Slaw
Chase Sexton is on the board in 2026! Following his high-profile move to Monster Energy Kawasaki, Sexton secured his first win of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship at round 3 at Anaheim 2 on Saturday night.
Following the race, he spoke to the media. Read on to see what he had to say.
This is a big one and a breakthrough. Throughout the course of the day, was there maybe a range of emotions that you experienced? Just take us through the day, start to finish.
Sexton: I mean, yeah, I qualified fastest, but I didn’t finish the last session. It was a little bit unfortunate going down in the whoops. I was pretty upset with myself. I couldn’t finish the practice because my bars were bent, so I just went back. And then the heat race felt good again and went down. I was just like, “This can’t be happening.” I feel like I’ve been fighting an uphill battle a little bit the last… Well, honestly, since SMX. So, this one feels good to finally break through. Yeah, it feels like I haven’t won in a very long time, and it feels good to get the first one for the team. They’ve been working their butts off. Made some really good changes.
With the bike, I just told them after the heat race that we got to make some changes and I don’t really know what to do. And my turning and my whoops were way better for the main event. So, it was good and it’s nice to finally win one.
I think I speak for everybody in the motocross industry when I say whoow. We pulled this off. Can you talk about the relief this win gives you? Also, talk about the mentality just from press day because you looked like you were ready to win from Friday.
Sexton: I had a really good day of riding on Wednesday. The team again crushed it this week with testing and I had finally a feeling on the bike that I’ve been looking for for a while since really since I got on it. And I finally felt freed up. I put the bike where I wanted. And even from press day, I just felt normal again and I felt like I could ride how I wanted. And yeah, it blew over into today. Obviously, my speed was good. Maybe it was overriding. I wanted to win so bad that I was overriding it a bit. And honestly, for the main event, I just told myself I’m going to go out there and ride it. Not 80%, but I was going to go out there and ride a good pace and get into a flow and see what happens.
And I knew my speed was good enough to be able to ride not at 100% and still win. So, it was good. Track was tricky, very rutted, and it was crazy. I felt like I was at Detroit or not indie, but some East Coast race where it was super soft in the transitions and the turns were obviously a little more hard pack, but it was a tricky track. And when I got out front, I just logged my laps, read the pit board and just rode her in.
You answered my question before I ask it, but I’ll ask it again. I mean, you look so incredibly fast in the heat race passing in the lead, same thing in the main. You just blew past everyone and you were there so quickly, but then you had a long main event after that where you just managed a lead over a couple seconds, not a 10 second, not a 15 second, which it looked like you could have easily done. So, how hard was it to hold yourself back? Was it monotonous out there? How hard is it to stay focused if you’re riding that 80% like you just mentioned? And sick gear, can you tell us a little bit about that too?
Sexton: I feel like I did have a good speed differential today just from practice and even the heat race. I feel like I was a lot faster, just still didn’t win it. And in the main event, I just told myself, I get a good start, I can make passes pretty easily because I feel like I had good speed and feel like my rhythm sections getting down the lanes fast was really key and I was pretty good at that. So, after that, I just had to hit my marks. It was, like I said, a tricky track to be out front. It did feel like Indy. You just would sit into stuff and it was soft and it didn’t feel like California whatsoever. It was like the opposite of Anaheim 1.
Anaheim One was dry and dusty and this one was soft and spongy. So, yeah, solid main event. That’s how I like to win them. It makes it a lot easier on yourself coming not from seventh or eighth place, coming up from, I think I was second off the start. But yeah, and the gear was really cool, cool to win wearing this stuff. Obviously, everyone knows I’ve been going to Hawaii the last four or five years. And even before that, I ended up, I think it was my agent, Beaker got me to watch Kiss by God, which is Andy Irons’s documentary and basically his life story. And the guy had like the best style, was the only guy to beat Kelly Slater straight up three years in a row.
And I think his surfing did his talking. And I got to know Axel, his kid and his wife, Lindy, when I went to Kauai and all my buddies obviously are pretty close with them. So, I got to know them and Axel started riding and had ridden with him a little bit. And it just seemed natural to do a gear set and tribute to Andy. And actually, Lindy and Axel were down there at the podium and then Bruce, his brother FaceTimed and he was super stoked. So, it’s pretty cool to wear something that’s really not, it’s not for me. It’s for Andy and they were very happy about it, which was really special. So, I’m pumped I got to win in it. And yeah, it was nice to be in cool gear and also win.
Any factory team has quite a bit of staff, but everybody’s very close, particularly with one person that’s their mechanic. Rango’s new for you this year. I watch you two have quite an emotional moment. You’ve been pretty vocal lately about putting him through the ringer. Again, your guys’ working relationships new. Can you touch a little bit about what you put him through lately and just emotional release at the end of the race?
Sexton: Yeah, Rango, I’ve known him since I rode at James’ 2020 through 2022, and he was Malcolm’s mechanic, obviously. So, I got to know him there. And then when I came here, I was pretty comfortable obviously right off the bat. And we did a lot of testing, a lot of switching parts, suspension. He was working his butt off and didn’t have my race bike because they tested, I think it was a week before Anaheim in Florida, and that was the final test. So, he had to build the race bike basically a week before the race. And then I didn’t even ride it. Broc Tickle broke it in for me. So, it was pretty last second and it was cool to see how emotional he was after the race and how much it means to him. It’s pretty cool.
It gave me chills and almost made me tear up because obviously winning is awesome, but when it means that much to somebody, and obviously it means a lot to me and also the team, it makes it that much sweeter. So, it’s good to have Kawi on top again. I want to keep them there. They deserve it and they’re really hardworking team. So, it’s cool to finally get up here and plan to stay up here.
Photos: octopi.media
