2025 Daytona Supercross | Kickstart News and Photo Gallery

The World Center of Racing: The one thing the Daytona Supercross has above the rest of the rounds on the season is that you truly feel like you're at a racing event even five miles away from the Speedway.

Not Ideal: Max Anstie started the weekend with a big crash on press day that left him with the wind knocked out of him. Fortunately, he would be okay.

Seeing Red: Star Racing holds all three red plates currently and they had Haiden Deegan's 250SX West machine on display in the pits alongside 250SX East points leader Max Anstie's bike.

Seeing Red: Cooper Webb's Yamaha held sole possession of the red plate following his win last weekend in Arlington.

Ouch: Jason Anderson hit the deck on press day in a crash that left him banged up for the rest of the weekend. Fortunately, the damage was not bad enough that he would need to miss any time.

Faces: Chase Sexton faced the music with the media on press day regarding his moment in Arlington where he crashed on the last lap while possessing the overall win. He said he was just ready to move on and focused on Daytona, and on Saturday he appeared to be blocking out much of the noise as he went back to focusing in on the task at hand.

Bikes: Ken Roczen's spare RM-Z450 was still covered in the military appreciation graphics from the Arlington Supercross triple crown the week before. The teams prep two bikes to be fully ready to go for the Triple Crown and then retain the machines for backup parts at other races where they have more time to change components like Daytona.

Faces: Nick Wey and new Team Green Kawasaki man Vincent Wey were on hand in Daytona but Vincent would not end up racing SMX Next like originally expected. Reportedly Wey had a shoulder injury coming into the weekend and withdrew late.

Faces: Why yes Cooper Webb, you do have the red plate at Daytona after having a huge offseason crash. Not too bad of a place to be huh?

Style: Colt Nichols shows off a classic Camel Supercross shirt.

Leadership: Cooper Webb has been seen talking with the Star Racing 250 guys a lot this season and he reportedly gave a big pep talk to the boys a few weeks back. Here Webb chats with Daxton Bennick on track walk as they walk around with Alex "Peanut" Campbell (right) who is Webb's mechanic.

Faces: We talked to Justin Barcia on press day and he hosted a hilarious interview for us where he and Aaron Plessinger talked about who had the best hair in the pits. We then asked Justin Barcia if he'd shave the beard off to match Plessinger's mustache, to which Barcia replied if we see him in a "dirty stache" on Saturday, you know where it came from. Sure enough, he shaved the beard Friday night and rocked the handlebars on Saturday.

Kits: Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki had loads of Bell helmets and Scott goggles laid out in their pits on Saturday morning.

Faces: Ryan Dungey has been gracing the pits with his presence at several rounds this year as he continues to be an ambassador for Red Bull KTM while doing his charity work with the RD Foundation.

Pits: Probably the coolest part of Daytona is that all the teams get to pit out of the infield garages used by the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Truck Series, Rolex 24 at Daytona teams, and many more.

Faces: Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Drew Adams was on hand at Daytona as he recovers from a broken collarbone. No timetable yet on his return to Supercross, but it's very likely he'll be back soon and now almost 100% certain he races all of AMA Pro Motocross for the team this summer.

Helping Hand: Mitch Payton shakes hands with Seth Hammaker as he heads out for practice. A symbolic image given that Hammaker is now the sole remaining PC rider in 250SX East, as we'll explain later...

Kits: Alpinestars debuted their limited edition Hay collection for Daytona and the MXGP of Argentina. Tom Vialle and Chase Sexton both wore this kit all weekend long.

Kits: Thor launched their limited edition SPORTMODE Flite Neon Kit this weekend in a collaboration with Medium Boy. They say this is inspired by the 90's pop culture and art deco, and it once again made the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 250 boys stick way out from the rest all night long.

Daytona Things: There are a lot of photos like this one of Benny Bloss here from the weekend as guys battled through deep ruts while still trying to do rhythm sections.

Ouch: Star Racing amateur hotshoe Caden Dudney had his day cut short before the SMX Next main event when he was landed on by Leum Oehlhof. No update on how injured he ended up being, but he was favoring his shoulder and withdrew from the rest of the day.

Lights: The lights dim all around the speedway in anticipation for opening ceremonies.

