Super Stats: Most Positions Gained or Lost from the Holeshot by Year in Supercross

Despite only racing 7 of the 9 races so far this year, Chase Sexton is still way ahead in terms of Net Positions Gained from his holeshot position. Sexton has made up a net of 70 positions from his holeshot position. The next closest is Eli Tomac at 44 positions gained and then Justin Hill at 43 positions gained. This article is being written after round 9 for reference.

Not only that, but since 2015 (the year I have holeshot data back to), Sexton so far through 2026 would rank as the 12th most in a season (again since 2015).

This leads me to examine how this compares dating back by season to 2015 and who has had the most net positions gained/lost from their holeshot position.

So far in 2026, through 9 rounds, here is how that looks:

Rank	Rider	Holeshot Average	+ / –
1	Chase Sexton	13.11	70
2	Eli Tomac	6.85	44
3	Justin Hill	16.38	43
4	Justin Cooper	8.92	34
5	Ken Roczen	6.23	26
6	Cooper Webb	5.54	20
7	Colt Nichols	16.46	18
8	Joey Savatgy	10.54	12
9	Grant Harlan	18.71	11
10	Cole Thompson	20.33	8

I added the riders holeshot average for more detail. Shoutout to Grant Harlan and Cole Thompson in the Top 10 through 9 rounds!

Here is the flip of this, who has lost the most positions:

Rank	Rider	Holeshot Average	+ / –
1	Vince Friese	10.08	-85
2	Jason Anderson	5.56	-32
3	Kevin Moranz	12.17	-30
4	Garrett Marchbanks	13.18	-20
5	Aaron Plessinger	9.67	-18
6	Tristan Lane	17.89	-18
7	Mitchell Harrison	17.54	-13
8	Christian Craig	10.58	-11
	Fredrik Noren	15.60	-11
10	Ty Masterpool	9.00	-9

Friese is pretty far out ahead, more to come on Friese.

Quick note before getting into previous seasons, the 2023 East Rutherford race is not included in the stats as its pretty much impossible to tell where anyone holeshotted. This race was an insane mud race.

Most Net Positions Gained in a Single Season since 2015

Rank	Year	Rider	Holeshot Average	+ / –
1	2020	Eli Tomac	9.05	136
2	2019	Eli Tomac	7.70	95
3	2020	Justin Barcia	11.52	90
4	2024	Malcolm Stewart	13.74	89
	2025	Chase Sexton	6.61	89
6	2015	Trey Canard	12.18	87
7	2016	Eli Tomac	10.00	85
	2017	Ryan Dungey	7.53	85
9	2018	Jason Anderson	6.78	73
10	2019	Marvin Musquin	6.61	72
11	2020	Malcolm Stewart	11.57	71
12	2026 so far	Chase Sexton	13.11	70
13	2025	Cooper Webb	5.65	65
	2015	Broc Tickle	12.53	65
	2017	Dean Wilson	13.94	65
	2025	Malcolm Stewart	9.26	65

So Eli Tomac’s 2020 is a bit of an outlier here. I think only Sexton this year can catch that if he comes back and remains struggling on the starts.
There is a few championship years here: Tomac – 2020, Dungey – 2017, Anderson – 2018, and Cooper Webb in 2025.
It’s interesting that Chase Sexton in 2025 had 89, meanwhile, he is already at 70 this year.
How about Brock Tickle and Deano in 2015 and 2017!

Most Net Positions Lost in a Single Season since 2015

Rank	Year	Rider	Holeshot Average	+ / –
1	2020	Vince Friese	7.10	-132
2	2018	Vince Friese	7.81	-108
3	2023	Kevin Moranz	12.65	-105
4	2024	Vince Friese	8.36	-101
5	2015	Andrew Short	3.88	-97
6	2022	Justin Bogle	11.41	-95
7	2026 so far	Vince Friese	10.08	-85
8	2021	Vince Friese	9.00	-84
9	2020	Martin Davalos	9.24	-72
10	2017	Vince Friese	11.31	-71
11	2022	Kevin Moranz	11.27	-65
12	2015	Mike Alessi	8.78	-64
	2019	Joey Savatgy	6.00	-64
14	2022	Shane McElrath	7.57	-62
15	2024	Adam Cianciarulo	10.47	-61

So, a lot of Vince here. This is more a credit to how good of a starter he is more than anything. Look at Alessi in 2015 for similar, if we could go back to the 2008-2012 period, Alessi would probably have some crazy numbers here.
Andrew Short is 5th here, solely due to how insane of a starter he was in 2015.
McElrath was a great start in 2022, but moved back quite a bit.

So what about the all-time net positions gained/lost since 2015?

Most Total Net Positions Gained since 2015

Rank	Rider	+ / –
1	Eli Tomac	584
2	Cooper Webb	324
3	Ken Roczen	304
4	Dean Wilson	233
5	Chase Sexton	229
	Jason Anderson	229
7	Malcolm Stewart	228
8	Justin Barcia	211
9	Marvin Musquin	182
10	Trey Canard	150
11	Ryan Dungey	145
12	Cole Seely	126
13	Aaron Plessinger	113
14	Broc Tickle	101

The big 3 over the last decade lead here: Tomac, Webb, Roczen.
- Tomac actually does have two seasons where he lost more than he gained. More on this later.
Ryan Dungey 11th despite only only competing in three seasons of data.
Would not have had Deano in 4th here.

Most Total Net Positions Lost since 2015

Rank	Rider	+ / –
1	Vince Friese	-716
2	Kevin Moranz	-284
3	Justin Bogle	-281
4	Adam Cianciarulo	-171
5	Fredrik Noren	-168
6	Mike Alessi	-152
7	Shane Mcelrath	-131
8	Martin Davalos	-124
9	Andrew Short	-102
10	Justin Brayton	-95
11	Phil Nicoletti	-89
12	Ryan Breece	-81
	Ronnie Stewart	-81
14	Chad Reed	-78
15	Cade Clason	-74

Vince…wow.
Poor AC, if he wasn’t for injuries, I have no doubt he would have a positive number here.
Alessi 6th, great starter but typically moved backwards in races.
Same with Andrew Short. This data only goes back to 2015 so after the peak years of Short and Alessi.
Don’t show Phil this.
Chad Reed’s last few seasons bring him negative on this.

Visualizing the Data

I wanted to show some graphics for year by year for different riders to show the changes over their careers. Keep in mind some riders have few races in some of the seasons due to injury or other factors. And one race can be the difference between a positive and negative.

Eli Tomac

Unfortunately for Tomac in 2023, his starts were so strong that year that he didn’t have a ton of net positions gained. And then in Denver, he lost a ton of spots with the achilles injury which put him negative.