Chase Sexton took the lead from Hunter Lawrence late in Moto 1 of the RedBud Nationals in Buchanan, Michigan, and took the top spot early in the second race to sweep RedBud and take the points lead from Lawrence. Sexton also swept the motos on the way to winning the Hangtown National. Prior to this weekend, Sexton had not won on his home race track.
“It felt so good,” Sexton told NBC Sports’ Will Christien. “I don’t even know what to say. I have chills right now. Best crowd I’ve seen here at RedBud and they got me through that second moto. Such a good flow.”
Sexton now has a seven-point lead over Lawrence in Pro Motocross and a six-point advantage on Jett Lawrence in the SuperMotocross World Championship ranking.
Finishing second in Moto 2 and fourth in the first race, Aaron Plessinger took second place via the tiebreaker.
“Man this is crazy; I’ve never been here before in my life when it looked like this,” Plessinger said, referencing the packed crowd. “I got a great start. I got by Anderson and kind of put it on cruise control a little bit and they started catching me.”
In third, Hunter Lawrence was second in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2.
“Thankful to not be hurt ager the first moto,” Lawrence said. “We got out of it pretty good. Just struggled in that one. ... I felt like I had a limiter the whole race.”
Jason Anderson finished fourth with results of fifth in Moto 1 and third in Moto 2.
Justin Cooper finished fifth overall with a 3-6 and earned enough points to move into third in the Pro Motocross standings.
Click here for complete official 450 results
In the 250 division, Chance Hymas was penalized five points in Moto 1 for jumping on a red flag, but with the best average finish, he was awarded the overall win after finishing fourth in that race and winning Moto 2.
“It’s about time,” Hymas said. “Doing it on America’s birthday. I’m so proud to be an American.”
Hymas took the early lead in both motos, but he lost pace in Moto 2 and was determined not to do that in the second race. He led every lap of that contest.
Ty Masterpool was poised to score his second Pro Motocross National until he fell back in the closing laps of the second race. With a first in Moto 1 and fifth in Moto 2, he secured second overall.
“That first 20 minutes, I felt good,” Masterpool said. “I didn’t get a good start and I was charging, outside. I felt really good, but unfortunately I hit a wall. I didn’t get my training in before the season and it caught up with me.”
Teammate Jo Shimoda made a determined charge in the final laps, but a bobble on the final trip around the corner dropped him three seconds behind.
Shimoda’s 5-2 placed him on the podium’s final step.
Finishing third in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2, Tom Vialle finished fourth overall.
For the first time this year, Haiden Deegan failed to stand on the podium in Moto 2, and his sixth-place finish in that race, combined with a second in Moto 1, relegated him to fifth.
Click here for complete official 250 results
In Race Notes
The 450 field is wide open now that Jett Lawrence has suffered a thumb injury that will keep him out of competition until the start of the SuperMotocross World Championship. Hunter Lawrence looks to hold off Chase Sexton with only three points separating them.
Sexton could tie Lawrence for the points lead in Moto 1.
And he does. Sexton wins Moto 1 after Lawrence crashes and ties up the points for now.
“It took a while to get around Aaron [Plessinger] and get to the back of Hunter,” Sexton said. “We kind of played yo-yo for a while. I didn’t really know where I was going to make the pass. I rode solid. Didn’t have the spark that I needed in that moto, but we’ll rebound for the second moto.”
“It was incredible until it wasn’t,” Lawrence said. “I went for a ride down that hill. The last couple of laps were tough with those lappers.”
Sexton lapped up to 14th-place Anthony Rodriguez.
Masterpool won 250 Moto 1.
“That was a gnarly moto,” Masterpool told NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas after narrowly edging a hard-charging Deegan in Moto 1. “I tried to focus on myself.”
“That was a sick battle with Ty,” Deegan responded. “We had some fun. The last lap, we were hair to hair.”
Features
450 Moto 2
Kyle Webster got a good start in the first race and does so again in Moto 2. He earned the holeshot.
Anderson gets the top spot later in that lap.
Sexton ends Lap 1 in fourth and starts to move forward.
He got around Webster on Lap 2.
On Lap 3, Sexton takes the lead from Anderson.
Plessinger in fourth, Webster in fifth and Malcolm Stewart round out the top five.
Lawrence changed tires between motos and got a poor start. He hasn’t made up much ground and is just outside the top five in sixth.
Lawrence passes Stewart for fifth on Lap 6.
One lap later, Webster drops two positions, moving Lawrence to fourth and Stewart to fifth. If he can hang on, this will be Stewart’s first top-five of the year.
With 15 minutes remaining, Plessinger has moved into second.
Stewart takes a fall with eight minutes and 30 seconds remaining. Dylan Ferrandis takes the fifth position away.
With three minutes remaining, the top three remain Sexton as the leader, Plessinger in second, and Anderson in third.
Lawrence has moved up to fourth, with Ferrandis fifth.
The top five continues to elude sixth-place Stewart.
When the white flag waves, Sexton has a 19-second lead over Plessinger.
Sexton wins by the widest margin of the season (21.179 seconds) over Plessinger.
Anderson takes the final podium spot.
Fourth-place Lawrence and Ferrandis round out the top five.
Click here for complete 450 Moto 2 results
250 Moto 2
Hymas gets the best start for the second straight moto as Deegan gets a slow start.
