NEWS FLASH: 450SX Crown Fulfills Honda’s ’23 AMA SX Championship Sweep

• Chase Sexton takes Honda’s first premier-class AMA Supercross title in 20 years
• 450SX crown follows 250SX East and West titles by Hunter and Jett Lawrence

With a main-event win Saturday evening aboard his CRF450RWE in Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, Chase Sexton wrapped up the 2023 450SX Championship at the AMA Supercross series finale. This premier-class crown follows on the heels of twin 250SX titles by Sexton’s Team Honda HRC colleagues, with Jett Lawrence having clinched the West Region Championship last weekend in Denver, and Hunter Lawrence having earned the East Region laurels two weeks ago in Nashville.

This one was particularly hard-earned, as the grueling 17-round series eliminated a number of top riders through injury. Sexton persevered, collecting six main-event wins, and he was consistently the fastest rider of all, qualifying on top at 14 of the 17 rounds. The 23-year-old set several season-best marks, including most podium finishes (13), most top-five results (16), most heat-race wins (eight) and most laps led. Of note was Sexton’s upward trajectory; while his pure speed was impressive all season, he had to work hard to eliminate errors that cost him wins in the early rounds.

A native of La Moille, Illinois, Sexton is a longtime member of the Honda family, having signed with Factory Connection’s amateur squad in 2015. In 2018 he transitioned to that operation’s professional team, with whom he won the 250SX East Region Championship in 2019 and 2020. Sexton moved up to the factory Honda squad midyear, and he was a regular podium finisher during the 2021 season. Last year saw him earn his first AMA Supercross premier-class win, and he was victorious often outdoors, battling Eli Tomac hard throughout the series before finishing a close second in the title chase.

“Wow, 2023 450 Supercross Champion—it doesn’t even feel real yet,” an emotional Sexton said following the race. “It’s what I’ve worked for since I was two-and-a-half years old, when I first got on a dirt bike; since then, this has been the goal. This year was definitely not easy; I was up-and-down in the middle of the season, but I got four of the last six wins—really came on strong at the end, when I needed to. It means so much to me. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people around me—our team, everybody. I’m super, super thankful and happy.”

Sexton’s crown means a great deal to everyone at Team Honda HRC and American Honda—even…