{"id":34016,"date":"2023-05-14T23:51:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T05:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/defending-supercross-champion-eli-tomac-finishes-season-in-second-after-injury\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:15:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:15:37","slug":"defending-supercross-champion-eli-tomac-finishes-season-in-second-after-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/defending-supercross-champion-eli-tomac-finishes-season-in-second-after-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Supercross champion Eli Tomac finishes season in second after injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eli
Eli Tomac prepares for the 450cc Supercross at Empower Field at Mile High on May 6, 2023, in Denver. (Star Racing Yamaha)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Chase Sexton on Saturday won the season-ending 450 Supercross in Salt Lake City, cruising to the finish line and capturing the 2023 championship after four of the series\u2019 top five finishers had fallen to injuries late in the season.<\/p>\n

Sexton, who led all riders wire to wire Saturday, crossed the finish line at Rice Eccles Stadium 18.266 seconds ahead of runner-up Aaron Plessinger. Justin Hill was third, 21.400 seconds behind Sexton, and Adam Cianciarulo and Dean Wilson filled out the top five.<\/p>\n

\"Chase
Chase Sexton, 450 AMA Supercross champion, during the news conference May 6 at Empower Field at Mile High. (Jim Bensberg\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Eli
Eli Tomac reportedly underwent surgery Sunday at the Steadman Clinic in Vail after rupturing his Achiled tendon in the 450 Supercross Saturday in Denver. (Star Racing Yamaha)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The victory gave Sexton the title in the 2023 Monster Energy AMA 450 Supercross season. After the 17th round in Salt Lake City, he finished the season on top of the standings with 372 points, rising past the injured runner-up Cooper Webb and leader Eli Tomac.<\/p>\n

Sexton jumped from third place to first place in two weeks part of a chaotic end of a season in which six of the top seven finishers suffered injuries in the final five races. Only Sexton survived.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Tomac of Cortez, who held an 18-point lead over Sexton before a season-ending injury in Round 16 in Denver May 6, finished second overall with 339 points.<\/p>\n

Cooper Webb, who suffered a concussion while in second place in Round 15 in Nashville on April 29, finished third in the standings with 304 points after missing the final three races. He said he could spend the next \u201csix to eight weeks fully off the dirt bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ken Roczen apparently injured a knee injury in the first lap in Round 17 in Salt Lake City and stopped. He finished fourth place in the season standings, tied with Webb at 304 points.<\/p>\n

Justin Barcia, who broke his collarbone, shoulder and two ribs in Round 15 in Nashville, sat out the final two races and finished fifth overall, with 267 points.<\/p>\n

Jason Anderson suffered a neck injury and sat out the final two races in Denver and Salt Lake City. He finished sixth overall, with 242 points.<\/p>\n

And Plessinger, who was the runner-up Saturday in Salt Lake City, finished seventh overall, with 236 points, after sitting out Rounds 14-16.<\/p>\n

\n

Final 2023 standings: 450 Supercross1. Chase SextonHonda3722. Eli TomacYamaha3393. Cooper WebbKTM3044. Ken RoczenSuzuki3045. Justin BarciaGasGas2676. Jason AndersonKawasaki2427. Aaron PlessingerKTM2368. Justin HillKTM2129. Adam CianciaruloKawasaki21010. Dean WilsonHonda200<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The lineup for the start of the AMA Pro Motocross season May 27 remains uncertain. Webb has said he won\u2019t be ready to race until near the end of the Motocross series, and neither Barcia nor Anderson provided a timetable.<\/p>\n

This weekend, Tomac was recovering from the injury to his Achilles tendon. He declined to speculate about a return to racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing for sure, I\u2019m not going to make any decisions on my future right now,\u201d he said May 8 in a video. \u201cThat will come maybe a month down the road or two, when I make a decision if I\u2019m going to ride again. I\u2019m just going to focus on getting healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AMA Motocross season runs May 27 through Aug. 26. The inaugural, three-race Supermotocross series runs Sept. 9-23.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

easily wins in Salt Lake City and claims the title<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82444,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions\/82444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34016"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}