What We Noticed: Indianapolis
March 13, 2025
Image from Feld Motor Sports, Inc.
First 250 E/W race of the year… here’s What We Noticed:
- Sexton Struggles Pt. 5
And it continues… the top headline of every weekend? This weekend he was just plain off… didn’t have the speed to run with Cooper Webb. Combine that with another costly crash, and he gave up another valuable 5 points (2 points from that crash alone). Everyone has bad nights, and Sexton needs to do better on his… he should have just cruised it in for an easy second.
- Roczen Out of It?
How quickly things can turn around… sucks for Roczen and the Suzuki team. Of course he’s not completely out of it, but Indy would have been a great race to build on his momentum from the Daytona win. Instead, he got a bad start and didn’t have the pace to move through the pack. Apparently he was sick all week and was feeling the effects of it in that main, but regardless, he now finds himself 26 points back (over a full race back). It’s gonna be really difficult to crawl out of this points hole.
- E/W Showdown
Always such a fun race to see how the two coasts stack up against each other. The east coast has been devastated with injuries in the past few weeks (losing Kitchen, Brown, and McAdoo to name a few), but they still had 9 riders in the top 15 of the showdown. The top 10 however was perfectly split: 5 riders from each division. It shows how the East is still more deep than the West, but that top guys seemed about even.
- Bad Start Deegan
This is kinda becoming a pattern now? He didn’t get a single good start in Arlington, and now another bad start in the Main in Indy. He’s found his speed and no doubt has the pace to pass through the field, but he sure makes it hard for himself. If he had started within the top 5, I think he would have won that race? Hard to tell how Hammaker would have handled the pressure, but Deegan had the fastest lap of the night and would have been hard to beat. Regardless, he still was the Best from the West.
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Hammaker Wins!
Do you remember the last time Hammaker won? I mistakenly assumed this was his first win, only to be corrected on X (thanks!). I should know better, but it had been 4 years (2021) since he got his first SX win, and he hasn’t exactly backed that up since then. It’s been a rough injury-riddled road back to the top for Hammaker, but he has finally arrived there! Congrats on the wi… let’s hope he can keep injury-free and consistent.
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Good Rides
A lot of riders have great races that don’t get a lot of credit. In Indy, that was Hampshire, Davies (yes, we credited him with Most Impressive), and Vohland. All of these guys were pretty far outside the top 10 at one point, and had great rides to move forward through a stacked E/W pack.
