A few weeks back, I went on the award winning Blair Matthes Project podcast to talk about some wild stats about the 2026 Supercross season at that point. Then, the conversation moved towards who is on the Mt. Rushmore of the sport. You can check that conversation out here (18:45 timestamp). Big thanks to Steve for having me on, it was a great time!
When combining both Supercross and Pro Motocross, we came to the conclusion that three spots are easily taken by Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Villopoto.
I don’t think Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael need much explanation or have any debate around them. If you’re curious about Ryan Villopoto, here are a few stats:
- 4x 450 Supercross Champion
- 2x 450 Motocross Champion
- 44.57% 450SX Win Percentage – all-time record
- 46.15% 450MX Win Percentage – 3rd all-time
- In his Premier Class career, Villopoto competed in 7 total SX/MX championships while healthy…he won 6 of those 7. Only losing his rookie 450SX season.
- He did all of this in the Premier Class while going up against James Stewart, Ryan Dungey, and Chad Reed
- Oh and he won three straight 250MX titles as well
I could go on but, put simply, Ryan Villopoto dominated his premier class career while competing against 3 all time greats.
So who takes the fourth and final spot?
James Stewart, Ryan Dungey and Eli Tomac were who came to mind to us on the podcast. I think they all have a case so I will first break down all their stats. I’ll then get into the intangibles, hypotheticals and other details and commentary that aren’t just told by numbers. I’ll put in a section discussing their 250 careers as I’m not sure how much weight this should carry in the debate.
Lets get to the numbers! Writing this article in between the 2026 Supercross and Motocross season. All stats are up to date as of 5/10/26.
Championships
Lets first discuss the number of titles in the Premier Class each of these riders has.
| Rider | 450SX Titles | 450MX Titles | Total | 450SX Title Years | 450MX Title Years |
| James Stewart | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2007, 2009 | 2008 |
| Ryan Dungey | 4 | 3 | 7 | 2010, 2015-2017 | 2010, 2012, 2015 |
| Eli Tomac | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2020, 2022 | 2017-2019, 2022 |
I’ll discuss how close these riders were to additional titles later on, just doing the numbers right now!
Statistics – Supercross, Motocross and Combined
Supercross
Lets compare the riders Supercross stats first, average and percentage stats have a minimum of 10 starts for all-time rankings.
| Rider | Starts | Points | Points per Start | Average Finish |
| James Stewart | 123 | 2,236 | 18.18 | 5.50 |
| All-Time Rank | T-27th | 15th | 12th | 8th |
| Rider | Starts | Points | Points per Start | Average Finish |
| Ryan Dungey | 134 | 2,782 | 20.76 | 2.93 |
| All-Time Rank | 21st | 9th | 1st | 1st |
| Rider | Starts | Points | Points per Start | Average Finish |
| Eli Tomac | 198 | 3,842 | 19.40 | 4.55 |
| All-Time Rank | 4th | 2nd | 7th | 15th |
The points structure changed slightly in 2018 and again in 2024, this slightly impacts Tomac’s numbers here.
Stats continued:
| Rider | Wins | Win % | Podiums | Podium % | Laps Lead since 03 | Laps Led % |
| James Stewart | 50 | 40.65% | 75 | 60.98% | 921 | 41.56% |
| All-Time Rank | 3rd | 5th | T-9th | 6th | 3rd | 1st |
| Rider | Wins | Win % | Podiums | Podium % | Laps Lead since 03 | Laps Led % |
| Ryan Dungey | 34 | 25.37% | 101 | 75.37% | 672 | 24.97% |
| All-Time Rank | 7th | 10th | 4th | 2nd | 6th | 5th |
| Rider | Wins | Win % | Podiums | Podium % | Laps Lead since 03 | Laps Led % |
| Eli Tomac | 57 | 28.79% | 111 | 56.06% | 1078 | 22.61% |
| All-Time Rank | 2nd | 7th | T-2nd | 8th | 1st | 7th |
A few quick thoughts on these rider’s supercross stats, Tomac has the longevity, Dungey has the conistency and Stewart has the high win and laps led percentage, but a lower career average finish (more volatile).
For me, its hard to ignore Stewart’s much higher win percentage and laps led percentage here. But at the same time, Dungey getting in a podium in over 3/4 races is insane – Dungey’s rate is just behind Carmichael for the all-time best percentage. To the point where one more podium would have put him ahead of RC. Furthermore, Dungey having a career average below 3 in Supercross is also wild. I’ll have more on Dungey’s consistency later on.
Motocross
This is just the 450 Class rankings.
| Rider | OA Starts | Points | Points per Starts | OA Avg Finish | OA Wins | OA Win % |
| James Stewart | 67 | 2,130 | 31.79 | 9.12 | 20 | 29.85% |
| All-Time Rank | 42nd | 22nd | 30th | 81st | 8th | 10th |
| Rider | OA Starts | Points | Points per Starts | OA Avg Finish | OA Wins | OA Win % |
| Ryan Dungey | 87 | 3,699 | 42.52 | 2.61 | 39 | 44.83% |
| All-Time Rank | T-23rd | 5th | 4th | 4th | 2nd | 4th |
| Rider | OA Starts | Points | Points per Starts | OA Avg Finish | OA Wins | OA Win % |
| Eli Tomac | 105 | 4,247 | 40.45 | 3.15 | 32 | 30.48% |
| All-Time Rank | 14th | 2nd | 7th | 8th | 3rd | 8th |
Stats continued:
| Rider | OA Podiums | OA Podium % | Moto Wins | Moto Win % | Moto Podiums | Moto Podium % | Laps Led since 03 | Laps Led % |
| James Stewart | 37 | 55.22% | 41 | 31.06% | 78 | 59.09% | 699 | 41.71% |
| All-Time Rank | 11th | 15th | 7th | 9th | 9th | 16th | 5th | 4th |
| Rider | OA Podiums | OA Podium % | Moto Wins | Moto Win % | Moto Podiums | Moto Podium % | Laps Led since 03 | Laps Led % |
| Ryan Dungey | 69 | 79.31% | 68 | 39.08% | 136 | 78.16% | 806 | 28.91% |
| All-Time Rank | 3rd | 5th | 3rd | 6th | 3rd | 5th | 3rd | 6th |
| Rider | OA Podiums | OA Podium % | Moto Wins | Moto Win % | Moto Podiums | Moto Podium % | Laps Led since 03 | Laps Led % |
| Eli Tomac | 79 | 75.24% | 70 | 33.33% | 144 | 68.57% | 748 | 22.34% |
| All-Time Rank | 2nd | 8th | 2nd | 8th | 2nd | 9th | 4th | 7th |
For Motocross, I am surprised at how much Dungey’s stats standout from Stewart and Tomac. Dungey’s overall win percentage is much higher than both riders, however, his moto win percentage is more close. His points per start also point to more consistency. Tomac is higher than Dungey in podiums but that is more due to more starts as Dungey’s podium rate is higher.
All of Dungey’s stats are also skewed down in way because these stats include his 2022 comeback season. Dungey failed to achieve a podium that year after not racing for 5 years professionally. Here are some of Dungey’s stats NOT including 2022:
Overall Win Percentage: 52.00%
Podium Percentage: 92.00%
Moto Win Percentage: 45.33%
Moto Podium Percentage: 90.67%
Pretty insane numbers that put him further ahead of Tomac’s rates.
I have to say I am actually a bit surprised at James Stewart’s outdoor career stats. Yes, he had the 2008 perfect season, however, outside of that his stats are not that great (for an all-time talent). Not including 2008, his overall win percentage drops to 14.55% with just 8 wins. After 2008, he either didn’t race outdoors or didn’t see a consistent winning pattern.
Combining Supercross and Motocross Stats
I’ll show the overall win and podium percentage for the riders combining their premier class stats.
| Rider | Total Starts | Total Wins | Total Win % | Total Podiums | Total Podium % |
| James Stewart | 190 | 70 | 36.84% | 112 | 58.95% |
| Ryan Dungey | 221 | 73 | 33.03% | 170 | 76.92% |
| Eli Tomac | 303 | 89 | 29.37% | 190 | 62.71% |
James Stewart’s win percentage is still the highest here, but interestingly he has the lowest podium percentage. Ryan Dungey’s stats would be slightly better without factoring in his 2022 comeback. I haven’t talked about Tomac as much so far, but his stats with the number of starts he has had is very impressive.
As of right now, I still think all three have a good case for the fourth and final spot.
Lets talk competition.
Competition
I think its fair to talk about each rider’s respective competition in their careers, especially in their championship seasons. I’ll do Supercross first and then Motocross for each rider.
