Glendale produced a fourth different winner of the season in 450SX, with Progressive Insurance Cycle Gear Suzuki’s Ken Roczen securing his first victory of Monster Energy Supercross 2026. And in 250SX West, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan continued his strong form with another win, extending his championship advantage to 27 points. Both riders spoke to media following the main events for these Debrief interviews.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Ken, it’s been extremely apparent your desire and your hunger to win this year, but now this first win of 2026! How does this one feel?

Since it is becoming more rare for me to win, and not for lack of trying, but they just get sweeter and sweeter, you know? I’ve come close many, many times, but the competition is so stiff, and it’s even just hard getting on the podium, so winning in a fashion like this – got a good start, and then I was trying to find my feet, because I knew Hunter [Lawrence], I haven’t been able to get by him right away in some of the other races that we have had, and so I was trying to just be patient, but it did seem like I just had a bit more momentum around the track, and was able to make it happen pretty quickly there, but I knew that I was in for a long main, because first off, he’s not just going to let go, and second, we had, I don’t know, probably at least 15 minutes to go or something along those lines, so I try not to look at the tower, look at the time, and really take it bit by bit, make it through halfway, and then go from there. I never really worried about the time, I guess too much, but clicking off my laps, and I feel like I was going really fast there for a sec. Then once we got closer down, I saw it was like a heat race, so then you put yourself in the mental state of like, ‘Okay, it’s a heat race,’ you know what I mean? It’s like six, seven laps, whatever, you got this, and then you get further and further down the line, and that was five laps ago, and so you kind of play these little mind games to stay locked in. I guess, you never want to celebrate mentally too early. Things can happen really quick, so it was very, very important for me to stay locked in all the way till the end, and then two laps to go, one lap to go. I actually think my mechanic showed me three laps to go, and then luckily we came around, it was only two or something along those lines, so we actually did one lap less than what I got told on the pitboard. I saw the white flag and I was like, yes. Just because the track is tricky in a way that, you have these 90 degree turns onto the tabletop, the tabletop was so messed up and potholed out, like it would have been very easy to get bucked, so it just would’ve been easy to wash the front end. The tiny little rut that you had was like, if you don’t pay attention, your knobby will go over and just tuck the front, something stupid like that can happen without even, you’re not realizing it, so I’m beyond stoked, it hasn’t really set in yet.

I know the last two weeks have been a little tougher with Larry Brooks’ absence due to his battle with cancer. Larry’s legendary, he’s won titles with [Jeremy] McGrath, with [James] Stewart, with [Chad] Reed. He came to the HEP team to help build it into a program to get a guy like you. Can you tell us about your relationship and what he’s done for you?

You know, since my dad isn’t really here, I talk to my dad almost every day or every single week, for sure, about racing and whatnot, but he can be my dad. And funny part is the relationship that Larry and I have, he’s a little bit like my dad here, without having my dad here, if that makes sense. So he’s so genuine in the game plan, like every time I’m out there, I want to make him proud, I want to make us proud. And it just feels like, I guess a little bit honored to be able to ride for him because of his history in the past with champions and all the riders that he has represented and done really cool things with. I think before we even got together, the time where he was working for B teams and maybe not winning or being on the podium constantly, I know that’s ultimately what he wanted. So for us to be able to get there in the fashion that we did is a moment that I’ve always like, it’s really close in my heart, it really is. So having him not here was a tough pill to swallow for the last few rounds, but we’ve all got his back, his health is the most important in all of this, and to me, it feels like he’s here anyway, because we talk morning till night, no matter what, we keep in the loop, we watch Dartfish together, send each other videos and he analyzes everything. So for what it is, I still feel like he’s somewhat present.

Is it that family dad touch that makes him so different than any other team manager you’ve had? Like in that sense, that personal family feel?

