2. Another Star Racing Rookie debut

Kayden Minear made his professional AMA Supercross debut in Denver and became the NINTH different rider to race 250SX for the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team this season! Minear made his AMA Pro Motocross Championship debut at the Thunder Valley National last season but got injured after just two races. He was slated to finish the outdoor season, but the injury kept him eligible to return to amateurs and so he returned to SMX Next – Supercross for 2026.

The season started off great, winning the SMX Next opener at Anaheim 2, but things went sideways from there. Minear got KO’d in a qualifying crash at Houston and that began a string of crashes and below par results for the 18-year-old Aussie. After seeing his amateur teammates Caden Dudney and Landen Gordon give it a go in the pros, Minear begged and pleaded team owner Bobby Regan for an opportunity to prove what he could do on the big stage.

Minear got his wish and he delivered with a fifth in his 250SX debut. It did not come easy as Kayden was caught in the middle of yet another controversial ruling by the AMA. In the final turn of his heat race, Minear was bumped by Levi Kitchen, and he was forced off the track and around the timing loop. The rulebook states that if you do not cross the timing loop on the last lap, you will be docked one lap, and so Minear was forced to the LCQ.

He made it through the LCQ with a crash, and his ride in the main event was incredibly impressive. The future is bright for Star Racing.

3. Lux Turner Breaks Out

Toyota Redlands BarX Yamaha’s Lux Turner created a lot of hype for himself with some impressive rides in the Australian Supercross Championship this off-season. But after suffering a double wrist injury late in that series, Lux came into Anaheim with limited preparation and it showed. Good qualifying and good starts validated the potential, but the lack of preparation hindered the results.

Now six months removed from the injury, Lux is healthy and showed what he is capable of in Denver. He qualified fifth, finished third in his heat, and finished a career-best sixth in the main event. It was the most complete day of Turner’s Supercross career. If there were a list of riders on satellite teams worthy of a factory ride, he would have to be near the top of that list.

4. Deegan Breaking Records

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan dominated the 250 class yet again in Denver. With the title already locked up, this win had no influence on the 2026 250SX West Division Championship, but it did influence the record books.

This was Haiden’s 28th career 250 SX/MX win, surpassing his soon-to-be rival, Jett Lawrence. It was also his 50th career 250 SX/MX podium, surpassing James Stewart in that category. At this point, there is nothing to say about Haiden Deegan that has not been said. He has put together one of the all-time great small-bore careers, and we all await Fox Raceway for further evaluation of the sport’s latest superstar.

Related: Why is Haiden Deegan Still Racing 250SX?

5. Levi’s BACK

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen came to Denver with just a few days of riding since we last saw him at the East/West Showdown in St. Louis. If you remember back to Birmingham, Kitchen led about half the race but then faded due to some sort of back issue. He toughed out St. Louis and then took some time to heal up.

Levi was off the bike a few weeks and only began riding days before Denver. A little rest, yoga, and therapy did Kitchen some good and he was back on form Saturday night. After making an early pass on Turner to get into second, Levi kept the gap to Haiden Deegan respectable and secured his fourth runner-up finish of the season.

6. Tomac’s Surprise Return

When Red Bull KTM’s Eli Tomac pulled out of the Cleveland Supercross after a crash in qualifying, many expected not to see the #3 behind a gate until round one of Pro Motocross at Fox Raceway. However, on Wednesday we got a pleasant surprise when the news broke that Tomac would be returning for his home race in Denver.

Eli was in a well-documented slump prior to Cleveland, so it was unknown what version of him that we would see but he found himself back on the podium and it was the best Tomac we have seen since Indianapolis. When asked about why he chose to return for the final two rounds Eli explained, “The best thing for me to do right now is to go race. At least that is my mindset with it. I just like to go racing.”

Another thing worth mentioning about Tomac’s return was his tire selection. The last couple rounds before his injury, Eli had gone back to his beloved scoop tire but in Denver he, alongside his KTM teammate Jorge Prado and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks, debuted a new prototype tire from Dunlop. The Dunlop MC790 is designed to be a middle ground between the MX14 scoop and MX34 regular knobby tire. Although the tire is directional, many riders that have tested the tire say they like it better backwards and Tomac experimented with the direction of the tire throughout the day.

