Haiden Deegan entered the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX season as the clear favorite, regardless of which coast he competed on. However, as the season unfolds, the narrative has shifted dramatically. Deegan’s performance has not met the high expectations set by fans and analysts. The San Diego round highlighted these struggles. Despite topping qualifying and setting the fastest lap in his heat by over a second, Deegan’s day was marred by a crash in the whoops while running third.
In the main event, he recovered from an eighth-place start to claim third, once again showing impressive speed with the race’s fastest lap. However, his inability to close the gap to the leader highlighted ongoing challenges this season. During his TV podium interview with Jason Thomas, Deegan candidly expressed his frustrations, acknowledging Julien Beaumer’s strong performance while admitting his own embarrassment. “I just got a little pumped up in the beginning, and it went on from there,” Deegan said, vowing to work harder for the races ahead.
When asked if he was concerned at all about his rough start to the season Haiden emphasized: “I just want to win. It’s miserable not winning. It’s like I go through these weeks and it’s just like it sucks man, but we’ll figure it out. It will come around here soon. A positive at least we got through this round safe and it was still a podium. We just got to figure out how to get to that top step.”
On the arm pump question, he answered: “Yeah, definitely, the boys were good today. I was a little restricted. I’ve got to work on this arm pump; it’s something I really struggle with, but we’ll figure it out. It’s nothing.”
Hear what Haiden Deegan said on the Press Conference: