PREVIEW

2026 Philadelphia Preview

April 20, 2026

By Brett Smith

We’ve got your weekly key stories ready for you. Note that you can always get the latest on a venue’s history via the 2026 SMX Race Center. As always, don’t hesitate to ask questions!

Philadelphia Returns

The City of Brotherly Love (and many other colorful nicknames) will hold its 5th round of Monster Energy Supercross this weekend and, for the first time ever, it will be an evening event.

Round 15 is also the championship finale for the SMX Next competitors and the penultimate race for the 250SX East competitors.

Chase Sexton (2025) and Jett Lawrence (2024) are the recent 450SX Philadelphia winners
Cole Davies won the 2025 250SX E/W Showdown in Philadelphia. Max Anstie won 250SX East in 2024.
Going back to 1980, 6 different riders have won the 6 main events held in Philadelphia.
Davies and Sexton are the only eligible riders to become 2-time Philly winners.

World Cup News

Lincoln Financial is scheduled to host 6 FIFA World Cup 2026 games
The first is a Group E matchup between Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ecuador on Sunday, June 14, 2026, at 7 p.m. ET
July 4, America’s 250th birthday, a round of 16 match will be the final WC game in Philly.

450SX Facts

Ken Roczen has 12 top 5 finishes this season (same as Hunter Lawrence). The most top 5s Roczen has EVER had in one season is 13 (3x)
2020 was the last time three different riders won at least 4 races (Eli Tomac: 7, Cooper Webb: 4, Ken Roczen: 4)
Ken Roczen has never had 6 consecutive podium finishes. For the 5th time in his career he’s riding a 5 race podium streak.
9 different riders have taken a holeshot this season. Hunter Lawrence and Jorge Prado both have 5
8 different riders have made all 14 main events.
2021: the last time Eli Tomac raced all 17 rounds of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship.
Joey Savatgy was 5th in Cleveland. He has three 5th place finishes this season (best)

250 Rider Facts

Yamaha swept the podium for the second weekend in a row. That’s only the third time in 125/250SX history it’s happened twice in the same season (Suzuki 1994 and Kawasaki 2014)
Cleveland was the FIRST time an OEM has swept the podium on back to back weekends though Kawasaki ended 2010 and began 2011 with a sweep.
Nate Thrasher has now been part of three different podiums sweeps, most ever by a single rider in 250SX.
All 52 of Nate Thrasher’s starts have been on a Yamaha. He’s 1 away from tying Greg Schnell (53) for most 250SX main events on a Yamaha all-time
Kawasaki (2014) and Yamaha (2026) are the only OEMs to have 5 different riders win 250SX races in a season (more on this below)
No OEM has ever had 6 different 125/250SX riders wins races in a single season.
Landen Gordon was the 8th different Yamaha rider to podium this season.
6 different 250SX riders have won a race this season (both divisions).
14 different 250SX riders have holeshot this season (both divisions). The total was 15 in 2025 for all 17 rds.
Cole Davies has led 81 laps this season. Haiden Deegan has led 90.

Cleveland Rocks(zen)!

Literally within striking distance. One point out of the championship lead, Ken Roczen has never been closer in the final stretch (3 or fewer rds. left) of a 450SX championship.

The deepest into a season Roczen has held the points lead was round 9 (2020 and 2021).

Roczen’s Narrowest Gaps to Points Lead (3 or fewer rds. remaining)

Looking ahead

If Ken Roczen can move into the points lead in 2026, it would be the 9th different season he’s held the red plate in his career.
Roczen has raced with the red plate 25 times. remarkably consistent and that’s why he’s got a 10 point lead with just 4 rounds remaining.
Nine seasons with a red plate would be the most all-time.
Roczen is currently tied with Jeremy McGrath (8)
Roczen’s red plate seasons: (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019-2022, 2025)

All-Time Ken Roczen

There’s just something about entering the top 10 all-time that changes legacy perspective for an athlete.

Within one month of sliding into the top 10 for all-time 450SX starts, Ken Roczen is now top 10 for all-time premier class wins.
He’s tied with, arguably, the first ever legend of Supercross Bob Hannah.
He’s one behind Rick Johnson, whose final Supercross win came in Feb. 1989.

450SX All-time Wins list

Most SX Premier Class Wins (Suzuki)

Roczen is now 2 wins behind Mark Barnett for most wins on a Suzuki all-time.
And 1 behind his former team owner, Ricky Carmichael.

Roczen is already the all-time leader in 450SX podiums for Suzuki (45) over Ricky Carmichael (37) but he’s 2 behind RC in SX+MX as well!

Ricky Carmichael: 66
Ken Roczen: 64

The Final 3 @ the Final 3

Looking at the final stretch of the season, we took a look at the venue performances for the top 3 in the standings.

None of them have ever won in Philadelphia or Denver.
Hunter Lawrence goes to his best (Denver) and worst (Salt Lake City)… granted he has just one start at each of the final 3 venues.
Cooper Webb holds the ‘experience’ edge of having the most appearances at each of the final 3 venues.
- Webb is also the all-time leader at Salt Lake City in wins (4) and podiums (9).
Ken Roczen has 4 podiums in 13 starts across the last 3 venues. 1 start and 1 podiums at Philly, 2 starts and 1 podium at Denver, and 2 podiums in 10 starts in Salt Lake.

Average Finish and Venue Rank

Philadelphia

Hunter Lawrence: 1 start (7th in 2024)
Ken Roczen: 1 start. Led 13 laps in 2025. Finished 3rd.
Cooper Webb: 2 starts. 4th in 2024, 2nd in 2025

Denver

Hunter Lawrence: 1 start (2nd, 2024). It was his 1st podium in a traditional format.
Ken Roczen: 2 starts (2019, 2023). 2nd in 2023.
Cooper Webb: 4 starts. 2nd in 2019 and 2025. Led 3 laps in 2025.