Smoke: All riders in opening ceremonies came through this stage and most were completely smoked out like Justin Hill here. It led to some sketchy moments where riders couldn't see where the down ramp was off the podium and just had to guess as they rode off. Fortunately, nobody fell.

Crowd Favorite: Hardy Munoz is no stranger to a send or 12. He was the first rider to launch the wall onto the start during qualifying and the crowd was loving it. He then got a second place start in his heat race and launched over Tom Vialle's head to almost take the lead. He would go on to pick up his first top 10 finish of the year.

Off Again: Austin Forkner made waves at Tampa and Detroit for wearing the Alpinestars Tech-Air MX airbag system under his jersey. The system is designed to pop an airbag around your chest in anticipation of a heavy impact. Forkner, however, has reportedly taken off the system for the time being and did not run it at Daytona.

Training Partners: Seth Hammaker and Chance Hymas both ride and train at the Lawrence Brothers Dogpound in Dade City, Florida, and were caught here having a chat before qualifying. Maybe they were telling each other how gnarly they were going to fight for a podium in the main event.

Sneaky: Chance Hymas does not have a podium yet this season now having gone 6-6-4, but he does sit third in points and it steadily getting better. Hymas got back on the bike just before Tampa and said the two weeks between Detroit and Daytona were huge as he makes steps with the bike and himself.

Another One: Justin Cooper was frustrated post-race when we chatted with him as he lamented "I can't keep getting fourth." If there's a silver lining to this fourth, he charged from outside of the top 10 up to fourth and wasn't far off Plessinger for the final step of the podium at the end.

Surfing: Dylan Ferrandis heads into the split sand section that really seemed to change which side was faster all day long.

Bummer: Cameron McAdoo made the main event through the heat race, but crucially had a crash right at the end of it. That was the last we saw of him for the rest of the night as he withdrew right before the main event. It was reported by PulpMX's Steve Matthes that McAdoo was going to skip outdoors to get his knee fixed early in the day, but it now sounds like that might be moved up even more. More information should be made available soon.

Sugar Shane: Shane McElrath holeshot the opening heat race of the 450 class and led briefly before Ken Roczen took off and won it. But McElrath said post-race he's feeling comfortable as he gets closer to where he believes he should be. Right now, he's in with QuadLock Honda for at least a few more races as Yarrive Konsky keeps working on a plan to retain McElrath.

Florida's Finest: Malcolm Stewart won last time we were in Florida as he claimed the win in Tampa and he won at Daytona too, though it was the heat race. Even so, Malcolm was stoked and even said it was a dream come true to lead in front of the Daytona crowd.

SMX Next: ClubMX's Alexander Fedortsov was gone at the front of SMX Next main event when he suffered a wheel issue that ended his race. He still pulled off to the side of the track and did a burnout with the crowd before heading back to the pits.

SMX Next: Team Green's Enzo Temmerman has now finished second twice in the SMX Next mains in 2025 and this was a hard fought one as he came from outside of the top 10 to second by the checkered flag.

2-for-2: Team Green's Landen Gordon backed up his Glendale victory with another one at Daytona as he led the final few laps after Fedortsov pulled off to claim the win.

Penalty: Carson Mumford was penalized four places at the end of the night for accelerating off track on the first lap of the main event. Mumford went off the track when Anstie went down out of second and then rode alongside the track with his hand up before re-entering and letting another four or so riders go. Mumford was not thrilled after the race as he headed over to the AMA, but it appears the decision was upheld.

Brutal: This sport can give and this sport can take away in an instant. Levi Kitchen won Detroit after a red flag gave him a chance to get back into the fight for the win. But at Daytona, all was over in an instant on the fifth lap of the main event. Kitchen was going so fast through this roller section that his front wheel missed the top of the highest roller and ejected him forward into a violent over the bars crash. Octopi Media caught the whole sequence as Kitchen was driven into the ground by his bike. The race was red flagged and Kitchen was taken in an ambulance first to the infield care center and then to Halifax Medical Center just a mile away from the speedway. He provided an update the next morning that he suffered a broken collarbone and some fractures in his back from the crash and will certainly be missing some time. But thankfully, it wasn't worse as the aesthetics of it were not pretty.

3-for-3: Unfortunately, every single 250SX Eastern Divisional race this season has had a red flag during the main event as it happened again at Daytona. RJ Hampshire didn't have the biggest lead on Tom Vialle, but it was completely evaporated when the red flag was displayed and yet another staggered restart came about.

