1. Ken Roczen, Supercross Champion
After the 2017 San Diego Supercross, the question was not if Ken Roczen would win a 450 Supercross Championship, it was how many he would win. Roczen was at the top of the sport before that fateful night at Angel Stadium just one week later. Nearly a decade removed from an injury that almost cost him his arm, let alone his racing career, Ken has reached the pinnacle of the sport that once seemed inevitable.
Roczen has shown a level of resilience that is difficult to comprehend. Returning from that original injury was a massive feat, but early in his comeback season in 2018, Roczen suffered another gruesome arm injury. From there we saw him struggle with the side effects of countless surgeries. Kenny finally got back to winning in 2020 but for the next couple of years, the wins were overshadowed by heart breaking defeats and periods of irrelevance.
Roczen got a fresh start with the Progressive Insurance Cycle Gear Suzuki Team in 2023. From the outside, the move to an unproven team and an outdated bike seemed like more of an exit strategy than a road to Supercross Champion. But team owner Dustin Pipes had other plans. He brought in Larry Brooks to manage the team and together they created a platform capable of winning a championship.
Ken Roczen’s road to the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Championship is bigger than our sport. The storylines are endless. Overcoming injuries and illnesses, the Suzuki platform, Larry Brooks’ battle with cancer, his age, the points deficit, etc. Whether you were rooting for Roczen or not, it is difficult not to appreciate and respect what Ken Roczen had to overcome to get to this point. Congrats Kenny and thank you for being an inspiration to so many.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 349 |
| 2 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 346 |
| 3 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC  | 315 |
2. Hunter’s Heartbreak
On the other end of Ken Roczen’s glory is the agony of defeat for Hunter Lawrence. Lawrence had the upper hand on Roczen throughout the day and in the heat race. He carried that momentum into the main event grabbing the holeshot, but Roczen’s move in the second turn changed the complexity of the race.
Hunter seemed content sitting in second for the early parts of the race, but once Red Bull KTM’s Jorge Prado began to close on the two championship combatants he was forced to make a push towards Kenny for the lead. That led to one off track excursion, and then moments later, the crash that ultimately put an end to Lawrence’s title run.
Despite the heart-breaking loss Hunter should be commended for the class he displayed after the race. He congratulated Kenny after the race and even stayed down by the podium throughout the championship celebration. As painful as it must be, Lawrence made a massive leap this year. Going from having a just a couple podiums, to a five-win season and nearly winning the title, Hunter has asserted himself as a title contender for years to come.
3. Salt Lake Sexton
There was a lot of hype coming into the series finale in Salt Lake this season, none of which included the fact that Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Chase Sexton was on a three-race SLC win streak.
Sexton extended that streak to four in a surprise win, capping off a disappointing supercross campaign with just his second victory. Chase was many people’s title favorite coming into Anaheim and it is still difficult to comprehend how badly it has gone.
Despite the win and overall better day, Sexton admitted to feeling uncomfortable on the bike explaining, “Today I just said, ‘Don’t touch the bike. If it is not perfect, we’ll make clicker adjustments for the whoops, but no shock off or fork off, nothing. I am just going to ride it,’ and it seemed to work out pretty well.”
It is difficult to predict what we will get from Chase Sexton during the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, but it does feel like Dan Fahie and the Kawi guys are under extreme scrutiny to find Chase some more comfort and keep this relationship going beyond 2026.
Recommended Reading
Wed May 13 Kitchen on Roczen's Title: “I Was Tearing Up Man, It's Emotional” 
Tue May 12 Landen Gordon on SX Finale: “Learning and building, and it’s getting me ready for next year” 
Tue May 12 Nate Thrasher on SX Finale DNF: “My clutch system started to fail… It’s frustrating to end the last round with a mechanical issue” 
Tue May 12 Garrett Marchbanks (450SX) and Caden Dudney (250SX) Named SX Rookies of the Year 4. Roller Coaster of Eli
Red Bull KTM’s Eli Tomac made a successful return to the series last weekend in Denver and he carried that momentum into Salt Lake. Tomac qualified fastest and it looked like he had a legitimate opportunity to end the season with a victory. But Eli’s night came to a screeching halt in the very first rhythm section of his heat race when Fredrik Noren jumped into the back of him. Eli went down hard, landing with his hip on the footpeg. He later posted on Instagram that he suffered a similar injury to Cleveland but on the opposite side.
Fortunately, Tomac avoided anything major, and has been out in Cali testing for Pro Motocross this week. As far as his supercross season, it will go down as another “what if.”
5. Prado Ends Up Where He Started
Red Bull KTM’s Jorge Prado shocked the world at A1 when he landed on the podium for the first time in his supercross career. Over the course of the season, Prado has proven that A1 was not a fluke, showing serious speed on a weekly basis. His results have been up and down, and he did miss a couple of races due to injury, but he finally found his way back to the podium in Salt Lake.
Prado found himself in third place behind the championship duo of Lawrence and Roczen early in the race. He eventually closed right to the back wheel of Hunter, and although he did nothing to interfere, you have to imagine the pressure Jorge put on Lawrence threw a wrench in Hunter’s game plan and may have led to the mistakes that ultimately cost him a title.
Nonetheless, 2026 was Jorge Prado’s official arrival to supercross. He may have frustrated some of his competition in the process, but they are going to have to figure him out because Prado is here to stay in America.
