Image: Octopi Media.

After a trip to the hospital following a qualifying crash in Arlington, Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s rookie Nate Thrasher returned hours later to take his third consecutive top 10 finish in Monster Energy Supercross.

In his first season of Supercross Thrasher has been learning the ropes rather quickly. After getting the first two rounds under his belt, he’s continued to build speed and notched better results with each round as he finds his way in the series.

When the day started at AT&T Stadium for the last of three rounds in Arlington, the 18-year-old had strong pace until a crash in the opening qualifying session put a halt to his afternoon.

“In the first timed qualifying,” Thrasher explained. “I had a pretty big crash and hit my jaw pretty good. I thought I broke it. I finished up the session and just pushed through it to end up seventh.

“I missed the second qualifying and went to go get an x-ray at the hospital. We got back here probably 30 minutes before I had to go out. So we got dressed, got ready, took a little medicine, and then we went out and rode the best we could.”

His evening return yielded a fourth-place finish in his heat race, which he followed up by matching his season-best finish of ninth in the main event.

“Ninth was the best we had tonight,” he continued, “but we had the speed to be up there in the top five for sure. We have got to keep pushing and keep getting a little bit better on the weekend. We’ve got a three-week break, so the plan is to just get healthy and come back in Atlanta.”