With the first race jitters out of the way, a lot of questions still needed to be answered in Houston. Marvin Musquin raced away with the victory at the season opening one week prior, after Eli Tomac crashed out of the lead. There were rumblings that Tomac would not be able to line up in Houston, yet he went out for practice and gave it a go. Try as it might, his shoulder that he hit in Anaheim was too tender and he would be unable to race on this night in Texas.
With Tomac out, this opened the door for the other championship contenders to blast off a big points day. Of course, Musquin was eager to capitalize and extend his early lead in the 450SX championship points. Ah, but if the flying Frenchman has a weakness it is a big, long whoop section. The course in Houston had such a section and Marvin was struggling through practice and qualifying. Musquin likes to jump through the whoops instead of skimming the tops, and this particular set of gnarly whoops would be his undoing. Musquin tried jumping into them and mistimed just enough to send him to the ground. Marvin would be slow to get up, favoring his left shoulder dramatically. The crash would take the No. 25 KTM rider out for the evening, opening up the door for an epic 450SX Main Event with huge championship points implications.
Blasting off with the holeshot was Justin Barcia, who impressed in his debut for factory Yamaha at the season opener by leading laps and landing on the podium. He would lead laps again but lose the point position to a hard charging Ken Roczen, sending the Houston crowd into a roar. After placing 4th in his return to Monster Energy Supercross could the German win in only his second race back? That question was answered by an even harder charging Jason Anderson who flew past Roczen and set sail.
In the end, Anderson raced away with a huge victory while Roczen and Barcia rounded out the podium. This race would prove to be a most pivotal moment in the championship and a night in Texas where both Tomac and Musquin would wish they could have scored points.