I think so. I mean, to be honest, he’s really the only team manager that I’ve ever had that when we go down to the line, he’s right there. He’s right on the start. He doesn’t care about being in the manager. Actually, he hates being in the manager tower because he can’t really see anything, or it’s just position funky sometimes where you don’t really see the whole track. So he would probably ride the bike for me, honestly, if he could. You know what I mean? Like he wants to be right there, and that’s what I love about him, because every time we go down, we look at the start, we talk before we make a game plan and we execute exactly what we talk about every single time. I think since we have done that over the last three years or four years, however long we’ve worked together, it’s just become a natural relationship. It’s the funnest team, or he’s best team manager that I’ve ever raced for hands down.

Last week, you voiced a few problems that you had while I kept you away from the win. This week, you went out and got it done. You pulled out a lead down, you had the speed – it was phenomenal. What do you take away mentally, physically from this win?

Nothing, really, if I’m going to be honest. You know what I mean? I want to go home. We’re flying home tonight. We have a red-eye home. My son and wife are here. I want to go back home and do all my things that I do with the kids, be mad at them, yell at them, get over them., [laughs]. You know, like I really don’t want anything to change, I think that’s just part of keeping a level head. Of course, you know, I’m going to analyze and look at the race and whatnot, and it feels great. I’m going to enjoy this tonight. I’m going to enjoy this tomorrow. But nonetheless, once you’re in this in the season, the weeks are very short. So like we talked earlier, there’s not really a whole lot going on in between because you have three days at home. You know, you try to recover. You put in a good day. You recover for the weekend. So I’m just going to go back, and yeah – that’s it!

This track was incredibly fast. It looked like there was a lot of wood chips in places that were kind of mixed with the sand. You guys were dragging the bars in the back section across the start. Hunter said that it was very difficult to pass, but yet you were able to kind of just walk through people and then manage the race by just being gone. How did you manage that?

Oh, I feel when it comes to passing, because in the heat race, I did really struggle. Like it just was hard to, because of the speed that we have, I mean, you get into the turn before the finish line with, what are you going to do? It’s inside or outside. Then that was one spot you can pass, but other than that, you could just rail everything so hard. Then the jumps, a lot of speed, honestly the obstacles were pretty tall and steep. I wasn’t in love with it, to be quite honest, like during press day and Saturday and during practice. Maybe it’s just me getting older too. But like, you’re hitting these freaking five foot walls and your freaking body collapses and you’re jumping all over the place. So, I don’t know, it’s just every track has its unique trickiness. You know what I mean? This was not so much that it was rutty in between and like kind of gnarly that way. But it was a fast track. And the rhythms, just because of the floor plan that we have here, they’re always a little bit funky, if that makes sense. You know, sometimes we have long ass rhythm lanes with a tiny kink in it, just like we had here. I don’t know, just every venue has a little bit of its uniqueness. So, I don’t know, it worked out in the main, obviously. It definitely helps getting a good start, just not being in between riders. Because, to be quite honest, on this far rhythm lane here, before we get back to the mechanics area, when you go so fast and you hit these walls, like, sometimes it almost feels like you’re having a little bit of a tire roll. So it’s just, every track has its difficulty.

You set up that pass on Hunter in the sand section. Just a few minutes ago, Hunter told us that he had no idea that inside line had gotten so much faster. Was that something that you had figured out, or was it just a happy accident?

Nope, we talked about it. Me and my mechanic talked about it before the main, because Levi [Kitchen] was hauling the mail and he was taking the inside. So I made sure in the parade lap that I kind of shaped that rut or that line as good as I could. Obviously, there were a lot of riders behind me that they can mess it up or whatever. But I kind of knew that the inside, when you double that and you kind of land perfect, which that is the tricky side of things, because it’s either you double in and you kind of miss the rut and then you mess the whole section up, or you land where you want to land and you can make that whole turn one motion. Honestly, 95 percent of the race, I was able to just pinpoint exactly where I landed, and then without any effort, I made it one motion and just from mid-turn to exiting, I had so much momentum going forward. I was almost sometimes able to not necessarily skim that section, but I was able to like slap my front on the top of the jump and push through it and whatever. I do feel like that was probably my strongest area on the track.

