Most Impressive: Glendale
February 10, 2026
Who was Most Impressive in Glendale?
450 Class: Ken Roczen
Roczen’s win in Glendale was downright impressive. He was calm, cool, and collected: took his time to let the race come to him and get around Lawrence. Once he got around, he put down the fastest lap by a large margin (0.6 seconds) and never looked back. Roczen has struggled a bit with lace race fades (most getting caught and passed by Webb), but he had no such struggles in Glendale. Dare I say it was an easy win for him?
In the past few seasons in SX he has gotten just 1 win each year… can he get more this year? In my opinion, this is the best we’ve seen Roczen since his arm injury on Honda; the Suzuki and him are perfectly gelling right now. Only time will tell if Roczen can be a threat for the championship and race wins come May, but it’s been a good start to the season for him!
Roczen went into detail about his night during the post-race media scrum:
“Since it is becoming more rare for me to win, not for lack of trying, but they just get sweeter and sweeter. I've come close many, many times, but the competition is so stiff and it's even just hard getting on the podium. So, winning in a fashion like this: got a good start and then I was trying to find my feet because I knew Hunter... I haven't been able to get by him right away in some of the other races that we have had. And so, I was trying to just be patient, but it did seem like I just had a bit more momentum around the track and was able to make it happen pretty quickly there. But I knew that I was in for a long main because first off, he's not just going to let go. And second, we had, I don't know, probably at least 15 minutes to go or something along those lines. So, I try not to look at the tower, look at the time and really take it bit by bit, make it through halfway and then kind of go from there. I never really worried about the time too much, but clicking off my laps and I feel like I was going really fast there for a sec. And then once we got closer down, I saw it was kind of like a heat race. So, then you kind of put yourself in the mental state of like, okay, it's a heat race: it's like six, seven laps, whatever; you got this! And then you get further and further down the line and it was five laps to go. And so, you kind of played these little mind games to stay locked in and I guess you never want to celebrate mentally too early. Things can happen really quick. So, it was very, very important for me to stay locked in all the way till the end. And then two laps to go, one lap to go. I actually think my mechanic showed me three laps to go and then luckily we came around and it was only two. So, we actually did one lap less than what I got told on the pit boards. When I saw the white flag I was like: yes! Just because the track is tricky in a way: you have these 90 degree turns onto the tabletops; the tabletop was just so messed up and potholed out; it would have been very easy to get bucked. So, I'm beyond stoked. It hasn't really set in yet.”
250 Class: Levi Kitchen
It was a brutal start to the season for Kitchen: first turn crashes 3 rounds in a row. However, he turned it around last weekend with a 2nd, and follows that up this weekend with another 2nd. It wasn’t without some drama though: he got a horrible start, but then rode incredibly well to come all the way through the pack; perhaps the Most Impressive 250 ride we’ve seen all season!
Kitchen’s demeanor off the track has noticeably changed too: he’s much more relaxed and open in answering questions. He seems more down-to-earth! I like the vibe I’m getting out of Kitchen. Let’s hope he can start out front from now on… maybe he can even challenge Deegan a bit!
Kitchen talked about his come-from-behind ride:
“I've had a few rides like that this season already. I just didn't fall on the first turn. So, I knew I could at least get to second. I would have obviously liked to catch up more, but it's just like you can't give away that much time that early and expect that, especially to Haiden who's holeshotting and riding really well. So, yeah, it was a good night. A lot of positives, but yeah, my Achilles Heel has been the starts, so got to just work on those all week is probably what I'm going to do. I'm happy with my riding, so it's not like I need to go back and figure out how to ride the dirt bike. That's pretty dialed. ”
