James Stewart was leading comfortably in Daytona before he crashed on Saturday night.

San Manuel Yamaha’s James Stewart has spoken out about his shocking crash while leading the Daytona Supercross on Saturday night, forcing him to settle for ninth once he regained his composure.

The Floridian had taken the holeshot at the packed venue on the east coast and was cruising ahead with a lead of over six seconds when he failed to hit the take-off for a triple correctly and was thrown over the bars.

Dazed, Stewart was able to remount and fight back from almost a lap down to enter the top ten and salvage some points.

“I really thought I had that one,” Stewart explained. “I totally didn’t expect to wheelie into the face of that jump. I can live with it because I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. I’ll never quit.

“It’s not about how hard you go down, it’s about how hard you fight when you get up. I am a little sore now but fine and I have to say a big thank you to the fans – they gave me a standing ovation at the end of the race.”

After Stewart’s mishap Ryan Villopoto was free to obtain his fourth victory of the season and extend a gap in the standings to 23 points over his rival. Stewart is just one point ahead of Australia’s Chad Reed.