Chase Sexton and The Case of the Missing Speed
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14 times Fastest Qualifier in 2023. Once in 2024. Can Chase Sexton find his heaters again?
Chase Sexton lost his heaters in 2024. Can he find them in 2025, his second year riding a KTM 450 SX-F?
One season after claiming all but three Fastest Qualifying wins while riding a Honda CRF450R to the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship, Sexton’s title defense year ended with just one pole position.
It took him until the 17th and final round of 2024 to win a Fastest Qualifier. It was at Salt Lake City, where he beat out the soon-to-be-crowned champion, Jett Lawrence by the super slim margin of .045.
“I didn’t want to go all year without a fastest qualifier,” Sexton said in SLC.
Sexton’s 2024 ended with a third overall in the championship, and his season average qualifying position of 3.5 nearly mirrored it.
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And the missing speed wasn’t exclusive to the qualifying sessions; Sexton set the fastest main event lap time just twice (San Francisco and Philadelphia). In 2023, he set the fastest lap of the main event eight times.
Sexton was never off the qualifying ‘podium’ in 2023. He won 14 Fastest Qualifiers, averaged 1.3, and had a worst finish of third (twice). His average qualifying margin of victory in those 14 wins was +0.27.
In 2024, rookie Jett Lawrence won qualifying nine times with an average qualifying margin of victory of +0.21.
I’m in a way better spot now (vs. last season). It took me a lot longer to get the bike in the right spot (last season).
–Chase Sexton
Lawrence didn’t “replace” Sexton at the top. Eight different riders won Fastest Qualifier in 2024. Sexton finished second to Lawrence just three times and was second overall six times total (all within the first nine rounds).
Then he slumped all the way to Denver where he finally cracked the top three again before winning in Salt Lake City.
“I’m in a way better spot now (vs. last season),” he said in early December 2024. “It took me a lot longer to get the bike in the right spot (last season).”
Sexton is one of three riders (Tomac & Roczen) to win an overall in each of the last three years. Does Sexton make it four straight years? Can he back up his 2023 Supercross title?
Notable Sexton facts from 2024
- 3rd overall in series after winning the title in 2023.
- Sexton was one of four riders to hold the red plate and did so two different times (San Diego & Glendale).
- Two wins: in the mud of San Francisco and the final round in Salt Lake City.
- Ouch: Finished four races outside the top 5, including crashing out of Nashville. Ninth in Glendale after a midweek crash injured his wrist. This was a critical turning point in season.
- Didn’t have the speed he had in 2023. He was only fastest qualifier once in 2024 vs. 14 times in 2022.
- So close: finished second to Cooper Webb in both Seattle and Arlington by a combined +1.69 seconds!
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