{"id":152149,"date":"2026-01-27T21:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152149\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:05:08","slug":"smx-2026-450-results-highlights-finish-at-anaheim-2-chase-sexton-responds-with-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152149\/","title":{"rendered":"SMX 2026 450 results, highlights, finish at Anaheim 2: Chase Sexton responds with victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

After failing to stand on the podium in his first two Main Events, Chase Sexton shrugged off criticism and gave Kawasaki its first Supercross victory since 2022, when Jason Anderson was victorious in Salt Lake City, which ended a four-race winning streak for the team.<\/p>\n

Sexton replaced Anderson on the bike at the start of the season and finished a disappointing eighth in the 2026 season opener. The following week in San Diego, Sexton hit the gate at the start of the feature and had to overcome his last-place starting position to finish one position off the podium in fourth. That race confirmed Kawasaki\u2019s speed, and after a solid start that saw him third at the end of Lap 3, Sexton made up the small distance to the front to win in his third start with Kawasaki.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team again crushed it this week with testing, and I finally had a feeling on the bike that I\u2019ve been looking for for a while, really since I got on it,\u201d Sexton said in the post-race media scrum.<\/p>\n

In a spirited four-rider battle for second, Hunter Lawrence prevailed to score his second consecutive runner-up finish. This is the first time in his 450 Supercross career that he scored back-to-back podiums, and it confirmed he, along with Sexton and Eli Tomac, will be one of the championship contenders in 2026.<\/p>\n

Tomac entered Round 3 seeking his third consecutive victory. As he and the top four riders battled for podium positions, they lost contact with the leader, Sexton, which added to Tomac\u2019s sense of urgency. He pushed Anderson to the edge of the track on Lap 14 to take claim the final spot on the box, but the damage to his track position had already been done. Tomac\u2019s winning streak ended, but he maintained possession of the red plate by eight points over Lawrence.<\/p>\n

“[Tomac] was moving forward, so, yeah, I mean, I\u2019d have done the same thing to him,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Anderson failed to podium in his third race with the Twisted Tea Suzuki team, but his fourth-place finish confirmed that change is often good for everyone involved. Along with Sexton and Tomac, he faces the 2026 challenge with a new team.<\/p>\n

Cooper Webb got off to a slow start in 2025, but he overcame it on his way to the Supercross title. He will need to do so again in 2026 after failing to crack the top five in his first two races. While he continued to lose points to three riders ahead of him in the points, a fifth-place finish in Anaheim 2 was a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Ken Roczen\u2019s remarkable start to 2026 ended when he tipped over on Lap 2 of the Main Event. He recovered to finish eighth and salvaged some points. Roczen issued a statement after the race<\/a> that \u201cAnaheim 2 was not quite the night that we wanted. My starts just weren\u2019t there, and I made a big mistake on Lap 2 and went down. We charged from 21st to eighth and left it all out on the track. That was as far up as I could [reach]. Luckily, I didn\u2019t lose too many points, so on that side of things, it\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are the 450 Supercross results, lap times, and points standings after Round 3 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California:<\/p>\n

Results<\/p>\n

Overall Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Fastest Lap and Sector Times<\/a>
Individual Lap Times<\/a>
Detailed Lap Times<\/a>
Hard Charger Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Lap Chart:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Heat 1<\/a>
Heat 2<\/a><\/p>\n

450 SuperMotocross Points<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the finishing order of Round 3 in Anaheim:<\/p>\n

1. Chase Sexton, Kawasaki
2. Hunter Lawrence, Honda
3. Eli Tomac, KTM
4. Jason Anderson, Suzuki *
5. Cooper Webb, Yamaha
6. Joey Savatgy, Honda
7. Jorge Prado, KTM
8. Ken Roczen, Suzuki
9. RJ Hampshire, Husqvarna
10. Justin Cooper, Yamaha
11. Dylan Ferrandis, Ducati
12. Malcolm Stewart, Husqvarna
13. Christian Craig, Honda
14. Garrett Marchbanks, Kawasaki
15. Justin Hill, KTM
16. Colt Nichols, Suzuki
17. Austin Forkner, Triumph
18. Shane McElrath, Honda
19. Vince Friese, Kawasaki
20. Mitchell Harrison, Kawasaki
21. Ryan Breece, Honda
22. Aaron Plessinger, KTM <\/p>\n

* Holeshot<\/p>\n

2026 Supercross Results<\/p>\n

Anaheim 1 450 Results<\/a> | 250W Results<\/a>
San Diego 450 Results<\/a> | 250 W Results<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After failing to stand on the podium in his first two Main Events, Chase Sexton shrugged off criticism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-152149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}