age. "Was P3 in qualifying and hit a
weird pocket in the rhythm that did
some damage, unfortunately," Swoll
said. "Not going to lie, [it] sucks.
There's no other way to put it; so
much time and investment is put in
to compete at this level and setback
after setback has definitely tested
me mentally, but at the end of the
day, as it's a contract year for me, if
that was my last race day as a racer,
I'm absolutely proud of the accom-
plishments along the way and what
I've achieved them through."
SMX NEXT
Another new winner in SMX Next
emerged, making it four different
winners in as many rounds. A big
crash off the start immediately
dropped the Monster Energy Yamaha
Star Racing duo of Kayden Minear
and Landen Gordon out of conten-
tion. This allowed Monster Energy
Kawasaki Team Green's Vincent
Wey to take full advantage of the
holeshot, turning it into a wire-to-wire
performance in which he never faced
a serious challenge. Wey, the son of
former SMX racer Nick Wey, consis-
tently added to his lead throughout
the eight-minute-plus-one-lap main
event to capture his first SMX Next
victory. Fellow Monster Energy
Kawasaki Team Green racer Kade
Johnson finished second for a 1-2
sweep, while ClubMX Yamaha's
Ryder Malinoski finished third. "That
was the sickest race of my life," Wey
said. "I got a great start and hit my
marks every single lap. That was so
much fun. My dad and I have had a
lot of long days, just logging laps.
We came here last year, and I think
I crashed every single time I went
on the track. I came in here with the
mindset to do better than last year,
and I think I did that."
Briefly...
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 12 MARCH 24, 2026 P69
"I just wasn't as good
tonight as the front two,"
Tomac said. "Of course, the
LCQ was very stressful and a
high-pressure moment, but I
got myself out there to a good
start from the inside gate, and
I just got beat tonight. I was a
little bit off, and it was one of
those nights that was tough,
so we'll try to regroup for next
weekend and see if we can
get back up front."
Justin Cooper finished one
spot behind Tomac after the
two came together earlier in
the heat race.
"The heat race was spicy,"
Cooper said. "Glad to walk
away from that one just sore
and able to salvage P4 in
Birmingham."
Malcolm Stewart rounded
out the top five with his
season-best finish of fifth.
"Tonight, it was a pretty
gnarly fifth place," Stewart
said. "I feel like the track
broke down a lot with seven
or eight minutes to go in the
main event, but the heat race
was really good. I'm just start
-
Ken Roczen
charged through
the 450SX field
to take second at
the checkers.
