After his quarter-final loss at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, Steve Johnson's anguish told the story without the underdog frontrunner having spoken a word.

The longest of all longshots, Johnson was in the running for a seemingly unreachable championship. Until the telltale loss, he was in contention to win the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship.

After leading the championship chase for two races during the Countdown to the Championship, the first time he'd held the points lead, the self-inflicted bullet wounds to the foot got the best of him.

"I invited a whole bunch of people to my pity party," Johnson said, making humor of a tough situation. "Nobody showed up, though. There's so many different ways for people to compartmentalize."

Johnson was enjoying a career season, claiming two of his three 2021 wins during the playoffs and qualifying on top three times. Still, the instances of disqualification during the semifinals at the NHRA Carolina Nationals en route to a certain victory and another centerline infraction during qualifying at another event burned solidly into his memory banks. Those point losses, Johnson understands, could have turned the tide of the war, a three-way battle between him, Matt Smith, and Angelle Sampey.

"I still loved the experience," Johnson said. "I loved promoting it. I think the NHRA helped us make it exciting. And I know I feel like we, as competitors, did a good job making it exciting. Angelle is always very interesting, and she has a good fan base. And Matt, whether you like him, the three people, or all the people, he brings a big fan base. And then, my mom is definitely tied into my deal.

Johnson went all out in the race for the championship, even going as far as to bring in coaches Larry Dixon Jr. and George Bryce, both of whom have multiple championship experience.

"I learned from the experience, and we'll be better for it," Johnson admitted. "I just hate that we didn't do what we needed to do."

Call Johnson's performance in 2021 a pipe dream, but nothing was unreal about what he pulled off en route to a career-best 26-12 round record. Others believed eventually the clock would strike midnight for Johnson's Cinderella effort.

"In Charlotte, we went at 6.729, t's the quickest Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle ever in NHRA. When I went around that turn, the four of us at the finish line, I heard Matt under his helmet say, 'Well, you finally got one,' or something to that effect."

"I was like, 'Oh, okay."

"Usually everybody says, 'Hey, good run,' if you make a good run. Well, that was like a stellar awesome run and nobody said anything. So, then I looked at the time slip again, sitting on my bike, because the guy gives it to me. And so, I said, "Oh, it's a .763, I bet."

"That's like one of the top 10 quickest runs in history for our class and nobody was doing it. So, I said, we got a good bite."

The sensation of being a frontrunner was still reasonably a new experience for Johnson, who excelled enough in the regular season to finish No. 2 in the regular-season points.

Hokey things happened in the regular season as well, such as the bad fuel issue in Denver where his top run was thrown out and he was replaced by Matt Smith atop the qualifying list.

Unlike the others, Johnson didn't pull a Barney Fife with a shot to the foot this time.

"The screwy deal with the fuel set us back," Johson said. "To this very moment, in this very second and going to my deathbed, we did not touch the fuel. We found out later there, there was a mistake and it was not on our side."

Johnson has learned to adjust to standing on different rungs of the success ladder both on the track and in the pits, where appearance is evidently everything. He's come a long way since his debut at the NHRA Summernationals where his bike was delivered in a crate by a shipping company.

"For those of you that are just tuning it in, we started off with a tag trailer, just like anybody else," Johnson said. "Then I went up to this 30 foot box and then got a top kick. Then, I always wanted a tractor trailer. I'd go in the pits and look at the tractor. And finally we got sponsorship and got a tractor-trailer.

"Now we ended up with a 20 foot trailer. It was the smallest trailer in the pits. And so, to be able to look at that and load it up and put everything we own in there and go to the races and try to be successful. It's like, it was a bit challenging and embarrassing at the same time."

"You don't race the trailers. You race the motorcycles."

Aboard motorcycles is where Johnson has made his biggest impact on the NHRA Camping World Series, but especially in the hearts of drag racing fans.

"I think society roots for the underdog," Johnson surmised.