There’s no question that the Harley-Davidson team has been dominant in the Pro Stock Motorcycle series this season.

However, on Sunday, Matt Smith, on his Don Schumacher Racing Nitro Fish Suzuki, stole the spotlight from Harley teammates Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines in the US Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

On his final qualifying pass at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, Smith clocked a 6.918-second time to capture the No. 1 qualifying spot. Hector Arana (6.936) and Hines (6.957) are second and third in the qualifying ladder. Krawiec is No. 8 at 7.018 seconds.

Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Monday.

“We have very good success here the last four years,” Smith said. “This is our third No. 1 qualifying position in four years here and we’ve been to three finals. We seem to shine here, and that’s a good thing. We’re looking forward to Monday.”

Smith’s run was even more impressive considering that he damaged the motor on his bike when he lost to Arana in the second round of the Ringers Gloves event Saturday night.

“We hurt the motor when we ran against Hector in the second round,” Smith said. “We lost oil pressure and we lost vacuum. So, Steve (Tartaglia) took the motor out and worked until like 2 a.m. (Sunday) morning. The credit goes to him. When the bike came back out it was a rocket ship.”

Smith was a runner-up in the US Nationals in consecutive years from 2005-2007.

 

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