7. Prado Vs. Webb Part 2

In the Detroit SX main event, Cooper Webb went for an overzealous pass on Red Bull KTM’s Jorge Prado in the early stages of the race and took them both down. Webb found himself behind Prado again in Denver and it was fireworks once more.

Prado and Webb ran 2-3 early in the main event, and although Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac got between them at times, the two of them settled into fourth and fifth and ran wheel to wheel for much of the race. The gap would yo-yo from time to time as Webb came under pressure from his Monster Energy Yamha Star Racing teammate Justin Cooper, but with less than a minute left on the clock, Coop went for the pass on Prado. As Prado came over to protect his line, the two tangled and both found themselves stood up on the top of a bowl turn, causing Coop to fall over and finish a season-worse 11th.

After a three-race string of runner-up finishes, Webb struggled in Denver and that crash was a fitting end to frustrating day. With the championship off the table, will he look to repay the favor to Prado in Salt Lake?

8. Mixed Messaging at Kawi

New to press days in 2026 is a team managers scrum. Every Friday, a handful of team managers from all levels of teams are selected to answer questions from the media. It has been a nice addition and oftentimes the team managers are more informative than the racers!

Monster Energy Kawasaki team manager Dan Fahie was one of the selected managers for the press scrum in Denver. Fahie created quite the controversy when he was asked if he could confirm or deny rumors that Chase Sexton would not be at the opening round of Pro Motocross. Fahie replied with a firm “No.”  

Obviously the supercross season has not gone according to plan for Chase or the team, skipping Pro Motocross; or worse, terminating the three-year contract after one series could be detrimental to not only Kawasaki, but the Sexton as well. Fahie later clarified with PulpMX’s Steve Matthes that Chase would be racing at Fox Raceway at Pala, but the bizarre answer to that question certainly raised some eyebrows.

9. Barcia is Good

Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati Factory Racing’s Justin Barcia made a surprise return to the series last weekend in Philadelphia. He was brilliant in his first race back, nearly winning his heat race and finishing 11th in the main event. However, the muddy conditions played right in Bam Bam’s favor and so Denver would be a true gauge as to where he was.

He passed that test with flying colors, battling for yet another heat race win and near the top five for a large chunk of the main event. He faded a bit in the second half of the race but was able to take advantage of the chaos around him and finish an impressive eighth.

On this week’s PulpMX Show, Barcia admitted to getting tired but said he has even impressed himself in his return to racing. He and the team are continuously working to improve the bike. So much in fact, he did his PulpMX Show interview while the team was making a shock change for him to test at 7 p.m. on a Monday! The team was at Thunder Valley Motocross Park knocking out testing, so Barcia stepped inside a van to do the interview with Matthes while the team was adjusting the bike with new parts.

10. Outrageous Battle For Fourth

Despite the significance and hype surrounding Roczen vs. Lawrence coming into Denver, the actual racing between the two in the main event was boring. However, the battle from fourth to about 11th pure chaos. Prado and Webb were at the front of this group and the men on the move were Webb’s Yamaha teammate Justin Cooper and Ducati’s Dylan Ferrandis.

Ferrandis and Coooper started outside of the top ten and worked their way into sixth and seventh. Cooper looked spicy and had he been able to get around his teammate and Prado he may have had the pace to track down Eli Tomac for the final spot on the podium. Instead, Cooper Webb did everything possible to fend of his teammate and stopped his charge forward. This allowed Ferrandis to get to the back of J-Coop and the two collided in the sand and went down. To add insult to injury, when Ferrandis got going he had no rear brake and T-boned Justin Hill in the next turn.

Add in the Prado/Webb altercation and it was Rockstar Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Chase Sexton who were the big beneficiaries of everybody else’s mistakes. What were average to below average races in the making became solid top five finishes with Stewart finishes fourth and Sexton fifth. Garret Marchbanks, Justin Barcia, and Dean Wilson also benefitted from the chaos sneaking into the top ten in latter laps of the main event.

After the race, Justin Cooper was very frustrated with the way Cooper Webb raced him and obviously Webb felt the same about Prado.