Nearly every top-20 driver in the 450 class held their position in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings this week following the muddy Round 14 in New Jersey as the Monster Energy Supercross season heads into their final three races. The 45-day look back period for this formula saw Daytona fall out of consideration to be replaced with the New Jersey round and most of the top competitors had almost identical results in those events.
Notably, it was the Daytona round that started Barcia’s current streak of seven consecutive top-five finishes. From Daytona through Atlanta, Barcia scored two second-place finishes, a pair of thirds and two fourths. The only thing missing was a win and Mother Nature offered an assist in the form of rain and a heavy track in New Jersey. Barcia took advantage and easily rode away from the field, but felt he could have won on a dry track as well. Considering how many top-fives he brought with him into the race, it’s hard to argue.
Chase Sexton was one of just four riders to finish on the lead lap last week in New Jersey. His bid for back-to-back wins ended early in the sloppy conditions when he was dropped in the mud by a slight miscalculation on a block pass from Barcia. The eventual winner clipped his front tire and threw him off his rhythm. While Barcia tracked down Ken Roczen to make the pass for the lead, Sexton fell behind both of his primary rivals for the Supercross champion. He got back around Cooper Webb in New Jersey and maintained his second position on the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
MORE: Justin Barcia scores first 2023 win on a muddy track
Webb remains the only rider in the field with a perfect record of top-fives this season and with a fifth in New Jersey, he easily belongs in the top three in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings despite failing to complete the distance in the mud. He’s run well, but without a win since Arlington or a podium in his last three rounds, Webb is slowing losing ground in the points’ standings to Eli Tomac. In the past four rounds, Webb has finished behind Tomac in three races for a total of seven positions while beating him by a single spot in one event.
New Jersey had the capacity to cause Tomac a lot of trouble. He crashed in qualification and finished fourth in his heat, which contributed to a bad gate pick for the main. The rain might well have aided his results, or perhaps more accurately it didn’t hurt him as much as Sexton or Webb, both of whom failed to podium. At the end of the season, this might be the race looked back on as the final nail in Sexton’s coffin and it pushed Webb back enough in the points that he no longer completely controls his own fate. For Tomac, it allowed him to tie Sexton for the most podium finish this season at 10.
In the past 45 days, Ken Roczen has found the setup on his new Suzuki. His victory in Indianapolis set him on a near-perfect run of top-five finishes with a worst result of sixth in Seattle. One has the sense that Roczen is not yet done and in the final three rounds, he should score another podium or two. At the beginning of the season Roczen said he urgently needed a change and he got what he needed.
450 Rankings
| This Week | Driver | Power Avg. | Last Week | Diff. |
| 1. | Justin Barcia | 87.07 | 1 | 0 |
| 2. | Chase Sexton | 86.36 | 2 | 0 |
| 3. | Cooper Webb | 85.14 | 3 | 0 |
| 4. | Eli Tomac | 85.00 | 4 | 0 |
| 5. | Ken Roczen | 83.79 | 5 | 0 |
| 6. | Christian Craig injured | 74.50 | 6 | 0 |
| 7. | Adam Cianciarulo | 73.17 | 7 | 0 |
| 8. | Aaron Plessinger | 70.42 | 8 | 0 |
| 9. | Jason Anderson | 65.79 | 9 | 0 |
| 10. | Colt Nichols | 61.50 | 10 | 0 |
| 11. | Justin Hill | 61.07 | 11 | 0 |
| 12. | Dean Wilson | 57.14 | 12 | 0 |
| 13. | Shane McElrath | 48.79 | 14 | 1 |
| 14. | Josh Hill | 47.93 | 13 | -1 |
| 15. | Benny Bloss | 47.46 | 15 | 0 |
| 16. | Kyle Chisholm | 45.36 | 16 | 0 |
| 17. | Grant Harlan | 41.86 | 17 | 0 |
| 18. | Fredrik Noren | 41.29 | 18 | 0 |
| 19. | Kevin Moranz | 40.21 | 19 | 0 |
| 20. | Chase Marquier | 35.43 | 21 | 1 |
The first East/West Showdown was supposed to provide a look at how the Lawrence brothers would perform head-to-head. Mother Nature had other plans and kept them separated for most of the New Jersey round, but their final results were remarkably close and that kept them in their relative positions in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after New Jersey.
Both Hunter and Jett were beaten in their heats by riders with a reason to feel they wanted a share of the limelight.
