Why Chase Sexton’s winningest season yet wasn’t enough

motoonline Competition Post: Kane Taylor

Career-high seven 450SX victories results in runner-up behind Webb.

Despite achieving a career-high of seven Monster Energy Supercross main event wins, season 2025 ultimately saw Chase Sexton come up short of the title. In the end, it was the supreme consistency of title rival Cooper Webb that overhauled Sexton’s outright speed advantage throughout the 17-round series.

It’s a question that’s analyzed often when it comes to how to earn championships at the highest level of Supercross. On the surface level, it would seem almost obvious that the fastest rider would win, however, that is only one piece of the puzzle, with consistency arguably – and often – being a critical factor at play.

It goes without saying that both are important because Webb was still super-quick throughout the season, as he claimed five victories in his own right. This wasn’t quite the season of 2017, where Eli Tomac’s nine wins to Ryan Dungey’s three wasn’t enough to take home the crown, however, Sexton’s extra two over Webb proved not to be the deciding factor come Salt Lake City’s finals.

It’s brutal to look back over the course of a season and see where one’s hiccups lie, and in complete fairness to Sexton, he really didn’t make many major mistakes. He finished outside the top-five only twice, with a pair of sixth-place finishes at both San Diego and Foxborough being the extent of the damage there.

Image: Octopi Media.

Mid-season errors at both Tampa and Arlington come to mind as costly, although these resulted in fifth and third place finishes, which were hardly catastrophic. What is catastrophic though, is that his main competitor was Webb – himself already a two-time champion from 2019 and 2021 – who won’t let you off the hook for those, and in each instance, the now three-time title winner was elevated up the results sheet in what culminated in an 11-point swing.

Reflecting in the moments after the checkered flag in Salt Lake City, the 25-year-old defending Pro Motocross champion Sexton, for obvious reasons, cut a dejected figure. Although, he noted that there was some takeaway from having earned a season-high haul of race wins and the improvements made as a rider.

“Today, I think I did everything that I could’ve done,” reflected Sexton. “Obviously, we came up short on the championship, which is a bummer and it’s a tough pill to swallow, but Cooper had a great season. We were able to achieve seven race wins this year, and throughout the season, I became a much more complete rider, having learned from some of my mistakes.

“I’ll take that and head into the outdoors. I am proud of what we were able to achieve together with the team and am happy to beat my personal season win record with seven this year.”

Notably, 2023 450SX champion Sexton’s seven victories see him climb to a total of 16 premier class race wins, tying him with the legendary Jean-Michel Bayle after five seasons in the 450 class. For the championship-winning Webb, he now sits in rarefied company of those who have three or more Supercross titles, as well as eighth on the all-time premier class wins list with 30.

Things didn’t come easy for Webb, however, who revealed that a re-torn UCL ligament in December threw a big question mark on whether he would even line up this season, and, as always, the pre-season talk seemed to go in every direction other than the number two in the lead-up to Anaheim 1. Webb would use this as fuel for the fire for his championship conquest.

“It’s talked about all the time,” Webb referenced. “I’m not Jett [Lawrence], I’m not Chase or Eli [Tomac], but I like to say that I am Cooper-freaking-Webb dude, and I like to think that I can get it done. At the start of the year, it wasn’t likely, it’s not like I was number one on the list, but I used that as motivation to put myself there.

“We didn’t want to talk about nothing [in the lead up to this year], there are no excuses in this industry, you’ve got to go out there and get it done, rain or shine. But yeah, I re-tore my UCL in early December, so it was 50/50 on whether I was even going to race. I told the team, ‘Let’s just go out there and race, see what happens,’ and here we are.

“Never give up, never sell yourself short. I may not be the best, but when you put your mind to something, you can get it done. This means the world, what a season, and just never give up on yourself.”

Reflecting on this year’s series, it’s pretty wild that the season Sexton put together wasn’t enough to seal a second crown. His performance across 17 rounds was borderline faultless, however, Webb’s was just that little bit more polished – two points being the difference – and despite not having the haul of wins of his rival, his ‘always in the mix’ strategy was ultimately the one that would yield the championship.