ARLINGTON, Texas: Hunter Lawrence took the lead from Ken Roczen on Lap 18 of Round 7 at AT&T Stadium to win his first Monster Energy Supercross series race of 2026 and his career. After finishing second four times in the first six rounds, fans and the media can stop asking when he would get his first stadium victory.
“Tonight I got around the first turn in the top five, and like Eli [Tomac] said earlier, it’s really important for the start, honestly with how good the class is,” Lawrence said in a post-race media session. “Yeah, it’s tough to have a really bad start and then expect to come through and battle for a win.”
Lawrence started the race third behind Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb and until his pass two-thirds of the way through the race, the trio were never out of sight of one another. Along the way, they picked up another rider when Tomac joined the fray during the opening laps.
Tomac had a poor start out of the gate and hit the holeshot line in ninth. The first lap fell his way, however, and he quickly moved up to fourth, where he remained until Lawrence made his pass for the lead. On Lap 19, he passed Ken Roczen and then rode Webb wide to go from fourth to second in one corner.
“I made, I don’t know, maybe three or four passes,” Tomac said about the start. “That was pretty lucky to get up there. And then I was able to get on the lead group, so there was some fortune in there for how bad that start was. And then it was the usual: the track was super broke down.”
Tomac lost three points to Lawrence in the championship hunt, but there may be an adjustment coming. Honda HRC contends that Tomac jumped on a red cross flag, which could cost Tomac an additional five points and with how tight the title battle is, that could prove to be extremely significant.
Webb recovered from his off-course excursion to finish third. Before his dramatic battle with Tomac, he has just taken second position away from Roczen, but he dropped to fourth during the incident.
Roczen led the first 17 laps before he faded in the final minutes to finish fourth.
Justin Cooper rounded out the top five.
In-Race Notes
Roczen and Webb battled for the holeshot with Webb narrowly edging his way to the front.
Roczen took the position back quickly.
Jason Anderson crashed on Lap 1.
Points contenders Lawrence and Tomac battled for the final podium position in the opening stages. Lawrence had it on Lap 3.
Cooper rounded out the top five.
Chae Sexton was barely inside the top 10 at that point.
Aaron Plessinger was sixth on Lap 6.
Sexton moved up to seventh a couple of laps later.
Lawrence passed Webb for second on Lap 7 and then began to attack Roczen. This insured Webb and Tomac remain in the battle.
Lawrence was under attack by Webb on Lap 11, which gave Roczen a little breathing room.
Garrett Marchbanks crashed on Lap 11 and was slow to remount.
The leaders hit heavy traffic on Lap 14.
Lawrence almost spun out on Lap 16 but remained in second. After so many runner-ups, he badly wants this win.
Lawrence took the lead one lap later.
Tomac moved into second on Lap 20 after passing Roczen and then running Webb wide off the track.
Webb fell to fourth.
Lawrence led by two seconds with two minutes on the clock.
Webb moved back into a podium position (third) on Lap 22.
Lawrence slowly pulled away and held the advantage until the checkers waved.
