After Arlington, in both classes, there was a lot of controversy about riders not receiving penalties after jumping on red cross flags and lights. This likely could have an impact on both the 250 East and 450 championships, hopefully it doesn’t come down to that!
With this information I wanted to break down the history of main event penalties in 450 Supercross. Who has gotten them? What have they been for? How many per year? Etc.
I will first caveat that I only record penalties that result in championship points or position changes. I don’t include penalties that result in just a verbal or written warnings. I also don’t record qualifying, heat race or LCQ penalties. Or even gate choice penalties for the main event. Just penalties that occur for main event results.
Another caveat, I only have penalties dating back to 2004. This is due to the AMA results sheets being available back to 2003 for Supercross. However, there are no penalties listed on those 2003 results.
Okay lets finally break stuff down.
Since 2004, there have been 57 instances of penalties impacting points or results in 450 Supercross main events. Breakdown by year:
| Year | Penalty Instances |
| 2004 | 2 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2011 | 2 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 |
| 2014 | 5 |
| 2015 | 5 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2017 | 3 |
| 2018 | 3 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 8 |
| 2025 | 2 |
| 2026 so far | 2 |
2022 and 2024 have had the most with 8.
But what are the different kinds of penalties? Here is the categories I have broken them down into (of what’s occurred):
Categories
- Aggressive Riding
- Drug Test Failure
- Gate Grooming
- Illegal Fuel
- No Reason Listed
- Not Following Flags
- Off Track Advantage/Track Cutting
- Post Race Sound Check
- Red Cross Flags
Here is how many have occurred.
| Category | Count |
| Red Cross Flags | 20 |
| Off Track Advantage/Track Cutting/ Improper Re-Entry | 16 |
| No Reason Listed | 6 |
| Aggressive Riding | 5 |
| Illegal Fuel | 3 |
| Drug Test Failure | 3 |
| Not Following Flags | 2 |
| Gate Grooming | 1 |
| Post Race Sound Check | 1 |
- Red Cross Flags – We can see red cross flags lead the most. The earliest one I have on record was in 2016. 2016 is also where the largest impact to a race result happened. In Detroit, Ryan Dungey was penalized 2 positions after winning. He then was given 3rd place with Jason Anderson inheriting the win. For a while, the penalty was losing positions, then it switched to points penalties and now its back to positions.
- Marvin Musquin and Chase Sexton both have wins with the penalty, however, they were both penalized 7 points for their violations.
- Off Track Advantage and Track Cutting are next, these have all been position penalties over time.
- No Reason Listed – some of these have no description. A few of these were definitely for aggressive riding, however, they have no info listed.
- Illegal Fuel hasn’t happened since the fuel gate era of the mid 2000s.
- The Drug Test Failure is James Stewart’s retroactive penalty/disqualifications in the final three rounds of 2014.
- In 2024, Ryan Breece was penalized for grooming in front of the gate in Arlington that year. He was penalized two positions.
- Post Race Sound Check penalty was from Jorge Prado this year.
Most Instances by Rider
| Rider | Instances |
| Jason Anderson | 9 |
| Vince Friese | 6 |
| Chad Reed | 4 |
| James Stewart | 3 |
| Justin Barcia | 3 |
| Chase Sexton | 2 |
| Cooper Webb | 2 |
| Martin Davalos | 2 |
| Mike Alessi | 2 |
| Ryan Breece | 2 |
| Aaron Plessinger | 1 |
| Adam Cianciarulo | 1 |
| Austin Stroupe | 1 |
| Blake Baggett | 1 |
| Colt Nichols | 1 |
| David Vuillemin | 1 |
| Dustin Pipes | 1 |
| Dylan Ferrandis | 1 |
| Jake Weimer | 1 |
| Jason Thomas | 1 |
| Jett Lawrence | 1 |
| Jorge Prado | 1 |
| Josh Grant | 1 |
| Justin Bogle | 1 |
| Justin Cooper | 1 |
| Ken Roczen | 1 |
| Kyle Chisholm | 1 |
| Malcolm Stewart | 1 |
| Marvin Musquin | 1 |
| Ryan Dungey | 1 |
| Weston Peick | 1 |
| Zach Osborne | 1 |
- Jason Anderson leads here. 6 of Anderson’s penalties are from gaining an advantage off track or track cutting. His three others are from red cross flag jumping.
- Three of Friese’s penalties have no reason listed, however, I would presume they are due to aggressive riding.
- Chad Reed’s four instances are all different: Illegal Fuel, Improper Re-entry, Aggressive Riding, Failing to follow blue flags
- Stewart’s are all from his drug penalty DQs
- Justin Barcia has two for aggressive riding and one for gaining an off track advantage
Hope that gave some context to how often penalties occur in 450 Supercross!
Thanks for reading! Any questions, hit me up on Instagram or Twitter: @MXReference
