Chase Sexton on: 450SX Break, The Sand | Interview

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Chase Sexton returned to the Monster Energy AMA Supercross podium at the ninth round in Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium. A small crash in the 450SX main event stopped him from taking second place, but he banked solid points and claimed his fifth podium in nine rounds. 15 points is the deficit that he faces to Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Cooper Webb.

In Indianapolis' post-race press conference – where the riders must address the media – Sexton discussed his ride and the creative line in the sand that teammate Tom Vialle made him aware of. It was the sand that ultimately bit him, of course, but he discusses the evolution of that mistake too.

Press Conference: Was there some risk versus reward going through your head with that line in the sand in the main event?

Chase Sexton: Yeah, I had a pretty good line in the sand section for a while. I was kind of doubling through it and then my line went away a bit – I started going in the bottoms of the sand rollers and lost the front. It was pretty easy to do, especially when you got down to the clay dirt. It took me four or five laps to get back in the groove after going down and then I had Justin Barcia behind; I had to hold him off. I got back in my groove, but there were only two laps left by that time. It is unfortunate but is what it is. It is racing. We now have a week off to regroup and come back in Birmingham.

You have had the speed the last couple of weeks, so what do you work on over the off weekend? Is it mental, technique or something else?

I just need a reset. These last four or five races have been hard for me. It is kind of hard to hide that. Typically, when we come back from the little break that we get during the supercross season, I seem to be better. Hopefully, I can do that again and put some good races together. We should be good once I get that momentum back on my side, but Cooper [Webb] is riding really well as I have said. He was solid from the get-go in that main event. I am going to have to be better and get a little reset.

I felt we saw a different, more mature rider tonight. You have said all you want to do is win, but tonight it felt as if you were in championship mode. There was the tip over in the sand, but I think that was a fluke. Has there been a change in your mentality?

After the red-cross flag where I had to roll the section, it was over. Cooper had nine seconds on me, so I just tried to ride my laps and bring it home in second. I made the mistake in the sand, but it was easy to do. Once I got off that rhythm of doubling through, I seemed to get deeper into the sand. I was going too slow and fell over. I just picked myself up. I tried to claw back and at least get on the podium. Justin [Barcia] and Aaron [Plessinger] had a bit of a train coming from behind me. I tried to fight and ended up third.

Were there any specific adjustments made today that made a difference in your performance tonight?

I was fighting the track since press day. We made a good change for the heat race and stuck with it for the main. I felt better and more comfortable, but it was a tough track with a lot of places where you could make a big mistake. Some of those rhythm sections had big G-outs and you had to be on your marks to limit the big mistakes that could bite you. 

You mentioned the outside line in the sand. In the 250SX race, we saw Tom Vialle miss the hole right before the last sand jump. Is that something you debriefed on with him before your main event?

Yeah. I saw him do it and I was not sure what line to take in the beginning of the sand, if I was going to go inside or out. I asked his brother when he was at the podium and I was like, "Ok, I got that." The first 10 minutes I felt like I was in Lommel going double, double, double and skimming off the wall. That line went away, but I kind of stuck to it. I needed to switch and that is how I went down but, yeah, Tom told me about it and then I asked his brother, Nate.