Eli Tomac wins Supercross cat-and-mouse Round 8 at Arlington by one point over Jason Anderson

Eli Tomac finished 3-2-2 in the Triple Crown format of Round 8 of the Monster Energy Supercross season and won the overall by a single point over Jason Anderson.

Tomac’s third win of the season came one week after Anderson won for a third time and closed the points gap to three over Tomac. With Anderson finishing second in Arlington, the gap widens slightly to six as these two riders serve notice they intend to have the championship come down to a two-man battle.

“I was trying to get the win (in Race 3),” Tomac told NBC Sports’ Will Christien. “Gosh, that was a really fun cat-and-mouse. To be honest, my first couple of laps were not clean enough. I was making a couple of mistakes. I probably paid a little too much attention to who was behind me.

“Once I got passed by Jason, I rode on his rear wheel. I was there the whole time and I knew I had to wait until the very end.”

Tomac and Anderson rode handlebar to handlebar in both the second and third races for big swaths of the event, which made this an interesting prelude to the second half of the season.

Tomac’s win in Arlington came with consistency. He failed to win one of the three feature races, while Anderson won twice and Cooper Webb won once, but the overall finish is when the points get paid.

With his victory, Tomac is now two-for-two in regard to Triple Crown wins after also taking the overall at Glendale earlier this year. The third and final Triple Crown format will be held at St. Louis on April 9.

Anderson might have swept the night if not for an eventful Race 1.

Here’s what happened between the 27 and 21