Eli Tomac’s hometown of Cortez, Colo., is approximately 2,000 miles west of Daytona Beach, Fla.

And yet, the Colorado native admits he has never felt more at home on a Monster Energy AMA Supercross track than he does when he hits the sandy, high-speed course at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Tomac’s comfortability at the track has been on display year after year, whenever the series pays a visit to the iconic motorsports’ venue. From 2016 to ’22, he earned six of seven possible wins.

Last Saturday night, the 30-year-old did what he does best and collected his seventh Daytona victory, further solidifying his place at the top of the facility’s win list. The next rider on the chart is motocross legend Ricky Carmichael, who has visited victory lane five times at the speedway.

However, Tomac’s day in Daytona wasn’t quite as carefree as it has been in years past.

“Earlier in the day, I was wondering what the heck was going on. I was more than a second off during practice and struggling just to find some general flow,” Tomac recalled in the post-race press conference.

“But once the lights came on, I was a whole different dude.”

The defending Supercross champion has never been known to put much weight on his qualifying performance. It’s pretty typical to see him place somewhere in the top five, but it’s been nearly a year since Tomac earned a fast-qualifier award.

As such, his fourth-place result in qualifying at Daytona shouldn’t have been much cause for concern. But the Star Racing Yamaha rider didn’t seem to have the mystique he normally finds at the beach.

That is, until the first gate drop of the night.

In another typical-Tomac exhibition, he flipped the switch in his heat race, letting the frustration of the day fade away while adeptly leading the field to the checkered flag.

An hour later, it was a similar story in the main event. Tomac capitalized on a mistake from Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb to steal the lead halfway through the race and refused to relinquish the position from that point on.

Tomac scored career win No. 49, granting him sole possession of third on the all-time 450SX win list — he was previously tied with Ricky Carmichael (48).

However, the records are simply an afterthought to the stoic rider.

With close competition from Webb and Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton, Tomac has learned not to count a single win until he crosses the finish line. He leads the standings by five points over Webb and 10 over Sexton, providing little room for error as the series moves on to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on March 11.

Amid the pressure of the championship chase and the added spotlight on his record-breaking rides, it was a nice weekend for Tomac to visit his home-away-from-home.

“I suppose the best way to put it, is it just feels like home to me. I practice on pretty loose soil [in Colorado]. It’s not that sandy, but it’s somewhat close,” Tomac said. “That’s the only thing I can really put it to, is I literally feel at home at this place.”