James Stewart
Stewart’s two Supercross titles in 2007 and 2009 mainly against Chad Reed. Both seasons, Stewart was dominant from a wins and laps led standpoint. However, in 2009, Chad Reed stayed with Stewart in points down to the very end. And quite frankly the reason for this was Stewart’s own mistakes throughout the year. In 2007, Stewart also faced Ricky Carmichael who was racing part time. However, Stewart had Ricky covered that year in 2007. If Ricky was still full time, Stewart probably wins a few less races and leads less laps, however, Stewart on the Kawasaki that season was pretty unstoppable.
Outside of his championship seasons, Stewart had very heavy competition throughout, Ricky and Chad early on and then Villopoto and Dungey in the latter half of his career.
For Motocross, the same riders as Supercross were his challengers when he raced Outdoors. Early on, Ricky had him covered from 2005-2007. After 2007, Stewart had a perfect 24-0 season in 2008. As impressive as this was, it was not a very deep field competing that summer. Chad Reed was not racing and his biggest challenger was Mike Alessi who got injured halfway through the season. Stewart ended that year leading 225 consecutive laps. When Stewart returned to the Outdoors in 2012, he immediately won the first four motos over Ryan Dungey, but then got hurt in a crash and wasn’t the same. 2013 and 2014, he won here and there going up against the likes of Dungey, Villopoto and then Ken Roczen and Trey Canard as well.
Overall pretty heavy competition for Stewart outside of the 2008 perfect season.
Ryan Dungey
Ryan Dungey had relatively short career but faced heavy competition the likes of Ryan Villopoto, James Stewart, Chad Reed, Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac throughout. His 2010 SX title was when Villopoto, Stewart and Chad Reed got hurt and missed races at some point during the season. His title run of 2015-2017 was right after Ryan Villopoto retired and Stewart and Reed were past their primes at this point. However, Dungey still faced Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac in 2015-2017. In the 2017 SX season, Eli Tomac was the faster rider, winning more races, however, Dungey’s consistency won him the title in the end.
Dungey’s non title years in Supercross were dominated by Ryan Villopoto from 2011 through 2014.
For Motocross, in 2010, Ryan Villopoto was out with injury (and James Stewart and Chad Reed were as well). 2012, same thing. 2015, Dungey beat Roczen to the title after losing to him in 2014. Eli Tomac was dominant early in 2015, and then got injured.
Dungey didn’t have a ton of competition his 2010 and 2012 titles, however, he absolutely dominated them.
Outside of those years, Dungey still won through 2011, 2013, and 2014. With the 2011 and 2014 titles going down to the wire.
Eli Tomac
Eli Tomac’s 2020 and 2022 Supercross titles faced competition from Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb in 2020 and Jason Anderson was the biggest competitor in 2022. In Tomac’s non title seasons, he was going up against Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb, Chase Sexton, Jett Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence. Tomac has had a long career facing different generations of talent.
For Outdoors, from 2017-2019, Marvin Musquin was his biggest competitor, as well as Blake Baggett in 2017 and Ken Roczen in 2018/2019. His 2022 title was an all-time battle with Chase Sexton down to the wire.
Over the course of his outdoor titles, I think its fair to say Tomac had steeper competition than Dungey and Stewart. Supercross is harder to gauge as they often competed against each other in these titles.
Overall Competition Final Thoughts
I think James Stewart had the steepest competition among the three throughout the course of his career (with the exception of 2008 outdoors). Stewart was going up against the GOAT Ricky Carmichael, one of the most consistent and gritty riders ever in Chad Reed, then he faced both Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey in the latter half of his career. Despite this, Stewart still had a very high winning percentage. When it comes to Dungey and Tomac, its hard to tell. Early on, Dungey had fiercer competition with Villopoto, Stewart and Reed, however, he didn’t win titles against those guys for the most part. When they were gone, he went on a three SX title run, dominating two of those years…in which Tomac was a competitor. Tomac has beaten the top guys around him post Dungey, but also lost to them at the same time. 2018, he lost the SX title to Anderson, 2019 to Webb, etc. 2020 he beats Webb, 2022 he beats Anderson, etc.
Hypotheticals – Titles the Riders Should Have Won
This is where the debate gets really interesting. When we talk about the titles the riders should have won or where you can make a very strong case for them. This where it is interesting to see whether or not a rider underachieved or overachieved when it comes to the titles in their career. I think this part helps Stewart and Tomac, but quite frankly hurts Dungey’s case. This is where we are going from objective data to subjective opinion. I’ll start with Stewart…
James Stewart
I think there are two titles you can easily “give” to Stewart that didn’t happen due to injury. 2007 Motocross and 2008 Supercross.
