Supercross's Eli Tomac ties NASCAR's Richard Petty for most wins at Daytona: seven

Also: 17-year-old Haiden Deegan earns his first career podium

Eli Tomac continues to make history at Daytona International Speedway. Last year he broke his tie with Ricky Carmichael to become the sole owner of most Supercross victories at Daytona. This year he tied the King of NASCAR, Richard Petty with seven Daytona wins.

Tomac seemingly has home court advantage at the track more than a thousand miles from his home state of Colorado, noting the similarity of the soil to his practice ground.

“The best way to put it is that it feels like home to me,” Tomac said in the post-race press conference, “I practice on pretty loose soil. It’s not that sandy but it’s somewhat close. That’s the only thing that I can really put it to. I feel at home at this place.”

After a tough start to the day, Tomac was not counting his feat as won until the moment he crossed the finish line. He fell outside the top five in practice leading fans and competitors to wonder if he could pull off the feat.

“Earlier in the day I was wondering what the heck was going on,” Tomac said of his performance. “I was off by a second in practice and struggling just to find some general flow. Once the lights came on, it was a whole different deal. I went out of there with Cooper [Webb} back and forth there. It was a gnarly battle again. Down to the wire.”

Here's some of the hardware Eli Tomac took home for winning again -- for a seventh time -- at Daytona International Speedway. Photo: Feld Entertainment

The win did not come easily. Tomac found himself in a familiar place both this year and last at Daytona battling against Webb throughout both features. Tomac won the battle to the hole shot by mere inches before Webb took the lead early on Lap 1 and held it until around the midpoint of the race.

Webb accidentally slipped his KTM into neutral in the rhythm section on the frontstretch, losing a fraction of a second of high performance. A little to the right of him in that rhythm section, Tomac was in the perfect place to capitalize and in a matter of a couple of jumps found himself three bike lengths ahead.

“Ironically enough, we were doing different lines,” Webb said of Tomac’s pass, “I was trying to blitz the whoops and he had the inside and I think that maybe the blitzing was a little faster, but I left myself open and some of our lines in the sands switched and switched back. It was tough, man. It’s obviously a gnarly track but you’re also trying to find the lines, they change easily. Somehow [the bike] clicked neutral and he got by me.”

This is not the first time Webb has nearly won the race. Last year Webb was leading late when Tomac overtook and recorded his historic sixth win.

“It was a great fight. I have to tip my cap to myself and also to Eli,” Webb said. “I was trying my balls off upfront. He’s just so damn good here, it’s tough. I made a little mistake and we collided. I was hoping I didn’t bump him and mess something up on the bike. I hit neutral kind of randomly and he was able to get by. He put on the afterburners and I was trying as hard as I could. It was a dogfight.”

Chase Sexton rounded out the podium. For the third week in a row and the fourth time in the season the points leaders shared a podium. After entering the weekend with Tomac leading Webb by three points and Sexton by five they’re now separated by five and 10 respectively.

250 | Haiden Deegan Captures his first podium

Before Tomac made history in the 450 class, plenty of headlines wrote themselves in the 250 feature. Hunter Lawrence dominated the race leading every lap and became part of the first brother duo to win a Supercross race at Daytona. Jett Lawrence won the 250 class last year.

Nate Thrasher took the holeshot and battled for the lead with Tom Vialle following him through the first lap. Lawrence took advantage of the sand pit and pulled ahead of Vialle as he fell over.

Max Anstie worked his way to the front to battle for the lead and finished second.

But the most dramatic story of the 250 feature came from the third-place finisher. Haiden Deegan captured his first podium finish in his fourth career Supercross start. Deegan was a late entry into the field as 2023 was intended to be a chance for him to get reps before going full-time in 2024.

Deegan could barely contain his excitement after the race.

"I'm through the roof right now,” Deegan said. “This is a sick moment for me right now. I've been working my butt off and a lot of people doubted me, but I ended up getting third place and the crowd is sick. I could hear them every lap going down the frontstretch and I am so excited to be up here in my fourth race.”

Haiden Deegan earned the first of what promises to be many podiums in his career, finishing third in Saturday's 250 class at Daytona. Photo: Feld Entertainment. 

Deegan is clearly a fan favorite at the track as the frontstretch of the Superspeedway would erupt in cheers whenever he exited the tunnel and entered the rhythm section.

“Yeah, this track is not an easy one,” Deegan said. “You gotta be a man to ride this track. I didn't get the greatest start, but I was able to make my way up to third and it's a tough track. I was riding with good intensity and it felt great. And I was able to push through and the crowd was amazing. They were going wild the whole time so when I finished that race the adrenaline was going, I was super happy.”

“I didn’t think we would be getting on the podium this early but it’s racing and we continue to progress.”

With this third-place finish, the young Deegan is halfway to his dad Brian Deegan’s total podium finishes, which was graciously pointed out by a reporter. Brian could not be more proud.

“We’ve invested so much in as far as time, and energy,” Brian said about his racing family. “We could be doing a lot of other things and this is what we choose. It’s hard to beat because you’ll never get that moment again.

“Your first podium, that moment has happened and now it’s on to the next, which would be searching for a win. It’s going to be hard to contain myself on that. I lost my voice tonight with his third place.”