The Champs: Reigning 250SX champions RJ Hampshire and Tom Vialle won the heat races in Daytona and then went 1-2 in the main event. Both said the weeks off were very positive in the steps they made.

Don't Look Now: Tom Vialle has gone 5-4-2 to start the season in 250SX East and is just six points back in the championship heading into the Showdown. The middle portion of the championship is where he did most of his damage in 2024 and it's looking like he's hitting his stride at the right time again in 2025.

Top 5: Max Vohland's hip injury that ended his 2024 season nearly became a career ending one thanks to multiple surgeries that left him with nerve damage he still deals with in his lower right leg. Instead of giving up, Vohland signed with ClubMX, started riding with a hand brake, and three races into his return, found himself back in the top five with P5 at Daytona.

Friendly Fight: Seth Hammaker and Chance Hymas fought hard for the final step of the podium in 250SX as Hymas had it and Hammaker wanted it. Hammaker even put an aggressive pass on his training partner to take the spot which he would secure for his first podium of the year.

Burnout: It's tradition at Daytona that the winner does a burnout and RJ Hampshire was overjoyed he finally got his opportunity to do it in front of a home Florida crowd.

Fired Off: Similar to the Las Vegas finale for decades, the Daytona Supercross main events begin with fireworks lighting off behind the riders as they charge into turn one.

Good Then Bad: Chase Sexton holeshot his heat race then immediately crashed in the first rhythm section and would DNF, sending him to the 450SX LCQ for the second time in his career. He won the LCQ convincingly, but had to line up outside in the main event. He came out in about 10th and charged into a podium position late in the race, only to hit a bit of a wall and drift back to fifth. Reports of the late fade were that he was still feeling the effects of his crash. Needless to say, he left the speedway immediately after the race and was not happy for a fourth round in a row.

Up, Down, Forward: Coty Schock raced a 250 in the 450SX class at Daytona and started the day by frontflipping when he landed on a Tuff Block. Then he looped out in the next session. He kept on chugging and made it right into the main event out of his heat race and ended up 14th in the main event. He said post-race that it felt almost as good as his podium at Arlington in 250SX West and he was ready to build this into a good result at the East/West Showdown coming up.

Hanging It Out: Aaron Plessinger was back on form at Daytona as he picked up his first podium of 2025. Plessinger has said he's been working hard to battle through some illnesses and bike adjustments looking for his race winning pace again and finally it paid off at Daytona.

Last Time?: The Daytona Supercross could mark the last time Florida native Kyle Chisholm races in his home state as a professional and he had a quiet P19 on the evening. But if you know Chiz, he might still be coming back to Daytona in 2035 to do a one off appearance so who knows!

Battered: Jason Anderson holeshot the main event and sort of went backwards the whole time. He crashed hard on press day and it seemed like he was laboring a bit by the end of the main event to hold on for P8.

Not This Time: Cooper Webb won the last two races and came into Daytona looking for his first ever win at The World Center of Racing. However, a late charge was not enough to get to the front as he settled for P2 on the night.

Top Honda: Joey Savatgy has been carrying the Honda banner well with no Factory HRC machines racing currently as he picked up another P9 result in Daytona.

Finally: Ken Roczen not only added his name to the list of winners in 2025, but he also won the Daytona Supercross for the first time in his career on Saturday night. Roczen sits 16 points back in the championship as we hit halfway this coming weekend and still hasn't shown signs yet that he can't legitimately win this title in 2025.

Tables Turned: When Cooper Webb started to reel in Roczen late in the race, everyone could flashback to a number of races including Detroit just two weeks ago where Webb stole a win from Roczen at the very end. This time, Roczen was simply too good, and Webb stopped to congratulate the German post-race.

Sweet Victory: Ken Roczen hoists the Daytona Supercross trophy for the first time in his career.

Doing It For Dale: Aaron Plessinger threw on a Dale Earnhardt #3 shirt on the podium after finishing P3 and the crowd loved it. Plessinger's post-race interview was then clipped to Twitter by NBC to which Dale Earnhardt Jr. reposted it with the caption, "What is going on!!??!!" Our sport does well with engagement, but that might be the most engaging clip all weekend thanks to AP always finding a way to do it for Dale.