Chase Sexton on Oakland | Vital MX Interview 4

For Honda HRC's Chase Sexton, the 450SX main event in Oakland was a rather positive experience and one that seemed set to shift momentum into his corner. Unfortunately, an untimely mistake caused him to fall to third when the checkers waved. It was still a solid round for Sexton and one where he showed clear signs of improvement, as he talks about in this Vital MX interview from the RingCentral Coliseum. This post-race chat, done by Michael Lindsay, is available in audio, written and video form. This piece is presented by our friends at DeCal Works.

Vital MX: The ship hit a bit of a rough patch in that main event, but things are still going strong. You had solid speed again tonight.

Chase Sexton: The speed is not a problem! One thing that I can take away from tonight, which I have not had in the past, is that the best that I felt all day was in the main event. That is something that I have been looking for, as it seems to be where Eli [Tomac] and Cooper [Webb] shine. I was pretty happy with that. I still don't really understand what happened. I jumped the triple and was basically pointing backwards towards the finish line. Yeah, I don't know. It's tough.

You have spoken about riding rougher tracks recently and that seems to be paying off. You were really solid in the whoops and on the dragon's back.

Yeah, like I said, my riding was awesome. It is frustrating. I am working my butt off, that is all I can do, and I am trying to be better. It is frustrating. I am my own hardest critic and it is really unacceptable. I have got to be better and go back to work. Maybe change the bike a little and me? We have got a Triple Crown again [this weekend], so that is good.

Was there a little whiplash [with that crash]? That was violent.

Yeah, it was violent. I had a crash on Wednesday. I did not even know if I was going to be able to race this weekend. I bruised my leg so bad, so I have been dealing with that all day, then I go and crash like that. I was like, "This is not what we need." I got through the day with my leg though. Yesterday, even on the plane, my knee was like this big. I have not really said anything about it, because I do not really want to make excuses. I am glad that we got through today with the knee. I am glad we got through this race – the track was gnarly and we did not lose a whole bunch of points. We are seven points down now, so have some work to do.

You, Eli and Cooper are separating yourselves from everyone so much right now. It is really fun to watch.

It is really fun. Even the main event, we were so separated. I enjoy that. I guess that the level keeps going up and up. It is fun to be a part of that. I still feel like I have a speed advantage. I have just got to put the pieces together and start making stuff happen, because it is getting down to… Not down to crunch time, but I need to get some momentum back on my side. Let's try to string some wins together. Eli has won four now, so I have got some work to do.

Are you looking forward to the next couple of rounds? Do you like what's coming up?

Yeah, I am looking forward to Dallas. I love going to Texas. Daytona is in my backyard too, so I'm looking forward to it. I am happy to be out of this track somewhat okay. It was a super gnarly racetrack.

Last question and just looping back around to the incident. A lot of people are probably wondering what happened, but it looked like the front end got really deep on the stroke and pitched you around.

Very, very deep in the stroke.

Do you feel like you went a little deep on the three that lap or nailed it?

I nailed it. I don't know. I want to find a video of it that is somewhat slow, so I can see what is going on. It is hard to really say. It happened so fast. I have got to go back analyze, go back to work with the team and try to make something better.