From muddy conditions in New Jersey to a dry daytime race in Nashville, the Monster Energy Supercross results were shaken up at Nissan Stadium in Round 15 of the season as Chase Sexton earned his fourth win of the season.
The three championship contenders each had radically different experiences in Nashville, with the most dramatic event coming in the first heat. On Lap 1 Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb were embroiled in a battle for first. Webb dove inside of Tomac in Turn 1 and startled him, which pushed him slightly out of the groove. Tomac returned the favor in Turn 3, but when Webb pushed wide, he lost traction with his front wheel and crashed. With nowhere to go, Adam Cianciarulo ran over Webb’s helmet at speed.
Webb was alert and standing before being transported to the hospital for evaluation. On Sunday morning following the race, Webb announced he is forced to end his Supercross season with a concussion.
RESULTS: Click here for full 450 Results; Click here for 250 Results
After a series of mistakes seemed to drop Sexton from the title hunt, including numerous crashes and the loss of points for jumping in a red cross flag section, Sexton has ridden perfectly in two of the last three rounds with wins at Atlanta and Nashville. Sexton assumed second place in the championship with Webb’s injury and the Nashville Supercross results shaved three points off Tomac’s lead.
With an 18-point gap, Tomac needs to make a mistake in one of the final two rounds to allow Sexton to have a shot at the title.
Tomac finished second in Nashville and after the race indicated he would be content to podium in Denver and Salt Lake City in the final two rounds. Finishing in the top three has become a regular habit for the defending champion because he’s stood on the box 11 times in 15 rounds. He has also finished outside the top five twice.
After earning only two in the first 12 rounds, Ken Roczen scored his third consecutive podium with a third-place finish. In the post-race news conference he indicated that the reason for his improvement is that he’s riding more relaxed and is back to having fun after his move to Suzuki.
Click here for 450 Heat 1 | Heat 2 | Last Chance Qualifier | Lap Chart
Colt Nichols earned his first top five of the season four rounds after returning to the series following a head injury. Even with the missed races, Nichols sits 12th in the standings, well inside the mark needed to qualify for the for the inaugural SuperMotocross World Championship.
In fifth at Nashville in Supercross Round 15, Justin Hill also earned his first top-five of 2023, improving on his previous best result of seventh in Detroit. His brother Josh Hill finished 10th, making this the second time in 2023 they both scored top-10s in the same race. Their first pair of top-10s came at Detroit.
Jason Anderson narrowly missed the top five in sixth, but considering he was forced to work his way into the main through the Last Chance Qualifier, he wasn’t complaining. Anderson crashed hard in his heat and failed to finish that race.
Click here for 450 Overall results | Rider Points | Manufacturer Points
Hunter Lawrence clinched his 250 East championship in style. He stalked Jordon Smith in the early stages of the Nashville Supercross race and when Smith jumped wide on Lap 6 of 17, the result of his lost momentum handed the lead to Lawrence. The eventual champion wasn’t able to ride away from the field, however. Jo Shimoda stayed within four seconds of the leader as Lawrence managed the gap to keep from making a mistake.
Shimoda missed the first part of the season with a broken collarbone and he’s had a reason to be happy in each of the last three rounds he’s made. Shimoda scored a top-five in his first race back in Atlanta, won the 250 East heat race last week in New Jersey and scored his first podium of 2023 with the second-place finish this week.
The championship results would look different if Shimoda had made all of the Supercross rounds leading into Nashville.
Click here for 250 Heat 1 | Heat 2 | Last Chance Qualifier | Lap Chart
Smith salvaged a third-place finish to earn his fifth podium of the year. He acknowledged the need to eradicate his mistakes, but after a few tough years is happy to be standing on the box with increased regularity.
Smith’s teammate Haiden Deegan had the fastest bike during the last few laps, but he could not quite close the gap on third. He sent his Yamaha into the final turn hard, but came up a second shy of earning his fourth podium of his freshman season.
Click here for 250 Overall results | 250 East Rider Points | 250 Combined Rider Points
Last week’s winner, Max Anstie finished fifth to score his eighth top five in nine 250 East rounds. He finished second in his heat to Lawrence.
Tom Vialle earned five top-10s in the first six rounds until he fell off the pace in the last two. He got back in the rhythm with a seventh-place finish in Nashville Supercross race, but the result was in question in his heat. Vialle was penalized for jumping in a red cross flag section of the track, but was still credited with sixth.
2023 Results
Round 14: Justin Barcia, Max Anstie win
Round 13: Chase Sexton, Hunter Lawrence win
Round 12: Eli Tomac, Jett Lawrence win
Round 11: Tomac bounces back with sixth win
Round 10: Chace Sexton wins, penalized
Round 9: Ken Roczen wins
Round 8: Tomac wins 7th Daytona
Round 7: Cooper Webb wins second race
Race 6: Tomac, J Lawrence win
Race 5: Webb, H Lawrence win
Race 4: Tomac, H Lawrence win
Race 3: Sexton, Levi Kitchen win
Race 2: Tomac, J Lawrence win
Round 1: Tomac, J Lawrence win
2023 SuperMotocross Power Rankings
Week 14: Justin Barcia, most of top 20, hold steady
Week 13: Barcia leapfrogs the Big Three
Week 12: Eli Tomac gains momentum
Week 11: Cooper Webb, Tomac overtake Chase Sexton
Week 10: Sexton leads with consistency
Week 8: Sexton unseats Tomac
Week 7: Jason Anderson narrowly trails Tomac
Week 6: Perfect Oakland night keeps Tomac first
Week 5: Webb, Sexton close gap
Week 4: Tomac retakes lead
Week 3: Ken Roczen takes the top spot
Week 2: Roczen moves up; Sexton falls
Week 1: Tomac tops 450s; Jett Lawrence 250s