Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Cooper Webb earned his second win of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship at the Arlington Triple Crown in dramatic fashion as Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Nate Thrasher took his first win of the season in 250SX East. Both riders were available to the media following the races for this Debrief feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Race three obviously matters the most in this format and you executed when you needed to, but after race one and with how the points systems works, what was your mindset?

That first one was a tough one for sure, but there’s three of them and I learned that at the first one. Obviously we kind of went the wrong way with the bike in that first race, but we went back and regrouped and I feel like we made some good changes for the last two. Overall, the first one wasn’t my best, but I’m stoked to get a win.

Midway through race three you were behind Jason [Anderson] and Chase [Sexton] was up front, at that point were you thinking of the lead of was it just piece by piece?

It was tough. I knew going in I had to beat Chase and Eli had to get third basically, I felt like I had the pace on Jason, but the track was hard to pass on tonight, I’d get my spots but he’s a smart guy so he wasn’t giving it up easy, then he made the mistake in the whoops which allowed me to close and I was able to make the pass, but I knew I had to beat Chase to get the overall. So, that was what I was going for and I felt good, I felt like I had a great pace and felt comfortable then obviously the lappers messed up and that gave me my chance, like I said there was a lot going on.

It happened in 2019 and it happened in 2021, you get that first win and the flood gates open… Why is that?

I’m not sure, tonight obviously is tough cause it’s a Triple Crown format, it’s a lot different feeling for me than a normal main event, it almost doesn’t feel real I guess, but in a sense it’s obviously important to get these good points, but yeah obviously a lot of mistakes, but I just stayed clear and stayed the course. Overall though, yeah I’m an extremely happy to get this win, Dallas is always a good one for me, so to come here and do well is super cool. I’m feeling confident and know what I can get better at, but we’re all riding well, it’s a dog fight at the moment.

Throughout the night, the track seemed to be a simple design, but it deteriorated towards the end of the main event. What adjustments did you have to make in terms of lines?

It was definitely fairly basic, I think with the futures class we’ve been seeing pretty basic stuff, but it definitely broke down throughout the night, the tough thing was it looked like there was a lot of grip, but that last main there wasn’t much, so it’s a bit deceiving but yeah just reading the track, the whoops weren’t that tough but they just got super broken down and really shiny. I wa skimming them pretty good then decided to jump one lap and it was pretty fast. But yeah, like Eli said, the dragons back changed entirely throughout the night and a lot of the other lines did too. So just reading the conditions and knowing what’s going to be good late was important because it was so tough to pass.

From a championship standpoint, we’re seven rounds in and the points gap is down to two, does that play more of a role during the races or do you just think about winning and getting the momentum to swing your way?

Yeah, that’s the age old question, it’s tough with all of us being so close and we’re going fast, so you have that little bit of risk and you also don’t want to make mistakes, it’s still early and now as you can see there’s definitely a pattern, so we’ll just keep fighting for race wins and just keep plugging away, we’ll see where that takes us through the season.

Do you think this is the pattern we’ll see for then rest of the season, whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins the championship?

It’s crazy, I think racing in the moment, you think about the points and you have to beat, then we’ve got all the other guys that are out there trying to win to, that’s Supercross and I think for the fans it’s great. It’s real close between us three and we all have our own perks.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

What has the last few weeks been like for you with the injury, how have you balanced that with getting through normal training and riding?

I’d say there’s not much going on through the week really, I’m kind of limited on what I can do. It’s been good though, just been putting some laps in and doing the best we can and coming into this weekend I tried to be as recovered as I could and that’s all I can do. it sucks that it happened, it happened at Houston, it’s a bummer but we’ll be good, we’ll keep fighting, no excuses everyone’s fighting through something.

Is winning injured a little more gratifying?

No, I’m not really treating it like I’m hurt, I’m just doing the same stuff I did in the first round, I felt really good there, I felt like I had good speed but after the crash there wasn’t much left, I was hurting pretty bad. We have a good trainer and he just got me back to where I needed to be and we’re just managing it, but yeah I’m just trying to go out there and win races like we came into the season trying to do. Obviously it’s there but once you get the adrenaline pumping it’s a lot easier.

Can you give an update on your knee – is it a full tear, partial tear, is your knee stable?

It is what it is, I’m not going into the full details of it, I’m just trying to keep it low-key and do what I can do. It’s definitely not good, but like I said before we’re trying to do a job and it’s not holding me back so we’ll keep pushing and deal with the cards we’ve been dealt.

Do you like the Triple Crown racing format?

It’s only my second one, so it’s hard to say, but if I could choose it would be a regular main event. It’s almost 30 minutes of main event racing in this format, it’s definitely tougher on the body and mind, you have to nail all three starts. Especially tonight, the track was so broken down, the whoops got nasty and slick and it was hard to make passes coming through because there wasn’t many lines to choose from, so yeah I’d say once the main event normally comes around the track is already beat up cause they don’t prep it much.

From your standpoint, we’ve seen very technical tracks, do you think it makes for good racing?

For sure, tonight this dirt looked like it had a lot of traction but it just didn’t. Once the moisture comes out it gets super slick. The track was basic today but it just made it super tricky once the races came around, it got super slick in the whoops and they weren’t even big. Just sections like that, the tracks have been tricky I feel like, thank god there was no sand out there, it was nice to get away from that tonight. But the tracks have been good, the transitions have been nice and I think it’s made for good racing.

Do you prepare for what kind of tracks are coming knowing that the tracks are different?

Definitely for Daytona we’ll try and ride something closer to that and try get the bike set-up for that, cause it’s going to get beat up and rough, it’s more of an outdoor style track. Other than that it’s pretty minute changes, all the work is put in from October to January so, it’s kind of just maintaining.