MX2 champions have moved up at the same time.

The question for everyone on the move is this: Will each transition turn out badly, or will it turn out better, just like Eli Tomac is proving right now on the Red Bull KTM? Despite all of the hand-wringing and second-guessing by pundits, most of whom seemed to think that Tomac would struggle with a steel frame after all these years on aluminum-framed bikes, he's won four of the first eight rounds of 2026. That's a win ratio that every single one of the MXGP guys mentioned in the paragraph above would surely take.

The other big storyline may be that of the Coenen brothers, as twins Lucas and Sacha are each expected to be title contenders in MXGP and MX2, respectively. They are also said to still be eyeing a move to America with their new representative here, former FIM World Champion Bob Moore. The brothers looked as fast as anyone—including the Lawrence brothers—at the MXON, but only for laps at a time, not entire motos. But if they ever solve this crashing issue, well, look out.

And the rider getting the least amount of preseason talk, besides Romain Febvre? His fellow defending world champ, MX2 #1 Simon Langenfelder. The German, soon to be 22, has made a quiet career of flying under the radar. This title chase is shaping up to be a battle between him and Sacha, as well as Liam Everts.

You can watch the MXGP of Argentina stream live on MXGP-TV.com, with qualifiers and the studio show tomorrow, and the actual MXGP motos on Sunday.

PULPMX SHOW (Matthes)

We had an entertaining PulpMX Show Monday with multi-time Canadian Champ Dylan Wright and Ryan Lockhart in-studio to help break down Daytona. 250SX winner Seth Hammaker called in to tell us that he was okay after his qualifying crash, but his bike was too bent up to continue. I was wondering if he had landed on his recently repaired shoulder, and he did not, but he did land on a shoulder that he had repaired at some point. He went on to tell us that he had four shoulder surgeries! Also, when I asked him about his contract situation, he seemed to think it would start up soon and that he really liked it at Pro Circuit and wanted to stay there. As far as his Daytona performance, like other riders said, the sand section was huge for him. He really focused on getting through that, mentioning that he would time it so he would roll the big jump and then get drive going down on the backside to stay straight.

John Tomac called in to tell us about his kid's Daytona win and the general move to KTM as well. He admitted that it was a huge jump for ET to go to the steel-framed machine, but he agreed with me that it looks like Eli can put the bike anywhere he wants to and also backed up Ian Harrison's claim to me that he uses the same clutch all day! Always great to talk to JT about the sport and his thoughts on bikes.

We had AX champion Ryan Breece on the show to tell us what winning that title was like as well as the experience of a pretty chaotic series in terms of cancellations and his run-ins with Cole Thompson. It sounds like some pretty nutso stuff that Breece had to deal with, but all in all, the MCR rider made some money, and it sounds like when he heals up a bit (he had a big one in the whoops at the last round), he wants to hit some SX.

I touched base with Dylan Ferrandis this week and asked him about looking much better this past week in Florida than before. He qualified sixth fastest, was on the board for a bit, and in the heat race, he ripped up from the back to make the top 9 after a crash. He said yes, the bike is better as they got a custom part (no, he did not tell me) that they had been waiting on, and it made a big difference in how he can ride the bike. Unfortunately, he sprained his thumb in the heat race crash and couldn't finish the main. And he's out for Indianapolis as well! Bummer deal, just as it appeared he was a bit more comfy on the Italian stallion.

Closing Shop! (Scott Wallenberg)

Yamaha has announced they are selling their U.S. HQ in Cypress, California, and moving the rest of the motorcycle division and race department to their facility in Kennesaw, Georgia. 

In January 1980, Yamaha opened the Cypress facility with huge fanfare. Yamaha's Ted Otto was responsible for putting the party together, and the budget was roughly $250,000 (approximately $1 million in today's purchasing power). All the dignitaries from the city and the state were invited, as well as the motorcycle press and top brass from Japan. Fresh sushi and special sushi chefs from Japan were flown in. The entire lawn area was decked out with chairs, tables, tents, and a full-on red carpet was laid down in true Hollywood fashion. 

Ted decided that getting an overhead shot of the whole setup was in order, so he hired a private helicopter whose pilot was a Vietnam vet who really knew how to fly close. Yamaha employee Steve Lawler was in the chopper with Ted, and as they hovered over the area, Ted kept saying to get closer. 

