Slaw
After Anaheim 2, defending 450SX champion Cooper Webb was ruminating that his champion may well be over after a disappointing start to the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Images of Webb sitting alone, on a jump, were all over social media.
A week later, Webb is right back in the thick of the championship following a very Cooper Webb-like win at round 4 of the championship in Houston. His win was gritty, as he had to overcome a chaotic start to the third and final race in the Triple Crown to hold off a strong push by Ken Roczen to claim his first win of 2026.
He now trail points leader Eli Tomac by 17 through four rounds. After the race, he spoke with the media about his pivotal win, his “tunnel vision” in Houston and more.
We knew it was only a matter of time, and this just feels like such a contrast to last week. We saw the images of you sitting on the track processing that race. So mentally, what was the lead up to this weekend?
Cooper Webb: It was just a very emotional… It’s been an emotional month for sure, but this week was tough. Last week was just a hard one and kind of you get to three bad weekends in a row and it can take a toll on you. So tonight is just the complete opposite. I feel like a kid again, just to have that feeling of winning. And obviously I didn’t win a main event, which is a little unique, but I’ll take it any way I can get it. A win’s a win and just was awesome. Like I said, we’ve been pushing for this and it hasn’t gone our way yet. So to finally have it go in our, I shouldn’t say our way, but my way for sure was just really incredible.
We’ve seen your struggles this year and I feel like it has been just weird, right? It’s just like a little bit of bad luck here, a little bit of weird stuff going on, but we get kind of to the East Coast dirt, we see Cooper Webb starting to cut down. We see a lot of ruts. Is this you feeling more comfortable and having that little bit of edge of speed to not have these weird things happen? Or is this just an accumulation of the season and finally we got some luck?
Webb: Yeah, I think like you said, we just had some weird, unique circumstances these first few, right? Obviously with the restart and then having a weird crash at A1, crashes in the heat race, getting taken out at San Diego. So just some weird things. And then my late race crash after, I felt like I rode really well last week. So just, yeah, I think overall it was today of consistency. I qualified the best I qualified, put myself up there. I felt speed was fine, just had good starts, but not great starts. I was around that fourth or fifth at each time and obviously want to try to improve on that. But like I said, with these Triple Crowns, you got to be up there, you got to be in the mix and that’s what we did. And I’m proud of that, especially that last one. Like I said, I had that sketchy little moment there, that first lap and got shuffled back.
So to be able to kind of put my head down, pass into a position to win the overall isn’t easy to do with this stacked field. So proud of that. And like I said, just to kind of turn it around. The East Coast stuff is obviously something that I do enjoy the ruttier, breakdown tracks, but I think this weekend was just a must if I wanted to keep any championship hopes alive.
Going into A1, you were pretty open at the press day that you had kind of reverted to your last year setting. Once you said you knew that Jett was out of the running this year, that you felt confident in what you had last year to take it to the guys, to put it bluntly, you did do the job against last year. Across these opening rounds with how everything has played out, would you say your expectations coming into the season, like your competition, Kenny, Eli, Chase, everybody, have they performed about how you expected or is there anything that’s caught you off guard? Because again, you kind of felt comfortable in what you had to race these guys, so how has that all played out?
Webb: I mean, these guys are good, right? They’ve been good. They’re always the best of the sport. So I think for me, it was a little frustrating because I felt like my preparation, like I said, you do everything right. I didn’t miss a day. I feel like I’ve worked the hardest I’ve ever worked this off season. I put myself kind of through the ringer just with testing and so on and so forth. So I came into the season with a high expectation and maybe it was a little too much on myself to go out there and try to win Anaheim and prove why I’m the champion and do all that maybe was a bit too much on myself. But with that being said, I mean, obviously I think the guys that are great are always great. There’s always question marks when guys change teams and this and that, but Kenny, Eli, Chase, we’re seeing Hunter rise to the occasion.
We all knew that, right? So I didn’t underestimate anybody, but it is tough, like I said, sometimes when you feel like you do everything right and you get your teeth kicked in.
On my podcast, I’ve nicknamed you the Mack Truck. When you come across an intersection, those guys have to shift 19 gears, but once they’re get going, you try to get out of their way. Seems like that’s been the consensus throughout your career is a little bit hard to get going, but once you’re going, you’re formidable. And today I saw you in the tunnel. You looked like you were being real hard on yourself. You’re very focused. And I know sometimes life just hits you. How do you keep the positive affirmations going like, “Hey, I can, I can, I can.”
Webb: Today, like I said, it was a lot of tunnel vision, not much fun, not much smiles. And it is hard. Like I said, there’s a lot of pressure for me to perform and for me to go out there and win. And I invite that pressure, but it is, like I said, when you feel like you’re doing everything right, you’re training hard, you’re having good weeks and then the results aren’t coming and there’s pressure from everyone. So the media, the fans, the team, everyone expects you to win. So I took it pretty hard and I’m my own hardest critics. So a lot of sleepless nights, if I’m honest, a lot of why the hell am I still doing this? You get those kinds of thoughts going. And so to do that and just reward yourself, right? Like I said on the broadcast, my wife really has kept me level-headed and helped me a lot this week just to be like, “You know what? It is what it is.”
If it ain’t your year, it ain’t your year. So tonight was just a huge spark to get that confidence of like, “Hey, it still can be my year and let’s do this thing.”
Yesterday, my counterpart, Jamie, jokingly said, “Well, I’m counting you out.” Just kind of messing with you, but it seems like that’s something that the media kind of falls into. Doing that at a Triple Crown in Texas, you did it again two years in a row, last minute kind of win. How does it feel to hold onto that pressure, especially when you had Kenny behind you? You obviously all know what’s going on, holding onto it at the end and the jubilation you feel after the frustrations from last week.
Webb: No, like I said, it’s such an incredible high to low from last weekend to a high of this weekend and didn’t make it easy, right? Like I said, that first lap made that big mistake and I knew like, dang it, this is not good. They’re the two guys I need to beat to win the overall are ahead of me by a little bit. So like I said, to put my head down and pass the guys in front of me like I did was awesome. I committed and obviously the team was on me hard this week about the whoops and I was proud of myself like committing even though I felt Kenny was a little better. I committed to those all day. And just like I said, all day, I think my riding was pretty good and just stayed locked in and focused and just never lost faith and knew like, okay, just keep plugging away.
And I thought the riding was good. So like you said, it is easy to get counted out, but it is something like even for myself that I maybe weighed that on me too much at the beginning of the season and just needed to take a chill pill as some people would say. But yeah, like you said, when doubt creeps in, you feel like you might not ever win again. So to win again tonight is just uplifting to say the least.
Cooper, Kenny mentioned something before you came up about racing the older guys and he was referring to like Eli and yourself. Obviously there’s a couple younger guys coming in there, but what’s it like to have your main competitors, guys you’ve raced with almost all your career?
Webb: It’s awesome, man. And I think, like you said, I’ve been pretty public about it, but I think our group is one of the best groups probably to ever do it. I really do believe that. You look at the record books and all the wins we’ve accumulated and we’re still here and like you said, able to win and it’s inspiring, right? I think everyone knows this is a younger man’s sport. And so obviously Eli’s done it, Kenny’s done it, myself, they’re a little older than me, but still like I’m now 30. So it is inspiring and just… It’s a confidence booster to say that I’ve raced the best guys throughout my whole career. And there’s young guys that are obviously deserving and going to probably come in and win a lot of championships, but for the time being, it’s cool for us to kind of stick together and still be at the top of the sport. And I mean, us three will be battling for this championship just like we were 10 years ago.
