Image: Supplied.

A damaged, stuck throttle was the cause of Chase Sexton crashing out of the Nashville main event in concerning fashion last night, the defending 450SX champion later cleared of any major injuries.

According to Red Bull KTM, it’s understood that a rock effectively broke Sexton’s throttle and caused it to stick on the approach to the pair of singles that crossed the start straight.

The 24-year-old was ejected upon heavily casing the second jump and immediately exited the race, ultimately putting him a full 40 points outside of red plate-holder Jett Lawrence (Team Honda HRC) with only three races to go in the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross season.

“Crashed out tonight,” a matter of fact Sexton commented post-race, revealing he intends to race-on in round 15 next Saturday. “A stone cracked my throttle body and the throttle got stuck off of that single-single, which ended my night. Bummer, but nothing’s broken, and we’ll bounce back in Philadelphia.”

Sexton has endured a mixed campaign upon switching to KTM from HRC for his title defense, with his win in rain-soaked conditions at San Francisco’s second round his lone victory of the year. He has seven podiums to his credit in total, the most recent of those coming with P2 last weekend in Foxborough.