Coming into this season, you’re on a bike that you haven’t changed for a long time. A lot of your main competition is either changing manufacturers or changing new models. You and Hunter are probably the only top guys that stayed on a very similar machine. Are you analyzing that at the start of the year, being like, ‘You know what, I’m actually in a really great position with my motorcycle?’

For sure. I mean, you know, first off, I have been happy with my motorcycle for quite some time now. So I take that in the bank, right? Like my confidence in me just grows with that because I’m not changing clickers or having to deal with a whole bunch of changes and figuring out what I like. And so, yeah, of course, going into the first, that’s a big relief, big weight off the shoulder, not having to deal with a bunch of changes. Having said that, I think it really depends, because if you’re a guy like Eli [Tomac] or if you’re with a team for three, four years, like he may have exactly been looking, like if his inner desire is like, man, I need to change, I want to go somewhere else, then that can be fine too, especially if it works out and the whole package is pretty good from the get go. It doesn’t always have to be negative, but you do run into the risk of it not working out, right? For me, I wasn’t really in the mindset of changing everything upside down and starting over again with a new team. I really don’t know if I, at this very moment, if that would have been the smartest idea for me. So sticking with it, I trusted it, and I really haven’t been wanting to go anywhere.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Haiden, your 11th 250SX victory, tying Ricky Carmichael for 11th in all time. Plus, it’s your fourth in a row on the season. We know this is what you do, but winning in the manner that you do, where you’re kind of just in your own zip code out there, honestly, does it ever get old?

I enjoy it! I mean, you know, a win’s cool, two wins is cool, but when you could do four in a row like this, it’s a dream come true. It’s my first ever time doing that in a Supercross series. And I believe that’s the first ever time I’ve gotten four wins in a row in general. But it just feels good knowing all the hard work I’ve put in this off season. I wasn’t going to say anything leading up to this race, but during the week, I was so sick after [Houston], I couldn’t even stand up while I was riding. I tried to get some laps in. I’m like, I’m sleeping, sleeping, sleeping until the race. And somehow got my body recovered enough to still win.

You seem unfazed by it. You further increased your points lead tonight. Is this any sort of weight off your shoulders?

I don’t think there’s ever weight off my shoulders. I’m held to a higher [standard] because of who I am and what I’ve done on a dirt bike at such a young age. So I feel like the pressure each weekend is exactly the same, no matter if I have a 30 point lead or a no point lead. So it’s, it fuels me and it makes me better.

The decision to stay 250 for another year of Supercross, it seems like if there were any imperfections or anything you wanted to work on last year, you’ve really fixed it, is this why you wanted to make the decision? Are you feeling like you’re ready to make this step now? Because out there it doesn’t look like there’s many mistakes at all.

Yeah, that was a big thing to me. I was like, ‘Okay, we can go race a 450, but I’m still young. I still have another year to defend my title.’ But I thought it would be kind of stupid to go race a 450 when I still have to get better in Supercross and I feel like I’ve gone to another level than I was last year. I mean, you can just watch and see and I had a lot of work to do and I feel like I’m slowly checking all those boxes off and the time will come next year when I race a 450.

How much of that race was just trying to manage the lead versus actually putting down your best laps?

Yeah, I mean, I feel like when I could get a holeshot like that, I feel like those first few laps I was able to sprint away and get a decent little gap or you kind of manage it. I mean, it is fun to see how big of a gap you can pin on them obviously, but this kind of now we’re getting almost past the halfway point in this season. And it’s time to be smart too. So the best bet is to manage a gap and ride smart. The only way you can get better is just nailing these races each week.

Also, were you keeping tabs on Levi [Kitchen] coming through the pack? At one point – when he moved into second – he was catching up quite a bit.

I could care less, [laughs].

I know that at Star, you guys tend to prepare when you know that there might be inclement weather for the upcoming race. Of course, we’re going to Seattle, do you anticipate that they may flood the track and get you guys prepped in that way?

Yeah, now that I’m feeling better, I feel I can go do some proper training this week and do some motos and kind of get back in the flow of things. And yeah, I mean, rain or shine. I have a huge points lead now, so I’ll feel comfortable and just go do what I do best.