Highly-rated Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rookie Caden Dudney answered plenty of questions at the opening round of the 2026 Pro Motocross Championship, with the 16-year-old rebounding from a challenging Monster Energy Supercross season to secure an impressive second overall finish at Fox Raceway. In this Five Questions feature, Dudney reflects on his breakout performance at round one.

Image: Octopi Media.

Caden, I’m not sure if you expected to be up here today, but at 16 years old, you really showed something. Walk us through your day and how it feels to already be on the Pro Motocross podium.

It was pretty good. Qualifying was okay, although I kind of overrode in the second session. I managed to calm down for the motos, though, and that seemed to work a lot better. I was expecting a top-five result, so to exceed that expectation was really positive. Now it’s back to work at the farm, and hopefully we can do it again next weekend.

Obviously, your supercross races didn’t really go the way you wanted them to. Would you say that those results hurt your confidence coming into this, or how did you switch the mindset coming into outdoors?

No, I think it just gave me more drive to do better. I went back to the farm, put the work in, and did some suspension testing to get the bike feeling how I wanted it. I came here expecting a top-five result and obviously exceeded that, so I’m really happy with it. But no, I don’t think it hurt my confidence at all. I came in feeling confident and knowing what I’m capable of outdoors.

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Last summer, you had the chance to do two Pro Motocross races – they were on the other side of the country, but what did you learn from those races that you could use here?

I feel like starts are everything. You need to put yourself in a good position early and then be aggressive in those opening laps. That’s what I did in the second moto. I didn’t get as good a start in that one, so I had to be pretty aggressive with some of my passes, but it seemed to work in my favor.

There was definitely a lot of hype around you as a rookie. We haven’t seen the speed in supercross, but now we have started to see some of that speed outdoors. Where is your ceiling? Do you think you can get a win by the end of the season?

I definitely think it’s possible to get a win by the end of the season. For me, it’s just about taking it race by race and continuing to learn. I don’t have anywhere near the experience that these guys do, so I’m just trying to gain as much experience as possible. Racing Supercross helped a lot, and that carried into the final two outdoor rounds last year as well. So yeah, I’ll keep taking it one race at a time, but I definitely think it’s achievable.

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Aside from the confidence you gained, what else can you take away from today?

I’d say the biggest takeaway is don’t let the highs be too high, don’t let the lows be too low. Like this morning, I was super pissed off, and then obviously now I’m super pumped, but you just got to keep it like the happy medium, you know?