your back. I am so excited—you
have no idea. We closed up
some points, but we still have a
lot of racing to go."
Sexton finished second in his
return to racing. The Monster
Energy Kawasaki rider injured
his hip while training for Dayto
-
na and needed a few weekends
off
to fully recover. He looked
competitive again, winning his
heat race and fighting for a po
-
dium in the main event. Sexton
benefited
early when Cooper
Webb and Jorge Prado tangled,
which moved him up two spots
in one turn. He then spent most
of the race battling Lawrence,
but Lawrence's crash in the
whoops effectively secured a
spot on the podium for Sexton.
This is just Sexton's second
podium of the season and
places him sixth in the overall
championship. Still, it shows a
positive turnaround for Sexton
and the Kawasaki team as they
continue through the second
half of the season.
"Obviously, I didn't want to
get injured and didn't want to
sit on the couch, but I wanted to
come back when I was ready,"
Sexton said. "I felt pretty good
tonight, but I also felt that couch
about 10 minutes into the main
event. I felt good in the begin
-
ning and got a little tight and a
little winded.
We'll go back to
work, but definitely a great start
to the comeback."
Malcolm Stewart rounded out
the podium for his best result of
the season. It was a quiet ride
for the 2025 Tampa winner, but
Stewart looked good from the
start. He began inside the top
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 13 MARCH 31, 2026 P75
five and moved up a spot again
after Lawrence fell. Stewart's
results are definitely improving;
after finishing fifth last weekend
in Birmingham, he increased his
season-best finish to third. This
is his eighth career 450SX po-
dium and moves him to eighth
in the championship
standings.
"I had an unfortunate situa-
tion in Anaheim," Stewart said. "I
kind of
just felt like I didn't know
if I'd get on the podium. That's
partly just not believing in your-
self, and I realized I need to pull
myself
out of that. I want to give
it up to my team; they've been
in my ear all season telling me
I can do this. I told them we'd
pop some champagne before
remaining races due to a broken
collarbone and a dislocated wrist
suffered during the Birmingham
main event.
DETROIT NOTES
Ken Roczen ties Jeremy McGrath
for 10th on the all-time 450SX
starts list with 173… Colt Nichols,
Garrett Marchbanks and Kevin
Moranz were all penalized five
championship points plus two
purse positions for jumping on
a red-cross light… Vince Friese
received his second aggressive
riding penalty, which docked him
10 championship points, three
license points, plus a fine… Devin
Simonson received no penalty for
his off-track excursion… Davies'
win was Yamaha's 150th 250SX
class victory, good for third all-
time behind Honda's 155 and
Kawasaki's 196.
Briefly...
CHAMPIONSHIP
(Above) Malcolm
Stewart (27) earned
his first 450SX
podium of the
season with a third.
(Left) Eli Tomac
didn't look like his
usual self but still
reclaimed the overall
450SX points lead.
