Point standings (top 10) following the 54th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series -

 Final round-by-round results from the 54th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series:

Matt Smith still doesn't know what a 200 mile per hour run feels like.  

This is kind of odd considering Smith raced through the traps aboard his Buell at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at 200.56 miles per hour to become the third-fastest Pro Stock Motorcycle rider in NHRA history and rewrite the track speed record. His 6.774 elapsed time was the provisional No. 1 qualifying position.  

Leah Pritchett knows her team is close.

And she hopes to prove that with a strong finish to 2018.

Predictable.

That is the word Tommy Johnson Jr. used to describe his current situation in the anything-but-predictable world of nitro-powered Funny Car racing. But after powering to the provisional top spot Friday evening at the 54th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, potentially his fourth-consecutive No. 1 in the class, it is hard to argue against it.

In the Biblical account of David Vs. Goliath, the results are largely known that the kid slinging a stone knocked out the giant.

Friday morning at the Auto Club NHRA Finals another version of the battle played out during the first round of Stock Eliminator.

With the aid of a seven-second head-start, the "we're not fast but we're slow" 105-inch Ford-powered EF/S Ford Escort of Bill O'Connor matched up with the Factory Stock/AA COPO Camaro driven by Ryan Priddy.

CompetitionPlus.com has learned NHRA is expected to formally announce the series will reduce the number of races for Pro Stock to 18 events in 2019 instead of the widely speculated 16-race tour.

This speculation was fueled mostly by the distribution of a letter to the Pro Stock teams at the NHRA Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas where the sanctioning body informed the competitors it was looking to reduce the number of events for the following season. The letter suggested a 16-race schedule for 2019. NHRA officials acknowledged the memo was to seek feedback before making the final decision.

"While we handed the letter out to those that were on site in Vegas, we also sent the letter to all the participants that were not in Las Vegas," said Josh Peterson, incoming Vice President of Operations for NHRA. "We wanted to make sure we got the letter and the plan in front of everybody to give them the opportunity to get back to us because we hadn’t had the opportunity to see and talk to everybody and between those two events we knew we were not going to be able to.

Steve Matusek was so astonished by the announcement; he didn't even have time to flashback to the days when he started his company developing a product line by working out of his bedroom and the garage.

Matusek prides himself as an attention to details kind of guy, but this detail was so far from reality in his mind that he came to the podium unprepared.

Matusek, the driving force behind the Aeromotive high-performance fuel systems product line, believed having his company named as SEMA Manufacturer of the Year was such a far-fetched proposition that although the company was nominated, he didn't bother to write a speech. "I had a fantasy that one day we could win this," Matusek admitted. "We’ve thought the what if, but really I thought the deck was stacked against us. You had Edelbrock and Hutter, two iconic companies. Edelbrock was a bridesmaid last year to be Manufacturer of the Year."