Chase Sexton doesn’t want to be counted out of the championship just yet.
The Illinois native clicked off his laps and made the pass on points leader Eli Tomac to take the lead just passed the halfway mark. He never looked back and captured the win by more than 10 seconds.
“I just wanted to be consistent and hit my marks,” Sexton said on the NBC broadcast. “I didn’t get the best start, but I made my way up and saw Eli (Tomac) up front and just wanted to click as many good laps off as I could and see if I could get close.”
He got more than close, as Tomac was comfortable falling in line with the big lead he had amassed himself on the field.
Sexton’s win moves him to 18 points behind Tomac for the championship with two races to go.
It might take a lucky break for Sexton to make up the ground in the points, but Saturday’s race showed he hasn’t given up one bit.
“With the track being this sketchy, it’s hard to be out front the whole time,” Sexton said on NBC. “For me, it allowed me to kind of see some different lines. That was a tough track, but I felt super smooth, really locked in and I feel like I’m making big strides. This one means a lot and any win in this class means a lot, so stoked on today and we’re going to keep it rolling.”
The sketchy track laid claim to the night’s of a pair of star riders in the sport, with Cooper Webb being hospitalized after a heat race accident and Justin Barcia going down in the middle of the main event. The injury status of each rider are not yet known.
The series returns to the track Saturday, May 6 for the stadium season’s penultimate event in Denver, set to kick off at 8:00 p.m. CT (Peacock).