Soon, someone with authority came out and started waving and trying to tell them to go away, but Ted pushed even further for the copter to get close. All of a sudden, the blades generated enough downdraft that it started ripping up the red carpet, tables, chairs, etc., out of the ground! 

This was a few hours before the event was to start. It was all hands on deck to get everything set up and back in place. When I arrived, you would not have known that chaos ever happened, and it was a spectacular event!

The First Three-Digit Red Plate? (Santiago Crevoisier)

There's nothing better than a good bench-racing debate to uncover a quirky first in our sport. Daytona—Round 8 of the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Championship and Round 2 for the 250SX East Division—already made history by being held in February for the first time ever. 

But that wasn't the only oddity under the lights: Pierce Brown rolled into Daytona with something we'd never seen before: a three-digit red plate in supercross. Yes, the first one.

Brown arrived as the 250SX East points leader after his Arlington victory, carrying #163 on the front of his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing bike. That meant the championship leader plate—red background, white numbers—was wrapped around a three-digit number for the first time in supercross history.

It sounds trivial until you start digging into how the red plate even became a thing. The red plate was introduced to SX in 2007 to identify reigning champions who chose not to run the #1. Two years later, in 2009, AMA rules required defending champions to run the #1, but the red plate concept remained attached to the champ. Then things got complicated. In 2011, there were effectively two red plates: one for the defending champion and another for the current points leader. Confusing? A little. By 2012, the system was streamlined—the red plate officially belonged to the championship leader, period.

That evolution left some interesting footnotes. Riders like Christophe Pourcel (#377), Jason Lawrence (#338), Ben Townley (#101), and Josh Hansen (#100) all led championships at some stage or even won titles, but none ever wore the red plate in SX while doing so. Timing—and rule structure—kept that from happening.

Brown's case is different. After an injury-plagued 2025 season left him with only a handful of points, he lost his two-digit number (20) and reverted to his original three-digit #163. Fast forward to Arlington 2026: he wins the opener, takes over the points lead, and suddenly that triple-digit number is leading the series—with the red plate attached. A small detail? Maybe. But in a sport built on numbers, plates, and legacy, it matters.

There's no precedent for a 450SX rider pulling off the same feat. The closest comparison might be Mike Alessi carrying the red plate in the 2009 AMA Pro Motocross Championship with his iconic #800. But back then, Supercross and Motocross operated under slightly different interpretations of the numbering and plate rules, so when he was leading early that season, he wore red. The same goes for Pourcel when he was leading the 250 points with #377. 

Coincidentally, neither won the title.

So, here's a little trivia to chew on: How many riders have won a 125/250SX title while running a three-digit number?

This Week's Win Ads (DC)

KTM was at it again with Eli Tomac, though #3 did not land on the cover of Cycle News. Tomac also shared a Dunlop win ad with 250 winner Seth Hammaker. Speaking of Seth, his first win of the season got him a spread with Maxima, though not Kawasaki. FMF hyped up the 1-2-3 overalls at the Wild Boar GNCC for FMF/KTM Factory Racing's Ben Kelley and Grant Davis, and third-place Beta rider Cody Barnes. It was a great week for Beta in general, as not only did Barnes give them their first-ever GNCC podium, but Josh Strang finished fifth overall, and XC2 winner Jhak Walker also made the top ten, giving Beta a best-ever day.

Hey, Watch It!

Kailub Russell's Wild Boar GNCC

2026 Daytona Supercross Cinematic Recap

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"Trae Young Got Ejected From A Wizards Game Before He Ever Played In One" - The Defector

"Ohio man buys lottery ticket for wrong drawing, wins $50,000" - UPI

"Watch moment motocross star shatters own tooth after hitting himself with trophy" - The Sun

"CHIPPED OFF Watch sickening moment motocross star shatters his own TOOTH after trophy snaps and hits him in the face" -The Sun

"Baltimore to close parks at night as sharpshooters work to thin deer herds" - Baltimore Sun

Random Notes

So who was the only rider to take an overall win from Ricky Carmichael at the Budds Creek National? FMF Honda-mounted Tallon Vohland, who won the ’99 Budds Creek 125 National with 1-3 moto finishes after Carmichael’s Kawasaki KX125 drowned out in the mud in the first moto. Ricky came back to win the second moto but his 22-1 was only good for sixth overall.