Image: Octopi Media.

‘It’s all or nothing’ for Chase Sexton in a late 450SX title bid with that crucial Atlanta victory positioning him 17 points behind the red-plate entering the final four rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship.

The Team Honda HRC rider qualified fastest yet again at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and after finishing third in heat two he swiftly made his way to lead in the main event to ultimately take a commanding 7.006s victory.

With championship rivals Cooper Webb (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) finishing round 13 fourth and fifth respectively, Sexton was able to claw back valuable ground. Nonetheless, with such little time remaining in the series, the number 23 understands it is make or break from here on out and needs to continue his winning form if he is to have a shot at the 450SX title.

“It’s all or nothing,” said Sexton. “It’s obviously hard when you are racing these two guys [Justin Barcia and Ken Roczen] and Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb, everyone that is on the gate, knowing that you have to win is definitely tough. I’ve definitely gained some confidence after last weekend, I feel like I rode well, I just didn’t get great starts.

“This weekend, my starts weren’t great but I snuck around the first corner pretty well and got out front. If I can keep doing that, put myself in good positions, we should be sitting good. Anything can happen, they were pretty far back this weekend, Eli and Cooper, but I’m still pretty far out. Got to win some races.”

With the points gained in Atlanta valuable, Sexton is also riding with more confidence boost from an improved setting on the CRF450R, and that combined with an improved mentality allowed him to finish the job at round 13 after making costly mistakes while leading on previous occasions throughout the season.

“A thing it was a mixture of both,” Sexton added. “Mentally, when you have that many crashes late in the race, it definitely wears on you and was definitely bummed out about that. Part me, part the bike, it was just easier for me, especially after the last couple of races, to be confident when the track gets rougher.

“My bike is pretty stretched out right now as far as stability, it’s been good. We did some testing in the off week, it was good last weekend but last weekend was dry and didn’t really put a lot of load in the bike, so this weekend being tackier was a good test for it with the whoops. Happy with that, happy with just how I rode the whole race and just stoked to keep this thing going.

Monster Energy Supercross moves to East Rutherford this Saturday, with Tomac leading on 292 points ahead of Webb with 286 and Sexton on 275.