Chase Sexton on Supercross Win | Vital MX Interview

PostRace

Chase Sexton silenced doubts and internal questions at round one of 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross via a dominant main event win. Not only did he take the early championship lead, but he also showed impressive pace in practice and was better positioned to tackle the racetrack aboard his KTM 450 SX-F.

Here, in a post-race interview that covers a variety of topics, he discusses all of that, the need for a mental switch and how he made his improvements so effective.

Scroll down to read the written transcript of this interview.

Lewis Phillips: All off-season you are building towards a better 2025. How confident were you that it would go like this?

Chase Sexton: I didn’t know if I’d win the first race or not. I was confident I could, but you never know when it comes to racing. Stuff happens and obviously, a lot happened tonight. So, I really just focused on my starts, getting out front, and from there I can handle what I needed to do. It was just getting off the gate because I needed to get out front. That was good tonight. The Main Event start wasn’t the greatest, but I was able to get through. I locked handlebars with Coop (Cooper Webb), but I did start next to one of the best starters ever in (Jorge) Prado. He got me a little bit, but it was close. If I’m close, I’m good.

Lewis Phillips: If you’re close to Prado that’s an achievement in itself.

Sexton: Yeah, that’s a win for me.

Lewis Phillips: What did you do for starts? They were much better and consistent too.

Sexton: Seat stuff, bars, motor, and we also lowered our holeshot device. We messed with that and a lot of different things trying to get more comfortable in the cockpit over the gate.

Lewis Phillips: Why couldn’t you figure this out last year? Or did you try and didn’t quite nail it?

Sexton: By the time we figured out we didn’t quite nail it, it was a little too late to mess with it. I had other problems. I had bike issues everywhere. We had to pick our battles, but this year we had a productive off-season and eliminated a lot of the problems. 

Lewis Phillips: Do you have any problems right now?

Sexton: Not any big problems. We need to tinker and try to get better. It’s only going to get harder from here, but we aren’t making big swings anymore. We got those out of the way, so now we will fine-tune and make baby steps.

Lewis Phillips: It was only free practice earlier today, but I felt your coming out and setting the two fastest times there was enough to silence your doubts from 2024. It almost set the course straight for this year, like, “Yeah, this is different.”

Sexton: I wanted to get off to a hot start. Whether that was getting the fastest qualifier or being on top of the board in one session. I wanted to start the season off in the right way and I came out fired up. Tonight went really well with winning the Heat and Main. It was a good day overall and I felt calm, which was nice. 

Lewis Phillips: You seem much more set mentally this year. Have you worked on that, or does it come from being comfortable on the bike?

Sexton: To be honest, it’s like a switch happened in my brain. I don’t know how to explain it.

Lewis Phillips: You realized who you are.

Sexton: Yeah, it’s pretty deep. During a lot of my training, I was closed off. Not from people, I was in Florida. It was me, Phillip, and Peter (Park), and we just went to work and didn’t have any distractions. I was locked in and had good days at the track. I didn’t know if it was going to work today or if I would be worse or better, but it was better. 

Lewis Phillips: Do you feel mentally and bike-wise will be easy to maintain?

Sexton: Yeah. At least now, if we’re starting here, we’re already in a good spot. Like I said, we aren’t taking big swings. Just incremental improvements. We aren’t taking forks or the shock off in every session. I only did three clicks the entire weekend with the suspension.

Lewis Phillips: I’m guessing that didn’t happen at any point last year.

Sexton: No, I don’t think we made it through a race without taking the forks or suspension off at least once. I mean, outdoors we did. Today was nice and overall starting the season on a better note than last year, Last year I was questioning myself, “Can I do this? Can I be the guy I was in ’23 again with this platform?” I didn’t really know. That was a question mark coming into this year, but I think I proved today that I’m back to 2023 spec.

Lewis Phillips: Maybe better?

Sexton: I’d say a more complete package this year. I still need to work on speed a bit and get a little better, but nothing crazy. As far as confidence, and late in the race, that was a pretty lonely Main Event for me. I was just out there and I didn’t have much going on, and then I stalled it. That made it a little more interesting, then I got back and was cruising by myself. That’s where I felt I needed to get better and today was a good improvement. 

Lewis Phillips: Just to be sure, Prado is here now and it’s a new season. Is the Ship renewed for another year?

Sexton: I don’t know. What side are you on? It’s kind of in your court.

Lewis Phillips: I guess it’s my choice. I think we’re good. The result helped. That helped my confidence.

Sexton: If I go out there and get beat by Jorge, the ship is gone. 

Lewis Phillips: Yes. So, we’re in?

Sexton: Yeah, we’re in. 

 

Credit: Lewis Phillips
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