Sexton and Kawasaki Are Done a Year Into a Three-Year Deal — Here's What It Does to 2027

The off-season usually hands us new graphics and a few contract rumors. This year it handed us a big one: Chase Sexton and Monster Energy Kawasaki are finished, effective immediately, one season into a three-year deal.

What happened

Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. announced that it and Sexton "have mutually agreed to part ways effective October 23rd, 2026." Sexton thanked the team on Instagram and wished the staff well. Kawasaki, for its part, pointed to the two 450 Supercross wins Sexton took in 2026, at Anaheim 2 and Salt Lake City, and wished him luck for 2027 (Cycle News, Motorcycle.com).

Both sides called it mutual. Neither has said what comes next, and as of this writing Sexton has not announced a new team.

Why riders should care

A three-year factory deal is supposed to be the stable part of the sport. Teams build a bike program around a rider, and the rider builds a season around that bike. When one ends after a single year, everything downstream gets reshuffled: seats, sponsors, testing schedules, even which bike you will see on the gate in January.

It is also not an isolated event for the green team. Motorcycle.com notes this is the second time in two years that a Kawasaki 450 rider has left a three-year deal early, after Jorge Prado's release a year ago. That is a pattern worth watching, even if the reasons differ each time.

Where does Sexton land?

Nobody knows yet, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. Cycle News floats Yamaha, Ducati, and Suzuki as possibilities, and that is all it is: speculation. A rider with his results on the table, including two 450 main event wins this year, will not be short on conversations. But with the 2027 season already approaching, the clock matters. Teams have budgets and bike builds locked far in advance, and a late signing means a short runway to get comfortable on new equipment before the gate drops.

What it means for Kawasaki

The green team now has an open spot and no announced replacement. According to Motorcycle.com, Garrett Marchbanks is under contract for 2027, and Cycle News expects Malcolm Stewart to take a slot while saying a three-rider team now looks less likely. Treat that as informed expectation, not an announcement. Until Kawasaki says who is on the line in January, the lineup is a blank.

The bigger picture

Silly season is a reminder that bike racing is a business as much as a sport. The names on the plates change, but the thing you actually care about does not: what's happening on the track. The bike that wins Sunday still shows up on your local dealer floor, the parts still ship, and the sport still needs riders at every level to keep it healthy.

If this news has you itching to ride, use the quiet stretch before supercross season to get your own house in order. Service the bike, fix the suspension that has been bugging you, and put some seat time in. When the 2027 gate finally drops, you want to be the rider who has been getting faster all winter, not the one scrambling in January.

That is where BraapTrax comes in. Track your rides through the off-season and you will have real numbers on your distance, elevation, and time in the saddle, so you can see your own progress the same way the factory teams chase theirs. You will not get a three-year contract out of it, but you will know exactly how much better you are riding than you were last fall.

We'll keep watching where Sexton ends up and who fills the Kawasaki seat. When the announcements land, we will cover them here.

Sources: Cycle News, Motorcycle.com.