Monster Energy SX Daytona: Hammaker, Davies & Brown Dominate the 250 ESX Main Event

The biggest week of motorcycle racing action in the United States – Daytona Beach, Fla.’s annual “Bike Week,” was highlighted on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway with three Monster Energy-backed racers taking the top three spots in the 250 Eastern Supercross (ESX) main event. Seth Hammaker (Pro Circuit/Kawasaki), who overcame a qualifying round crash to win the main going away, with Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cole Davies and Pierce Brown, who won the opening ESX round the previous week, rounding out the Daytona 250 ESX podium in 2^nd and 3^rd positions.

The win for Hammaker and the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team was the first for Team Green at the storied Daytona track since ’21, and broke a seven-race 250 WSX & ESX win streak (through seven rounds) by the Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha team.

Said Hammaker, who finished four seconds ahead of Davies in the runaway win, from the podium: “I had a big crash and I feel like it really tests you mentally, who you can come back from that.” And with the win Hammaker moved up from 4^th position overall in the 250 ESX standing to 2^nd place, just two points back of Brown (45-43).

“Not the best start,” said Brown, who took advantage of a Joe Shimoda (Honda) crash late in the contest to gain his podium finish. “I took a gamble with the one I was in (pre-race gate selection) and we chose the wrong one.”

Rounding out the top ten 250 ESX scoring at Daytona for Monster Energy was Star Racing/Yamaha’s Nate Thrasher in 7^th position.

In 450 class action at Daytona Monster Energy racers were led by Cooper Webb’s (Star Racing/Yamaha) 4^th place run. Teammate Justin Cooper, who qualified in 5^th position, crashed on Lap 3 and remounted in 21^st position. Cooper was able to rally back to 12^th place overall, but didn’t fall in the overall standings due to Chase Sexton (Monster Energy/Kawasaki) being out with an injury. As it stands Sexton and Cooper are tied for 5^th place overall with 122 points – with the 5^th place nod going to Sexton based on his win (Anaheim 2) earlier in the season.

Rounding out the top ten 450 scoring at Daytona for Monster Energy, with his best finish of the season (9^th), was Justin Hill (KTM).

And in upstart SMX Next racing action, Monster Energy’s Landen Gordon (Star Racing/Yamaha) and Vincent Wey (Team Green/Kawasaki) would podium in 2^nd and 3^rd positions, respectively.

Overall Stanndings (8 of 17 Rounds)

Notes & Quotes

• How about seeing Monster Energy’s dirt bike ambassador, the winningest Monster Energy AMA Supercross racer of all time – Jeremy “Showtime” McGrath – out front of all the Daytona Supercross festivities as the event’s Grand Marshall.
• The 1^st/2^nd/3^rd-place Daytona 250 ESX podium sweep by Hammaker, Davies and Brown put Monster Energy racers in 1^st (Brown), 2^nd (Hammaker) and 4^th (Davies) in that series’ overall title chase. And Davies is just one point back of Shimoda for 3^rd overall (40-39).
• As noted earlier, Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Sexton decided to sit out the Daytona 450 class race due to a reported hip and lower back injury which he suffered while practicing for the Daytona race.
• A nod from Monster Energy to Eli Tomac (KTM) who recorded his eighth Monster Energy AMA Supercross victory at Daytona, which broke a record he held with NASCAR’s great Richard Petty and his seven wins at the Daytona 500.
• “An incredible win and he rode extremely well. And I expect him to be the same way all season.” - NBC color analyst Ricky Carmichael on Hammaker’s 250 win.
• “He (Davies) had the pace (to catch Hammaker) if he’d just calm down, but that’s easier said than done on this race track. When Cole got rolling he was able to march his way up.” – NBC color analyst James Stewart on Davies’ run to the Daytona 250 podium.
• Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Drew Adams was on fire in #2 qualifying session, winning it over Brown with a 1:17.234. Adams was also in position (3^rd) to possibly podium in the main before a crash on Lap 8 took him out of contention. 
• Monster Energy’s top ‘Hard Charger’ racers at Daytona were Davies, who raced from 12^th to 2^nd, and Hill, who moved up from 14^th to 9^th.

Up next: Monster Energy AMA Supercross packs up and heads north this week for Round 9 of the 2026 season – headlining Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium on March 7^th.