Max Gordon and Myles Cheek won the two Stadium Super Trucks races at Long Beach in 2024. Naturally, both duked it out for the 2025 Race 1 win on Saturday.

Cheek had taken the the lead from Bill Hynes shortly before the competition caution on Lap 3. Gordon caught up to him on the ensuing green flag lap before they did battle to the second comp yellow.

“I was just trying to play the game right there, see if I can get Max to bite on it and leave the door open right here in the last corner,” Cheek explained. “Fingers crossed that’s what I was hoping for on that last lap, but he did a heck of a job covering that and he’s turned into a really great driver.”

On the ensuing restart on Lap 7, Gordon made his move in Turn 1 to take the lead. The closest Cheek got to catching him came in the same corner on the final lap, but he could not get up further than his rear quarter panel.

“I never really looked in the mirror. I was focused on catching Myles and getting first place pretty early,” Gordon stated. “I talked to Myles before we went into the race and I said, ‘Alright, so how are we going to do this?’ I said we could use each other to get a draft or we can get through early and Myles was like, ‘I want to beat you at least. I want to pass three cars on the first caution.’ He did that, he made it to first in three laps. I was still back there battling and got held up a little bit. I landed on Cole Potts, ruined the Eibach hood, but should be able to fix it.

“That was the gnarliest racing I’ve ever done in a Stadium Super Truck, with Myles right there. We were banging doors, using our trucks up from lap three on. We didn’t go back from there. We were just going back and forth. We did like four passes on each other, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I came into the frontstretch and he was right on my bumper pushing me, pushing me, pushing me, and I went to stab the brakes and there was nothing there because we had used them up. I yanked the e-brake coming into turn one and backed it in, he got by me, and then we battled it on from there. I tried to let my truck cool down, got into the next caution, and it was game on from there.

The victory is Gordon’s fourth in SST, three of which have come at Long Beach (the exception being Mid-Ohio in 2022). He had also won Long Beach’s Race 1 in 2024, but will want to avoid a full repeat of last year as he finished fourth the day after while Cheek won.

“Tomorrow, it’s going to be a dogfight,” he continued. “Myles will be starting right in front of me and then it’ll be my dad, and hopefully they can open up the hole. Hoping to not use the truck up as much. Definitely used it a little hard today, but that’s racing. If you want to get first, you got to push hard.”

Cheek was gracious in defeat, describing it as “a ton of fun out there.” Despite the runner-up, it is his fourth career podium.

“That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in the truck, just battling Max right there. We went seven, eight laps just as hard as we could go and hopefully it was a good show for everyone out there and the fans and watching online,” Cheek commented.

Robby Gordon finished third, taking advantage of fastest qualifier Matt Brabham locking up the brakes on the last lap. The older Gordon remarked that the duel was “pretty cool to watch from the seat I had.”

Brabham settled for fourth.

Race 2 will take place on Sunday at 4:30 PM Pacific after the IndyCar event.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver
1	8	77	Max Gordon
2	7	957	Myles Cheek
3	9	7	Robby Gordon
4	10	83	Matt Brabham
5	5	50	Trey Hernquist
6	2	57	Bill Hynes
7	3	21	Zoey Edenholm
8	1	23	David Bernstein
9	6	60	Cole Potts
10	4	25	Arie Luyendyk Jr.

Featured image credit: Stadium Super Trucks