Matt Smith has broken Gaige Herrera’s stranglehold on NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class – at least in qualifying.

Smith clocked a 6.708-second elapsed time at 201.40 mph Friday on his Buell, and the time held up for him to take the No. 1 qualifying spot at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by Peak Performance May in Joliet, Ill.

Smith collected his first No. 1 qualifier of the season in the third event of the season for the Pro Stock Motorcycle and the 53rd of his decorated career. Smith is a six-time NHRA PSM world champion (2007, 2013, 2018, 2020-22).

“We are really excited,” Smith said. “Like I said Friday, we have been testing a lot and it showed. We are getting better and better. We knew Q4 was going to be a throw-out run, so we put a brand-new tire on to scuff in because you never know when you’re going to puncture a tire or something. So, we scuffed one in, and we were .106 but it shook really hard. But we will put a good tire back on and be ready for racing" Sunday. 

Smith broke Herrera’s streak of 11 No. 1 qualifiers dating back to Denver last season, when Herrera qualified third.

Smith faces No. 16 qualifier Lance Bonham, and he’s not overly concerned about lane choice on race day because of the hot, humid weather in the forecast.

“I don’t know if lane choice means anything,” Smith said. “We like to say we have lane choice, but all in all both (lanes) are really good. I have been .105, .102 and .104 in either lane, so it doesn’t matter. If we got a crosswind or something like that or someone oils down the track, that would be a factor. The track is phenomenal, like normal. This place has always been good to me. I seem to come up here and run really well typically because you have no air and it is always tight, so you can throw everything you can at it and that benefits me, and it is showing.”

Smith, who won in Chicago in 2018 and '19, said his rise to No. 1 qualifier – his first since the Las Vegas fall race in 2022 – has been a team effort.

“It is the total package,” Smith said. “All these people have factored into helping me with this clutch program. We stuck a new clutch in a new ECU after Gainesville (Fla.). We got runner-up at Gainesville (the season opener), and we stripped the bike and said, ‘We are starting over.’ (We did that) because we were not competitive to what Gaige was. Yeah, we were second best, but that doesn’t cut it. We want to be the best and that’s what we did. We went home and stripped everything and put all new stuff on and it took us two races, but we are back to where we think we should be.”

Smith believes his effort has caught the attention of Herrera, who has won 13 races and garnered 16 No. 1 qualifiers since the start of the 2023 season.

“I think he (Herrera) knows that we are there, and it is going to be a good fight,” Smith said. “I heard Jason Logan said he was going to hit the repeat button on the drag race bonanza because Gaige Herrera is going to win. Well, I have something to say about that.”

Herrera’s Charlotte victory was his seventh in a row dating back to last season. That's the second most in the history of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, trailing legend Dave Schultz. Schultz, who passed away from colon cancer in 2001 at age 52, won eight races in a row in 1994.

Smith won two races a year ago and finished fourth in the points standings.

“A win would be huge, huge for Denso, huge for all our sponsors that are onboard with us,” Smith said. “The problem is that every time Gaige has lost in the last year it is because either he made a mistake, or the bike failed him. We want to outrun him. We want to perform better than him and we have done that every run this weekend, just throw out Q4 because we tried some stuff and I told everybody that. We were the best bike here and I think we will be the best bike (Sunday). We will wait and see. (Sunday) is a different day. The track is going to be a little bit slicker, and we will see what happens.”