Saturday night in Salt Lake City was one of the most exciting rounds of Monster Energy AMA Supercross we have seen in a long time. With only one point between points leader Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence, all eyes were on those two riders. But as the race unfolded, and Roczen was crowned champion, it was actually Chase Sexton who took home the race win. Chase spoke to the press after the race to talk about his win, watching the championship battle unfold and even being a stranger to press conferences this year:
“I almost forgot what it’s like to do a press conference to be honest, this is only my third time this year," he said. "So, it’s no secret that it’s been a trying year not only for me but also the team, it just hasn’t been ideal, so to get this win it means a lot. I’ve always been good here [in Salt Lake City], this is my fourth win in a row [at Rice-Eccles Stadium] so I knew that I had a good shot if I could just get off the gate honestly. And today I had two good starts in the heat race and main event and that was really the key. If I don’t put myself in position, it's really hard especially with how hard the tracks have been to make passes. My whoop speed hasn’t been the greatest, my one area I passed a lot of people in prior. It kinda got taken away so I had to get creative and make passes in other places. I ended up starting to jump the whoops and I started to get closer to Jorge [Prado] and them."
"I honestly didn’t know what to do," Sexton added, "even Jorge said with those guys up in the front [Roczen and Lawrence] I felt good, I knew I had a good flow, but I knew the track, how it was you couldn’t push it. And I also didn’t want to interfere with what they were doing. So, I was just kind of riding around and then obviously Hunter fell and then Jorge was right there, and I was like, ‘I can make a pass to second.’ And then Kenny kinda fell back to me, and I got a better flow as well. So, stoked for Kenny, but it is really nice to end off the championship this way. Just get a win, two on the year. So, hopefully we can carry some of this into outdoors.”
It's been no secret that Chase Sexton has had troubles adapting to his Monster Energy Kawasaki KX450 since making the switch after the SMX Playoffs in 2025. Even though he was able to win the third round earlier this year, he has only been on the podium one other time before Salt Lake City, a second place finish in Detroit.
“To be honest, I didn’t even ride supercross this week," Sexton said. "I’ve just been riding outdoors, so maybe that was the key. I think for me, my riding, it may not look like it on the track or this season, but I don’t think, especially during the week, I haven’t been riding super bad. It's just haven’t had a lot of comfort. Like today I just said, ‘Don’t touch the bike,’ and if it's not perfect, obviously just clicker adjustments for the whoops, but no shock off, no fork off, I am just going to ride it. Ride what I have, and it seemed to work out pretty well. But I told myself, if I could get through the first 10 minutes...I haven’t been comfortable in the whoops pretty much all year and I told myself if I could get through the first 10 minutes and I’m still in the race and I go to jumping, I have a good chance of winning. I told my dad that, ‘I’m not skimming these whoops the whole main event, it’s just not happening.’ And plus, I wanted to make it to outdoors. So, it worked out to my favor, everything I imagined kinda played out and got to do a cool ghost ride after the race.”
This win marks the fourth year in a row that Sexton has won at the finale in Salt Lake. And while very-soon-to-be-450-rider Haiden Deegan says he is motivated by win bonuses, Chase had a much simpler motivation heading into Salt Lake this year:
“I don’t know who I told today, I was like, ‘I just want to get a trophy again,’" Sexton said. "My motorhome by this point of the year is normally filled up and we are shipping them back home because we don’t have any more room. But this year it's two of them that have dust on them. I don’t have any reason to ship them home. So, I just wanted to get a trophy and I was really motivated. Obviously last year I was in a must win scenario, 2023 I didn’t have to win. And ’24 I kinda feel like I was in a similar spot, I mean my year was better than what it's been this year, but I only had one win. And I didn’t wanna go out on just one win, I wanted to get another one. And I knew the track was going to be difficult so if I could just ride smooth that came into my favor. I know where I could be aggressive and where I couldn’t and the turns were pretty open to where I could roll them pretty well. I knew from half-way on, I wasn’t pushing super well but I knew I had a comfortable pace to keep it going. I do like this place, I won here on 250s when we were here for the seven weeks and it's become, not a home race obviously, but it feels very familiar.”
Chase also spoke on watching his friend Ken Roczen win his first 450SX championship and what that meant:
“Obviously, I was stoked for Kenny. Honestly, I’m a little emotional a little bit, not just for my win but for the championship and how it came down. I like both of them Hunter and Kenny. Kenny I was very close with, he was like a big brother to me ever since I moved to Florida when I was 16. And I’ve seen what he went through and he’s a bad dude. And honestly, it gives me a lot of hope for the future. I mean you would have said three years ago, ‘There’s no way this guy is ever going to win a supercross championship, it's over.’ Even Eli. It just goes to show the sport's, not changing, but you can do it longer if you have the right mindset. Kenny, I have seen his dark days up close and personal and to see him come back from that is pretty special.”
So, Chase has hope for the future, to overcome his own struggles, as well as momentum from this supercross win. Will those things help him in a little under three weeks’ time when the AMA Pro Motocross Championship starts?
