Matt Smith joined an exclusive club on Nov. 13.

Smith became only the third Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to win six NHRA world championships – joining Andrew Hines and the late Dave Schultz.

Smith clinched his latest title by advancing past the first round of the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif., against Michael Phillips. By the end of the day, Smith advanced to the semifinals and beat Joey Gladstone by 82 points for the world title.

“Michael Phillips started this morning at driver intros, and it went the whole time up until we got on our bikes,” Smith said. “He followed me everywhere, just blabbing, blabbing, blabbing, blabbing the whole time. It was to the point that it was getting annoying, but I didn't lose my cool, I just let him talk and I just ignored him. But all in all, this Denso bike's awesome this year, Angie (Smith, his wife) has got a great bike. We took my motor out from the last two races and put it in her bike, because we had a shot of being one and two in points and I think we missed it by 12 points from being one and two in points. But hats off to her, she's had a heck of a season, three final rounds, I think, this year and winning the last race. We won four races and won the championship. Man, to be the only Pro Stock motorcycle that's won every Camping World Championship so far is pretty amazing.”

Smith has now won world crowns in 2007, 2013, 2018, 2020-2022.

“If you look at my 2007 championship, we had Torco and then they bailed out the next year. Then in 2013, we won the championship, and we had a Viper in there and then they bailed out. People don't realize how much effort you have to put into Pro Stock Motorcycle with R&D and development,” Smith said. “We don't get to do vacations over the wintertime. When I get home from this race, we work harder than we do all year long, up until Gainesville. For Denso to come on board with us, it shows what a sponsor can do. For a team that is low-funded and then we get a good sponsor, and they stick on board with us, it shows what we're capable of. To have Lisa and Denso and Lucas Oil to step with us and to do this is amazing, because we couldn't do these last three championships without Denso, period. I'm proud to be associated with them, I'm proud to represent them, and they're great for NHRA, they're great for our sport, and they're great for our team.”

Smith, aboard his Denso/Stockseth/Matt Smith Racing Buell, defeated Phillips, and Marc Ingwersen before losing to Gladstone in the semifinals. He finished the season with a 31-11 elimination round record.

Smith has competed against Andrew Hines for years, but he never raced against the late Schultz. Schultz passed away on Feb. 10, 2001, following a six-month battle with colon cancer. He was 52.

“Yes, I knew Dave Schultz,” Smith said. “I was really good friends with his son, Brian. Back in AMA Prostar, me and Brian hung out a lot. I always looked up to Dave, he was the best out here. Just to have my name associated with him and Andrew Hines, to tie them for the most all-time championships in NHRA is amazing, and hopefully I'm not done. I turned 50, but I'm not done yet. I'm going to continue this and maybe go above and beyond and get a seventh championship sometime. But our goal right now is focus for next year's is to develop this Suzuki program, get it better, and try to come out here next year on a Suzuki and win a championship.”

Matt did take a moment to discuss how good it felt to see Angie win on Sunday and finish a career-best third in the points standings and see the progression of Jianna Evaristo.

“It's been great,” Matt said. “Angie went through a tough time there, five, six years ago, in her career of riding and all that and we pulled her through that, and Jianna's the same way. She's gone through a tough time with two wrecks and really, the offseason wreck really hurt her pretty good, and for her to come back in and do what she's done from Indy until this race. We don't know what happened to her bike here. I think her bike and Eddie Krawiec's bike rode in the same trailer coming here, because they both developed something that we can't figure it out yet, so we'll get back and strip her bike down and get it all back ready.

“We've got four test sessions planned for her over the winter and we've got another bike for her, so she's going to be riding two different bikes through the winter and we're going to give her a lot of laps. My goal for her next year is to come out here and have a top 10 bike, to be able to come out here and race for wins just like we are doing right now. Like I said, we're going to develop this Suzuki program and I promise you, we've got some new parts and we're going to be fast with it next year.”