Needing a big result to stay in the championship hunt, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Matt Smith couldn’t have asked for a better Friday, making the best run in both sessions on his Denso Auto Parts/Matt Smith Racing Buell, including a run of 6.822 at 198.70 in the second session. It would be Smith’s sixth No. 1 qualifier this season, but more importantly, he gained four points on leader and defending world champ Gaige Herrera.
That puts him 58 points back of Herrera heading into Saturday and the six-time world champ will look to make another move before a likely must-win situation on Sunday in Las Vegas
“Our mindset this weekend is to just have no bad luck because we’ve had a lot of it lately,” Smith said. “In Reading I had a bad fuel pump and then in St. Louis we lost a crank trigger and in Dallas the bike wouldn’t shift. Those are three races we should have won and that would have been 60 points. We should be leading right now so I’m not asking for good luck. I just don’t want any more bad luck.
“We never quit. I know that I’m No. 2 and we’ve got the second best bike but we’re still in this. I do see this race as must win unless Gaige has some bad luck, which hasn’t happened yet.”
Herrera, the defending event winner in Vegas, is currently second after going 6.846 at 196.99 and Angie Smith took third with a run of 6.850 at 197.59.
Qualifying continues at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday at the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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