6. Coop’s Underwhelming Defense
One of the riders most frustrated by Prado was Cooper Webb. Webb and Prado exchanged words again after the main event in Salt Lake and Prado was even given a penalty point—and a fine—from the AMA for flipping Coop off over the finish line.
It was another disappointing title defense for Cooper Webb. He won the Houston Triple Crown but without a race win, and otherwise it was a season full of uncharacteristic mistakes. While his riding may have been better than the results show on paper, there is no doubt that Coop will look back on 2026 SX as a missed opportunity.
7. Davies vs Deegs
There was a lot of anticipation to see Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammates Haiden Deegan and Cole Davies face off in the three East/West Showdowns this season, but after Deegan won the first two handily, he was expected to cap off his 250 career with more of the same in Salt Lake City. However, with the championship locked up, Davies was motivated to battle Deegan and settle the score from last season in Denver.
Their teammate Max Anstie led early but Deegan and Davies were able to make their way to the front by lap five with Deegan leading the way. Davies used his whoop speed to his advantage and closed to Haiden’s rear wheel as the two began to play cat and mouse. After a couple passes back and forth, Davies took his shot and punted Deegan in a bowl turn to take control of the lead.
Deegan closed back in on Cole and went for the retaliation move, but he rushed the pass and went down. He got up quickly and may have had time to get to Cole again but went down again in the sand, ending any hopes of the win. Cole went on to claim his sixth win of the season and a record 16th for the Star Racing team out of the 17 250SX races this season.
Both riders were stoked on the battle after the race and happy to put on a good show for the fans. As Haiden heads to the 450 Class, Davies will carry the torch as heavy favorite to win whatever coast he races in 2027. If all goes well for him, we will only have to wait 18 months to see this match up again.
8. Cade Cashes In
After the press day activities were done Friday, PulpMX’s Steve Matthes hosted his fifth annual PulpMX Yamaha LCQ Privateer Challenge. It is really cool the guys at Feld Motor Sports allow Steve to put on this event and really cool of Yamaha to provide a 2026 Yamaha YZ450F to raffle off. This year $87,000 was raised via raffle tickets and with the additional prop bets provided by riders and others in the industry, the purse for the race totaled a whopping $92,475!
Cade Clason took the win and a payday worth $23,650. The win came just 24 hours after Clason dropped a video announcing that Salt Lake would be his final race as a full-time racer. Cade followed that up by making the 70th 450SX main event of his career on Saturday night. ICYMI, you can watch the stream of the race on the Racer X YouTube Channel!
9. PC’s Chaotic Run Through the Whoops
Moreso something to behold than something we learned, was the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki yard sale in the whoops during the 250 main event. Early in the race, Cameron McAdoo, Seth Hammaker, and Levi Kitchen were running 4-5-6 in that order. On lap six, McAdoo got loose in the beginning if the whoops, going head over heels. Meanwhile, Hammaker, who entered the whoops on the right of McAdoo, missed a whoop and found himself going over the bars about 30 feet down the track. Then Kitchen entered the whoops in Cam’s line and had to get on the brakes mid-skim to avoid running over his teammates’ head.
Kitchen lost some time but went on to have a great ride and finish second. However, his teammates DNF’d the race. Cam posted after the race saying he was “transported to the hospital and had my neck and back checked out and everything came back clear of any fractures. Considering the crash, I’m very grateful that I’m just extremely sore with some pretty good whiplash.” Hammaker reportedly had a sore shoulder but said, “We’ll regroup, heal up, and start getting ready for outdoors. It was a wild scene and there are some incredible videos floating around on the social medias.
10. Sour Ending for Husky Boys
Daxton Bennick and Ryder DiFrancesco have had career-best supercross seasons, but Salt Lake City was not the end to the season they were looking for.
For Ryder D, he came into the weekend looking to beat Max Anstie and claim third in the 250 West standings. Often riders say they do not really care about where they are in points if they are not in title contention, but Ryder had been open about how much second or third in points would mean to him and that there was a bonus at stake for top three in the standings.
The night got off to a rough start when DiFrancesco went down in his heat and could only make it make to 11th. He was joined in the LCQ by his teammate Bennick, who also had a trying heat race finishing 12th. Ryder D would go on to win the heat race, but for Dax, the night worsened.
He was in danger of not making the main early in the race, but the race was red flagged. The full restart seemed like a blessing for the two-time podium finisher this season, but when the gate dropped for the second time, Bennick found himself buried mid pack and struggled to make it through the field in the short race. He could only get to eighth and straight up missed the main event. It was a bizarre night for the rider who still finished third in the 250 East Standings.
Meanwhile, DiFrancesco got off to a terrible start in the main event. He came from last to fifth, and while it was an awesome ride, it was not enough for third in the standings as Anstie finished on the podium and claimed the hypothetical bronze medal honors.
Of course, this came just days after Husqvarna announced that the Rockstar Energy Factory Husqvarna team will be shutting its doors at the end of the 2026 Monster Energy SMX World Championship season. While RJ Hampshire, Casey Cochran, and Malcolm Stewart will be looking for rides, DiFrancesco and Bennick will move over to Red Bull KTM under a revamped 250 effort for 2027.
