Capping off a dominant day of racing by completing the 1-1 sweep, James Stewart has won Moto 2 at High Point to earn his first overall win of the season.
The “fast four” of the 450 Class broke away from the pack quickly and battled amongst themselves throughout the majority of the race, never managing to truly gain separation from one another.
The race started with Stewart getting another quick start, but as they rounded the turn towards the MotoSport.com Holeshot line, Chad Reed was able to sneak inside of Stewart and grab his second holeshot of the day. It was a short-lived lead though, as Stewart would go inside of Reed to take over the lead, and Canard would follow him into second place.
On the opening lap, Reed would also lose positions to Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen for third and fourth, respectively. Reed hung around the top-five for a few more laps before fading back to tenth by the end of the moto.
Up front, Canard attempted to challenge Stewart for the lead but wasn’t able to best him. As Stewart began to open up a slight edge, a three-way battle developed behind him with Dungey and Roczen catching up to Canard inside of 20 minutes to go. It would be a tight affair the rest of the way, with the trio coming very close to Stewart as well at times.
Dungey looked like he might have a line on Canard around the 16-minute mark, but Canard denied the pass. About ten minutes later, Roczen would overtake Dungey and shift his focus to Canard. Roczen attempted to make a pass, while Canard came back and scrubbed a jump in front of him. As the countdown clock reached its final minute, a mistake from Roczen allowed Canard to get away and Dungey to take over third. Dungey would give the spot right back on the next lap though, going down and allowing his teammate to pass him.
Amazingly, Canard and Roczen nearly caught Stewart on the final lap, as all three riders crossed the finish line in quick succession. Stewart’s margin of victory was less than one second, but all that matters is that he locked up the sweep and the overall win, moving to within 22 points of Roczen in the standings.
“The bike was awesome,” he said after the race. “Good way to go into the break. We still got a ways to go, but we’re starting off the right way. We’re getting there.”
While Stewart took a nice chunk out of Roczen’s gap over him in the points, Roczen was still able to stretch his lead over Dungey out to 16 points after finishing ahead of his teammate in both motos. Dungey’s mistakes were uncharacteristic, and he’s gotta be kicking himself for letting those positions slip away. In a rarity, Dungey would not end the day on the overall podium for the first time this season.
Behind Stewart, Roczen placed second overall, with Canard in third-place overall for the third time this season to round out the podium. After Dungey in fourth, Josh Grant rode consistent 6-6 moto results to a fifth-overall finish.
High Point 450 Moto 2 Results
1. James Stewart
2. Trey Canard (-0.8 seconds)
3. Ken Roczen
4. Ryan Dungey
5. Weston Peick
6. Josh Grant
7. Brett Metcalfe
8. Andrew Short
9. Malcolm Stewart
10. Chad Reed
11. Matt Goerke
12. Phil Nicoletti
13. Fredrik Noren
14. Ben Lamay
15. Ryan Sipes
16. Killy Rusk
17. Evgeny Mikhaylov
18. Cade Clason
19. Kevin Rookstool
20. Noah McConahy
450 Class Overall Results
1. James Stewart (1-1)
2. Ken Roczen (2-3)
3. Trey Canard (4-2)
4. Ryan Dungey (3-4)
5. Josh Grant (6-6)
6. Weston Peick (10-5)
7. Andrew Short (7-8)
8. Chad Reed (5-10)
9. Brett Metcalfe (9-7)
10. Phil Nicoletti (8-12)
Updated 450 Class Point Standings
1. Ken Roczen, 183
2. Ryan Dungey, 167
3. james Stewart, 161
4. Trey Canard, 150
5. Brett Metcalfe, 115
6. Josh Grant, 104
7. Weston Peick, 104
8. Malcolm Stewart, 90
9. Chad Reed, 88
10. Andrew Short, 74