2007 Motocross, Ricky Carmichael was racing part time and he was battling with James at a few races that summer that were some all-time battles (Budds Creek and Red Bud come to mind). Yes, if Ricky raced that season full time he would probably be the winner, however, we knew before that season that Ricky was just going to race part time, leaving Stewart what should have been an easy title. However, Stewart tore his ACL at Washougal, ending his title chances. Had he just stayed healthy, that would be another title to Stewart’s name.
The next one is 2008 Supercross. Stewart absolutely dominated the 2007 season and then he started two races in 2008. A1 was a mud race he recovered back to 2nd in, round 2 in Phoenix he won…he still had a knee injury at this point and still beat Chad Reed in that Phoenix race leading all 20 laps. At this time in his career and on the Kawasaki, I think Stewart was pretty much unbeatable indoors and you can confidently say he likely wins this title too.
Now onto the ones that are much more hypothetical…I am not saying he wins these titles, just that he could have won them.
2009 Outdoors – Stewart was on the Yamaha that he crashed a ton on in 2009 Supercross. However, the 2009 Outdoors season was pretty wild. Villopoto won round 1 and looked like the favorite, then got hurt. Mike Alessi won rounds 2 and 3, then got hurt. Eventually, Chad Reed was the dominant rider. However, there were 7 different riders that won an overall that summer. I think Stewart would have had the speed, despite the Yamaha. Stewart was always faster than Reed outdoors and I think he could have found a way to win that title. He probably would have crashed a lot too though.
2010 Supercoss – Stewart came into 2010 as the defending champion and beat Ryan Dungey in a great battle at A1. However, a wrist injury ended his season early. I don’t think Stewart would have dominated this season like 2009 in terms of winning. But I could see Stewart battling Dungey and Villopoto (before injury) in that 2010 season.
2011 Supercross – Stewart raced all 17 rounds this year, however he crashed a ton this season. Some crashes were not his fault (Jacksonville first turn pile up), however, the vast majority were and it consistently lost him points throughout the season.
2012 Outdoors – Stewart won the first four motos of this seasons after switching to Suzuki and held off Ryan Dungey in these battles. He then crashed and got hurt in Thunder Valley. It would have been extremely hard to beat Dungey’s consistency this summer but I think this season is worth mentioning.
Its fair to say Stewart underachieved when it came to titles at least by two, the next four are much more debatable and could honestly be considered stretches but lets move on to Ryan Dungey.
Ryan Dungey
Quite honestly when we play the hypothetical game with Dungey, I think it actually hurts his case. I think there is only title that you can give him that he lost due to a mechanical:
2011 Outdoors – Ryan Dungey was dominating Moto 2 at Freestone in Round 2 of the 2011 season…he then ran out of gas and finished outside the points. If you give him those points back, he wins the title. After Chad Reed got injured that year, Dungey and Ryan Villopoto were truly in a 1A/1B type battle. Villopoto then got the 2012 bike early and that gave him just enough edge to best Dungey in the final few rounds. But again, give Dungey 25 points back and he wins this title. I think this is the only season where Dungey truly was matched to Villopoto outdoors.
Now on the flip side, Ryan Villopoto was just simply a better 450 rider than Dungey over the span of their careers competing with each other. All of Dungey’s 450 titles came when Villopoto was either hurt or retired:
- 2010 SX: Villopoto got hurt at Round 14 and was closing in on Dungey in the points lead. Dungey may have been able to hold off RV but it would have been extremely close.
- 2010 MX: Villopoto was out with a broken leg.
- 2012 MX: Villopoto was out with a torn ACL.
- 2015-2017 SX: Villopoto was retired.
- 2015 MX: Villopoto was retired.
Now Ryan Dungey was definitely the guy in 2015 and 2016 Supercross and was very dominant, however, if Villopoto is still racing these years I think he would still have won. Same with the outdoors seasons RV missed. For 2016 Outdoors, I don’t think you can give this title to him as Ken Roczen was quite dominant and Roczen and Dungey had just split the 2015/2016 outdoor titles.
Lets talk 2017 Supercross. First, Ken Roczen dominated the first two round of the season. He looked to be on his way to a title but then got hurt. And then Tomac was quite dominant but had mistakes that cost him the title.
