2023 Glendale Supercross Photo Gallery

2023 Glendale Supercross Recap

The Final Triple Crown race of the year highlighted Round 12 of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season along with dominating performances by two hopeful title contenders on Saturday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ.

For those new to Supercross, the Triple Crown features three shortened Main Events instead of one long race with results calculated by Olympic style scoring. The racer with the least points totaled from their finish in all three races wins the round. Triple crown events began in 2018 and make up three of the 17 rounds each season.

In the 450 class, Eli Tomac made history by breaking a tie with James Stewart and now sits alone in second-place on the all-time wins list with 51. It looked pretty easy too. Tomac won for the seventh time this season taking the win in the opening and third race along with a runner-up in the second race. He faced little competition in the two races he won and though he nearly went overboard in the whoops chasing Chase Sexton in Race 2, he piped down and finished second.

"It was a fantastic evening, it was a very tough race track," he said. "One of the slicker ones, that we've raced on in a long time. It was fun, it was a different challenge. The starts were key tonight. We rocketed out of there."

And that he did. Tomac grabbed the Holeshot in Race 1, started second right behind Sexton in Race 2 and though out-dueled for the Holeshot by Colt Nichols in Race 3, he quickly got the lead with a slick pass in the whoops and never looked back. Tomac was quite lucky in the first turn of Race 3 when an aggressive Kevin Moranz bounced off Tomac's rear tire which sent Moranz into a catapult off the bike. Tomac seemed unfazed by all of it.

Sexton took second overall on a 4-1-3 night which gave him the Triple Crown Championship meaning the overall winner of all three Triple Crown events. No doubt he'd rather have the overall round win as he falls 25 points back of Tomac in the championship standings. Cooper Webb, who was tied with Tomac in the standings heading in to Round 12, had an off night finishing fourth overall on a 2-5-4 night. Justin Barcia stood on a Triple Crown podium for the first time in his career with 3-6-2 finishes and third overall.

Elsewhere, Jason Anderson endured a nasty digger in the whoops with about six and half minutes remaining in Race three while leading Webb for fourth-place. That finished his night though he was able to walk off on his own power. Despite the crash he finished 10th with 6-4-21 finishes but it dropped him from a fourth-place tie in the standings with Ken Roczen to sixth. Roczen (5-3-5) finished fifth overall and takes up sole possession of fourth in the standings, though only a point ahead of Barcia.

2023 450 Class Supercross Season Standings

Eli Tomac (274)
Cooper Webb (267)
Chase Sexton (249)
Ken Roczen (217)
Justin Barcia (216)

250SX West Class

In the 250 West class, Jett Lawrence (1-3-1) finally got a Triple Crown event overall with two race wins and a third-place. An overall win in the three-race structure eluded him in the past and a hustling RJ Hampshire (2-1-3) almost kept the curse in place.

Race 1 was Red Flagged less than three minutes after the gate drop when Stilez Robertson went down which called for a complete redo negating Lawrence's Holeshot and brief battle with Levi Kitchen (3-2-2). In the re-start, Kitchen grabbed the Holeshot and maintained the lead for more than three minutes before Lawrence passed him in the whoops and led the rest of the way. Some nutso riding by Hampshire got him into second and a fighting chance for the overall as his momentum continued in a dominating Race 2 win.

In Race 3, Kitchen got the Holeshot again and again lost the lead three minutes later to Lawrence. Hampshire's wild ride continued as he moved from sixth to third on the opening lap, somehow held on to a violent swapping of his rear-end in the whoops and remained cool thereafter finishing in third.

Lawrence's win gives him a 26 point cushion over Hampshire who has now finished second to Lawrence five times this season. Kitchen finished third overall, his second podium of the year to his Anaheim 2 overall win, also a Triple Crown event. Kitchen moves into a tie for third in the 250 West standings with Cameron Mcadoo who did not race because of a practice injury last week that ended his season.