Both Lawrence brothers also shared the same agenda in the heats. They needed to keep from making a mistake that would have cost them a good gate selection and had points’ leads to protect in their respective divisions.
Hunter lost his heat to Jo Shimoda, who joined the series only two races ago in Atlanta. Jett lost his preliminary to RJ Hampshire, who still had a shot at catching him in the points’ standings if the final rounds went horribly awry for the presumptive favorite. A sequence of events in the main event allowed the two brothers to finish nose-to-tail with Jett finishing second and Hunter third, but that was the first time they saw each other during the race.
Levi Kitchen moved up a position over the injured 250 East rider Nate Thrasher despite finishing outside the top 10 in the main. Against his West rivals, he finished sixth in his heat and that is precisely how he performed in the main with five divisional rivals ahead of him as well as six riders from the East.
For only the third time this season, Haiden Deegan finished outside the top five in a main event. His sixth-place finish, coupled with a win by Max Anstie in New Jersey, hurt him in the points standings, but it did not move the needle in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings. Regardless of how he finishes the season, Deegan is one of the most pleasant surprises in 250 competition and with the Lawrence brother moving up to the 450 class next year, he’s going to get his share of wins.
Jo Shimoda returned from injury with a fourth-place finish and with two races in the books there are now enough stats to classify him. Shimoda debuts at sixth overall In the SuperMotocross Power Rankings in no small part because of his heat win last week in New Jersey. That was the first of his career in Supercross competition, but his fans remember how strong he was in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross outdoor division last year. Shimoda will almost certainly be moving further up the chart.
With his first Supercross win, Anstie was the biggest mover in the top 10. He improved two positions overall to land eighth on the chart, but it bears noting that two of the riders ahead of him are currently on the bench with injuries. If not for a single poor performance in Detroit when he crashed, Anstie would easily be counted among the top five. Every other result in a main has been fifth or better.
250 Rankings
| This Week | Driver | Power Avg. | Last Week | Diff. |
| 1. | Hunter Lawrence - E | 90.72 | 1 | 0 |
| 2. | Jett Lawrence - W | 89.64 | 2 | 0 |
| 3. | Levi Kitchen - W | 81.57 | 4 | 1 |
| 4. | Nate Thrasher - E injured | 80.25 | 3 | -1 |
| 5. | Haiden Deegan - E | 78.94 | 5 | 0 |
| 6. | Jo Shimoda - E | 78.00 | NA | |
| 7. | Cameron McAdoo - W injured | 77.75 | 7 | 0 |
| 8. | Max Anstie - E | 75.78 | 10 | 2 |
| 9. | Jordon Smith - E | 75.24 | 6 | -3 |
| 10. | RJ Hampshire - W | 74.14 | 8 | -2 |
| 11. | Jeremy Martin - E | 73.88 | 11 | 0 |
| 12. | Pierce Brown - W | 73.29 | 9 | -3 |
| 13. | Max Vohland - W | 70.57 | 17 | 4 |
| 14. | Mitchell Oldenburg - W | 68.33 | 12 | -2 |
| 15. | Chris Blose - E | 67.78 | 14 | -1 |
| 16. | Tom Vialle - E | 67.17 | 13 | -3 |
| 17. | Chance Hymas - E | 67.10 | 16 | -1 |
| 18. | Enzo Lopes - W | 66.29 | 15 | -3 |
| 19. | Michael Mosiman - E | 65.80 | 18 | -1 |
| 20. | Carson Mumford - W | 61.38 | 20 | 0 |
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 13 AT ATLANTA: Justin Barcia leapfrogs the Big 3
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 12 AT GLENDALE: Eli Tomac gains momentum
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 11 AT SEATTLE: Cooper Webb, Tomac overtake Chase Sexton
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 10 AT DETROIT: Chase Sexton narrowly leads Cooper Webb
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 8 AT DAYTONA: Sexton unseats Eli Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 7 AT ARLINGTON: Jason Anderson narrowly trails Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 6 AT OAKLAND: Perfect night keeps Tomac first
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 5 AT TAMPA: Sexton, Webb close in
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 4 AT HOUSTON: Tomac rebounds from A2 crash, retakes lead
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 3 AT ANAHEIM 2: Consistency makes Ken Roczen king
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 2 AT SAN DIEGO: Roczen moves up, Sexton falls
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 1 AT ANAHEIM 1: Tomac, Jett Lawrence gain an early advantage