At the end of Lap 1, Shimoda is second with Ryder DiFrancesco third.
Levi Kitchen settles into fourth, with Jalek Swoll fifth.
Deegan is in 10th, but he’s come from the back before.
Deegan moves up a spot to ninth on the next lap and closes on Vialle.
Deegan stalls his bike on Lap 5 and drops from sixth to eighth.
Up front, Hymas stretches the advantage to 7.1 seconds over Shimoda.
Seeking his second overall win, Masterpool runs third.
The top five are Hymas, Shimoda, Masterpool, Kitchen, and DiFrancesco at the halfway point.
Deegan is still eighth.
Vialle gets around Swoll on Lap 9 and brings Deegan with him.
Now Vialle and Deegan slip by DiFrancesco.
On Lap 12, Kitchen gets around Masterpool. This puts Hymas in the lead for the overall. Jason Weigandt explains that despite the points penalty from Moto 1, Hymas would still have the better average finish.
With two laps remaining, Shimoda closes on Hymas.
Vialle passes Masterpool for fourth the next time around.
The white flag waves over Hymas and Shimoda. They have a 19-second advantage over Kitchen.
Vialle and Masterpool round out the top five.
Click here for complete 250 Moto 2 results
450 Moto 1
Lawrence gets the holeshot while Sexton is slow out of the gate to hit the first few turns in third.
Plessinger slots into the second spot.
Cooper is fourth, and an excellent start for Webster puts him fifth until he goes down and hands the spot to Grant Harlan.
The contest is peaceful, with Lawrence holding a two-second lead with 22 minutes remaining. Sexton is 2.9 seconds behind the leader.
Sexton gets around teammate Plessinger. He’s under two seconds behind.
Sexton closes the gap on the next lap within a second at the halfway mark.
Plessinger is still third, with Cooper fourth and Anderson fifth.
Sexton sails over Lorroco’s Leap and is on Lawrence’s back wheel.
With eight minutes remaining, Cooper takes third away from Plessinger.
Sexton responds to the pressure and pulls a 1.4-second gap on Sexton with three minutes and 30 seconds on the clock.
Lawrence hits heavy traffic.
As time runs off the clock, Sexton is under a second back (.925) of Lawrence. Two to go.
Lawrence crashes and hands the lead to Sexton. There is a 19-second gap to third.
Lawrence falls back to Cooper with the white flag waving.
Sexton wins the moto and ties Lawrence for the points’ lead.
Lawrence held on to finish second and minimize the damage.
Cooper steps onto the podium in third.
Fourth-place Plessinger and Anderson round out the top five.
Click here for complete 450 Moto 1 results
250 Moto 1
Vialle takes the early lead, but Hymas takes that position later on Lap 1.
Masterpool and Deegan are giving chase.
Kitchen rounds out the top five.
Vialle lays the bike down on Lap 4 and lets Masterpool and Deegan go past.
On Lap 5, Jordon Smith runs into the back of Joey Savatgy and crashes hard.
Coming through the pack, Shimoda makes a dramatic pass on Casey Cochran for sixth.
Deegan could not close the gap in the first five laps, but he picked up the pace and took a couple of seconds off the gap to Hymas. It’s 3.8 seconds at the end of Lap 7.
Masterpool is on Hymas’ back wheel.
On Lap 10, Masterpool sneaks inside Hymas and takes the lead.
However, they allowed Deegan to narrow the gap to 2.2 seconds while they battled.
Now Deegan gets around Hymas with five minutes on the clock.
Lap 13, and Vialle takes third from Hymas.
Deegan has caught Masterpool with two to go. He’s pressing but almost crashes.
Masterpool makes a mistake on the final lap and allows Deegan to close.
Deegan gets alongside Masterpool with two remaining turns but can’t stay there. Masterpool narrowly edges Deegan for the Moto 1 win.
Hymas is penalized five points for jumping on a red flag.
Click here for complete Moto 1 results
Qualification
450s
Sexton (2:04.902) rewards sportsbook traders who made him the favorite this week by posting the fastest time in qualification.
Cooper (2:06.206) wedges between Sexton and Lawrence (2:06.252).
Fourth-place Plessinger and Anderson round out the top five.
Click here for complete 450 qualification times
250s
Vialle and Hymas take the top spots in qualification as they look to put a slight dent in Deegan’s massive points lead.
Masterpool was the third-fastest qualifier by nearly three-tenths of a second over Deegan, but Danger Boy has shown an incredible ability to come from deep in the pack, so this won’t matter much.
Shimoda rounds out the top five.
Click here for complete qualification times
Race Recaps
Southwick: Chase Sexton wins Moto 2, Jett Lawrence takes overall
High Point: Jett Lawrence wins again, Ty Masterpool takes 250s
Thunder Valley: An injured Jett Lawrence wins Thunder Valley
Hangtown: Chase Sexton ends Jett Lawrence streak
Fox Raceway: Jett Lawrence remains perfect
More SuperMotocross News
While we wait for this afternoon’s motos, check out some recent news you may have missed:
Jett Lawrence out for remainder of MX
Lawrence Brothers bring back AUSX Open
Justin Barcia out with knee injury
Jett Lawrence wins Southwick Nationals