The Monster Energy Supercross component of SMX Next has been a standout for Triumph Factory Racing’s Deacon Denno in 2026, who backed up his Daytona win with a convincing victory – and AMA National Championship – in Philadelphia on Saturday night. This Five Questions feature gets the 18-year-old’s thoughts on his latest success.

Image: Octopi Media.

Deacon, your rise to this position has been really meteoric this year. You’ve gone from a guy who was learning Supercross to now winning them. Can you take us through the process of building steps to get to this point, and what you attribute most of that success to?

The whole team around me, the whole Triumph team, all my trainers, [Mike] Brownie, Stylez [Robertson], Ivan [Tedesco], everyone at Triumph. They’ve helped me out a lot and just helped me out with my development into Supercross. Obviously, I’m new to it, and they taught me a lot of good things. There’s a lot more [to] Supercross that we don’t know about, and it’s good to have those people in my corner.

They don’t do points the same way that the other championships do, but the second-place finish in Houston and the victory at Daytona – how important was it to have those highlights leading into this race?

It was huge to have the confidence from all the other rounds, and obviously, those podiums were great, and also the win in Daytona. And then to show that I can do it in the mud and in the dry is good confidence for what’s next – it was great.

What are your plans for the summer? Are you staying in the SMX Next class, or are you moving up to the pros?

I’ll be racing the full season outdoors.

Image: Octopi Media.

What I’d like to ask you about is the Triumph amateur team manager, he definitely can’t hear you, but I know he’s in the room. What can you tell us about Stylez Robertson and his leadership abilities? This is his first season in that role.

It’s great. He’s got a lot of knowledge from all of his years in amateurs and pros, and he is a good leader and good man to have in your corner. For me, he’s helped me out a lot and just keeps my head up always.

Two parts to this question. How big is the SMX Next program going to be in your future? Developing you into a rider? Hopefully, to make it to the pro ranks, but also to get experience in the mud and different conditions. Some guys don’t even race in that until they turn pro, so can you elaborate on that a little bit?

I think it’s a great program for everyone who’s coming up to the pros. It gets you ready, or as close as you can to being ready for the pros. Obviously, it’s a little bit different with the championship part, where you don’t have a point system in SMX Next. It’s a single race for everything. But, the mud, the dry, Daytona was rutted, it’s a good program for everyone.