I am a big fan of Weege’s simulation theory for predicting a season. If you ran a 2017 Supercross simulator, I don’t think in very many of them Ryan Dungey is the winner of that title. But hey, he did win it.
Eli Tomac
Tomac is very interesting when we play this game. Firstly, there is an easy title to give him: 2023 Supercross. Tomac was leading by a wide margin in the penultimate round and then disaster struck. Had Tomac rolled around in 5th in that round and the final round, he wins the title.
There are a few titles that Tomac would fall under the should have won. The first is obvious, 2017 Supercross. Tomac was faster than Dungey but had his bizarre Tomac ride in East Rutherford that year.
I would also argue that Tomac should have won the 2018 Supercross title over Jason Anderson. He had the most wins that year by a lot.
And another one to consider is 2015 Motocross. Tomac was absolutely dominating both Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen in the first two rounds of 2015. In Hangtown, he won a moto by a minute and a half over Dungey. Tomac got hurt in round 3.
So there is 4 more titles that Tomac probably should have won in his career.
In conclusion to the hypotheticals, I think this shows that Stewart and Tomac have greatly underachieved when it comes to potential titles and Dungey almost overachieved in a way.
This sounds harsh to Dungey, but lets now talk about his insane consistency stats.
Dungey’s Consistency
As mentioned earlier, Dungey had a lot of competition throughout his career and his consistency throughout has some pretty wild numbers. Here are some examples:
- Record for most consecutive 450SX podiums with 31.
- Record for lowest average career 450SX finish with 2.93.
- Dungey is the only rider to have an average below 3.00.
- Ryan Villopoto is the next closest rider with 3.33. Hypothetically, the fastest way for Ryan Villopoto to get his career average lower than Dungey’s, RV would have to win 20 consecutive races.
- From 2015-2017, Dungey never finished worse than 4th place. This is the best low finish over a three year span. The next closest is Jeremy McGrath with never finishing worst than 7th from 1999-2001.
- In Dungey’s 221 450 Starts in SX and MX, he has finished outside the Top 10 (OA finishes for MX) just three times…all due to bike problems (2011 A2, 2014 A3 & 2022 Washougal).
Pretty wild stuff that I think should be considered for Ryan Dungey for his case for the 4th Mt. Rushmore spot.
Intangibles
Here is the section where I discuss the aspects that can’t be described by stats or data. For example, the riders overall impact on the sport. For this, I think James Stewart sticks out with how dominant and fast he was early in his career. Not only that, but revolutionizing the sport with the Bubba Scrub. When you watch the 2003 Budds Creek race even today, that scrub he throws is unreal. Things like this and jumping sections on tracks that no one else would (eg. Daytona 2011 Wall Jump) really stick out in the minds of fans for Stewart. This stuff really adds to status and aura to Stewart. “The Fastest Man on the Planet” nickname was well earned at the time. Furthermore, his battles with Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed all stick together in fan’s minds as well.
Dungey and Tomac have their legendary rides as well, but I don’t think they quite add up to Stewart’s.
How Much should their 250 Careers factor in?
I think if we factor in the 250MX careers, the clear answer is James Stewart. But I don’t know how fair that is. The 250 class isn’t the premier class and the competition is not going to be as impressive as winning in the 450 class.
Dungey and Tomac were never dominant in the 250 class the way James Stewart was. Both riders have one 250SX title and one 250MX title to their names. I don’t think their 250SX careers really add anything to their case. But it absolutely helps Stewart’s case.
My Verdict
Drum roll please…..I’m going James Stewart.
The data for Stewart isn’t as strong as I originally realized. And his Motocross stats are much less impressive than I realized but it comes down to this final point:
Did the rider de-throne the previous rider who held the title of “the guy”?
For example, Ricky Carmichael de-throned and beat Jeremy McGrath in 2001. In Supercross, in 2007, despite Carmichael racing part time. I think that Supercross season was a changing of the guard in Supercross from Carmichael to Stewart. Then Villopoto did the same to Stewart. However, Dungey never straight up beat Villopoto in a title race and same goes for Tomac with Dungey. I think if 2017 goes Tomac’s way this conversation is very different.
This is obviously up to interpretation but the intangible stuff goes Stewart’s way with how he changed the sport. I hope I provided enough data and food for thought for this discussion.
I am very curious to hear other’s opinions on this! And who knows, maybe in 5 years this isn’t even a debate and Jett Lawrence takes a spot.
Thanks for reading! Any questions, hit me up on Twitter or Instagram @MXReference
