Matt Smith has won a lot of races. He has collected a lot of poles.

Until Sunday, however, none of those career marks had taken place atop a Suzuki.

With wins and championships aboard nearly all of the top motorcycle brands, Sunday marked the first time in his illustrious career Smith visited victory lane with a Suzuki, driving his Denso Auto Parts bike to a big win over Steve Johnson at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

“I haven’t been this excited to win a race in a very, very long time,” Smith said. “It wasn’t because it was Steve Johnson in the other lane. It is because of the bike that I am on right now. Everybody said I couldn’t go back to Suzuki, I would not win on a Suzuki. We are just out here to prove everybody wrong.”

In a race in which Smith qualified fourth and his wife, Angie, took the pole, the defending class champion went four big rounds ending in an epic showdown with longtime Pro Stock Motorcycle rival Steve Johnson in the final round.

Admitting he was down on power against the two-time race winner in 2022, Smith entered into a bit of gamesmanship against the current points leader. He delayed starting his bike prior to the run to force his opponent to fire first, and then continued the games at the starting line when he lit both of the staging bulbs before his opponent, visibly rattling Johnson.

Forced to play catchup, Johnson was late on the tree as Smith used a starting line advantage to win on a holeshot with a 6.842-second pass at 198.35 mph. Johnson crossed the stripe just behind with a quicker 6.786 at 198.06 mph to take the runner-up position.

“Steve has been out here a long time and everybody knows what he likes to do. He likes to stage first. He likes to start (his bike) last. I made it a point that since he had the better bike, I had nothing to lose,” Smith said. “If they kicked us both out because we don’t want to start our bikes, I’ve already got second, I wasn’t going to worry about it so I made him start his bike first. And I was right there at the beam when I got (the bike) straight and I knew he loves to stage first, so I knew I had to roll it in about 10 inches and that is what I did. I double-bulbed him and I think that threw his game off.”

Sunday’s win was the 33rd of Smith’s career as the five-time champion moved into a tie for fifth on the all-time Pro Stock Motorcycle win list with the late John Myers.

Smith added round wins over Chris Bostick, Jim Underdahl and Eddie Krawiec to reach his second final round of the season. Impressively, in those three round wins Smith was behind on the tree in all three, using bracket-like passes of 6.871, 6.860 and 6.868 to advance to the final round in the fourth race of the season in the category.

Johnson had wins over Lance Bonham, Karen Stoffer and Marc Ingwersen to reach his third final in four races. Still, despite the loss, Johnson continued to flex his power as one of only two drivers to dip into the 6.7-second zone on race day.

After the race, Smith reflected on the rivalry that has been budding between the two competitors stemming back to a comment he made referring to Johnson as a “hobby racer” a few years prior.

“Everybody wants to win, but I do this for a living. I get paid by my sponsors to win races. I don’t have another job. If I don’t perform and I lose my sponsors, then I have to go drive a truck and then I become a hobby racer,” Smith said. “I am out here to be a professional and that is the way that I explain it and that is what I meant. It wasn’t a slam on him. It wasn’t a slam on the class. He took it to another level and he got a lot of attention for it. Good for him. It is a good rivalry right now.

“You always need rivalries out here. It makes the sport better. We are all professionals here, we all have sponsors, you just can’t cross the line and call people names. We can have rivalries, we just need to be professional about everything. With our sponsors, I represent all of them up here, so does my wife. We cannot go out there and call people names and be ugly about stuff like that. We get paid money to win races and that is what I am trying to do.”

Smith went on to note that, while Johnson is running strong now, there are plenty of other drivers in the class to watch, including other budding rivalries that might one day strengthen the class.

“I’m glad to have a rivalry with him, but there are other people we can have rivalries with,” Smith said. “Angelle (Sampey) is fast. Eddie (Krawiec) is coming on. Jimmy (Underdahl) is going to be fast, he is already showing he is fast. I’m just excited to be a part of this program.”

For Smith, he continued to talk about what winning his first race on a Suzuki means to him and his team as he has now won on four different bike brands in his career.

“This has been a goal of mine. I went to four or five finals on a Suzuki early in my career and I never could close the deal,” Smith said. “Then the V-Twins came along. I’ve won on a Buell. I’ve won on an EBR. I’ve won on a Victory. Now I’ve won on a Suzuki. There is only one more brand I can win on and I’ve never got invited to race one of those. I’m truly blessed being able to do what we’ve done. We’ve brought this Suzuki program pretty quickly to the forefront already.

“This is huge. Angie got No. 1 qualifier. Our team did its homework after Charlotte and stayed over and tested. I made eight laps on Monday and we got it closer. We are still not where we need to be yet, but we are closer. I got the little Wally at Charlotte, she got the yellow hat here for the No. 1 qualifier and we got the blue hat for winning the race. All-in-all it was a great weekend.”

While Smith now moves into the top five all-time in class wins and continues to be successful as a self-perceived underdog, he couldn’t help but to take a moment and reflect on his humble beginnings to where he is today as a multi-time champion and a winner with a fourth different motorcycle brand.

“I want people to look back at me and know I was a part of this class,” Smith said. “When me and Mark Stockseth started this program in 2007, we never thought we would win a championship. We just wanted to go out and win a race or two. Now, to have 33 of them and five championships, I’m blessed. I come from a hard working family. We don’t have a lot of money. It takes sponsorship to make this work. We make our stuff look good on TV and make our pit area look good, but in the grand scheme of things we are one of the lower budget teams out here. Angie and I, we work 24/7 in that shop and it shows because we run well.”