Salt Lake City

Hunter Lawrence: 1 start (15th, 2024)
Ken Roczen: 10 starts but only 1 win (2020, rd. 15). 2 podiums total. Avg. fin: 7th. Roczen hasn’t been to SLC since 2023 (22nd)
Cooper Webb: 13 starts, 9 podiums (4 wins). Avg. fin. pos: 3rd.

Yamaha Chases All-Time OEM

Yamaha is one win away from tying Honda (2023) and Kawasaki (2004) for most wins in a single season of 125/250SX.
Yamaha has done it with 5 different riders!
Kawasaki (2014) is the only other OEM to put five different riders in the winner’s circle in a single 125/250SX season.

Most 250SX Wins Single Season by OEM

Re-sort / filter columns by tapping black headers

Cole Davies Clinch Scenarios

Cole Davies had a rough afternoon in Cleveland yet still gained +2 on Seth Hammaker in the standings.

Davies needs to finish +4 in Philadelphia to clinch the title and give Yamaha its second championship of 2026.
A championship from Davies would be Yamaha’s 20th in the division since the class was introduced in 1985.

Cole Davies’ Clinch Scenarios

Left is Davies’ Philadelphia finish. Right column is where Seth Hammaker needs to finish for Davies to win title.

Nate Thrasher Does it Again

Nate Thrasher, 23, does two things consistently in 250SX racing:

He gets at least one win EVERY single season
He ends every season with an average finish of 8th

In Cleveland, Thrasher earned his 7th career win, which awarded him a quirky 250SX record book honor

He’s the first rider in 125/250SX history to win a race in 6 different seasons.
Bonus points: Thrasher’s wins all came in consecutive seasons!

125/250SX: Most Seasons with a win

Re-sort / filter columns by tapping black headers

Nate Thrasher has 13 career 250SX podium finishes. Since 7 of those are wins, it means he’s only finished 2nd or 3rd six times!

Thrasher didn’t get a non-victory podium finish until his 3rd season.
His top 5 finish rate is only 42%
Thrasher’s career avg. fin. position is 8.3 in 52 starts
Just for “fun”: Thrasher’s recalculated average finish (if we eliminated his wins/podiums) is 10.6.

Nate Thrasher’s 250SX Career

SMX Next Championship Race #5

This weekend’s SMX Next AMA National Championship event in Philadelphia is also a qualifier for Playoff #1 on Sept. 12 at Historic Crew Stadium Columbus, OH.

The top 5 riders this weekend in Philly will get automatic bids to compete in Columbus
The World All Star Final is Sept. 19 at Dignity Health Sports Park Los Angeles, CA

SMX Next has seen four different winners in 2026

Kayden Minear (Anaheim 2)
Caden Dudney (Houston)
Deacon Denno (Daytona)
Vincent Wey (Birmingham)

Notable info from SMX Next

Landon Gibson has three 2nd place finishes in 9 SMX Next SX starts.
Deacon Denno has been very consistent across his 4 starts this season; all top 5s including the Daytona win (5, 2, 1, 5)
Vincent Wey has found success this season. He’s podiumed the last two rounds including the win in Birmingham (4, 12, 3, 1).
Winning SMX Next is Wey’s destiny: He won the 2018 Las Vegas KJSC and was the 2019 Las Vegas 2019 Futures National champion (65cc).
Wey is 16, turns 17 in June.

2026 SMX Next Results

Re-sort / filter columns by tapping black headers

Milestones

450 Achieved Last Week

Ken Roczen (27) tied Bob Hannah (27) for 10th all-time.

450s

Ken Roczen is one win away from tying Rick Johnson (28) for 9th on the all-time wins list.
Ken Roczen needs one podium to tie Ricky Carmichael (87) for 5th on the all-time premier class podiums list.
Just +16 points and Ken Roczen ties Chad Reed for 8th on the all-time points scored list (all classes)
Just +21 and Roczen ties Justin Barcia for 7th on the all-time points scored list (all classes)
Eli Tomac (113) needs 1 more win to tie James Stewart (114) for the 2nd most wins all-time (all classes, SX+MX).
Eli Tomac (379) is just 2 combined SX+MX premier class starts from tying Kevin Windham (381) for 5th all-time.
Cooper Webb (32) wins SX+MX needs one more to tie Jett Lawrence (33)

Eli Tomac…

250 Achieved Last Week

Kyle Peters tied Nate Ramsey (81) for 6th all-time 250SX starts.

250s

Nate Thrasher needs just 1 start to tie Greg Schnell (53) for most 250SX main events on a Yamaha all-time

Trivia

Who was the 2025 Supercross champion? Cooper Webb.
Who was the 2025 250 West Supercross champion? Haiden Deegan.
Who was the 2025 250 East Supercross champion? Tom Vialle.
Who won the main event last week in Cleveland? Ken Roczen
Who won the first Supercross held in Philadelphia in 1980? Mike Bell.
How many Supercross wins does Eli Tomac (2nd all-time) have? 57.
How many consecutive years has Eli Tomac won a premier class Supercross race? 12.
How many years has Ken Roczen won a premier class Supercross race? 11.
With 124 Supercross and Pro Motocross premier class wins, what rider has the most all-time wins? Ricky Carmichael.
Can you name the 3 rookies that have won the premier class Supercross title? Jeremy McGrath, Ryan Dungey, and Jett Lawrence.
Who qualified fastest last week in Cleveland? Hunter Lawrence.
How many premier class Supercross titles has Cooper Webb won? 3.
Who won the 2025 250 East/West Showdown main event in Philadelphia 2025? Cole Davies
Was Max Anstie the oldest rider to ever win a main event at Anaheim 1? Yes.