Justin Cooper effectively won the regular season title and was seeded first for the SuperMotocross Playoffs, but he is still looking for his first trophy.
When asked by NBC Sports, at the conclusion of the 2025 Pro Motocross season, how it felt to enter the SuperMotocross League Playoffs with the No. 1 seed, effectively making him the regular season champion, Justin Cooper responded with, “Where’s my trophy?”
All the work that went into surviving every round of the Monster Energy Supercross and Pro Motocross seasons, racing 28 rounds comprising 45 features, would result in only a minor points’ lead heading into the final three rounds as the SuperMotocross (SMX) points leader.
Jett Lawrence missed most of the Supercross season after suffering an injury in the Glendale Supercross race before he clawed his way back to second overall in combined SMX standings. He was 90 points behind Cooper. The following week, the lead shrank to five points as seeding took effect, and the riders lined up for the opening round of the 2025 Playoffs.
For Cooper, the playoffs were over before they seriously had a chance to begin.
In the first moto of Playoff Round 1 at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina, in one of the first turns on the track, Cooper got hung up on a Tuff Blox and had to fight his way from the back. Cooper finished 11th. When persistent lightning canceled Moto 2, Cooper was stranded outside the top 10, and he wound up a disappointing fifth overall in the SMX Playoffs. Cooper finished eighth overall in Round 2 and fifth at Las Vegas.
It would have been nice if Cooper had a regular-season trophy to ease the pain.
Instead, he left the season with the knowledge of how well he ran. An average finish of better than sixth (5.76) in Supercross and fifth (4.73) in Motocross revealed very few low points. Cooper finished outside the top 10 three times in SX and never in MX.
Cooper was on the podium 25 percent of the time during the regular season. Although victory eluded him until the very end of the year, he came close with a second in Indianapolis in Supercross, was third in the final three stadium rounds, and added another three podiums in Motocross at Hangtown, RedBud, and in the series finale at Budds Creek.
Championships are won in a variety of ways. One of these is to outlast the competition like Chase Sexton did on his way to the 2023 Supercross title. After finishing third in championship points last year in the stadium series and fourth in the outdoor series, it is not out of the question for Cooper to win a title in 2026.
Resiliency has been a hallmark of his career, and as RacerXOnline.com pointed out recently, Cooper missed only one Motocross round since becoming a professional in 2017.
But first, Cooper has to win a race. In today’s professional dirt bike racing, it is practically unthinkable to win a title without a Round victory. If Cooper wins early in the season, start thinking of him as a contender in any of the three series that make up the SuperMotocross League.
And if that happens, Cooper will finally have his trophy.
Justin Cooper 2025 Statistics
SuperMotocross League standings: Fifth
Seeding for SMX Round 1: First
Starts: 31
Best finish: Second (Indianapolis SX, St. Louis, Las Vegas SMX)
Podiums: 7
Top-fives: 20
Top-10s: 28
Supercross average finish: 5.76
Motocross average finish: 4.73
SMX Playoffs average: 8.00
Overall average: 5.61
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Category: General Sports
