Like he has been during every dominating performance this season, Gaige Herrera was cool and collected as he kept his secret all week.

Everyone wondered who the Vance & Hines Mission Suzuki racer would choose for his first-round opponent in Saturday’s NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Call-Out.

They found out Friday night. Top-seeded Herrera, goaded by Matt Smith to choose him and joining playful Eddie Krawiec in making fans think he’ll pick his teammate in what would be an unusual strategy twist, selected “my buddy” Chase Van Sant.

He said, “I think the two young guys should go at it first round.”

Van Sant said that the fans might see some upsets, and hinted he could be the one to pull off the biggest of the specialty race aboard the WAR Racing Trick Tools Suzuki. He said he and Herrera have had some tight races – and he said to expect some games on the starting line.

Second-seeded Hector Arana Jr., who confessed that he didn’t know until the last minute that he even had qualified for the Call-Out, took Button Trucking Suzuki racer Steve Johnson as his Round 1 foe.

Arana Jr. said he hadn’t decided to choose Johnson until the second qualifying session of the day, minutes before, “right when I was in the lights and there was oil all in front of me. He says he doesn’t do it, but he was the one who went in front of me. And s—t’s sprayed everywhere. I let the clutch go. I’m all over the place. You know, I got my win [at Norwalk] against him. Steve Johnson. Let’s race, buddy.”

Johnson mockingly said, “I’m going home and crying” because the GETTRX Buell rider called him out.

Krawiec, the No. 3 seed, made a devilishly delicious choice when it was his turn. He chose Marc Ingwersen – not because Ingwersen was the weakest of the three left, but because that would force the husband-wife team of Matt And Angie Smith to face each other in the opening round Saturday.

Matt Smith said, “I was hoping Gaige would call me out” after Herrera moments before had knocked Smith out of the day’s No. 1 qualifying berth by a mere one-thousandth of a second.

“I don’t like beating my wife. I could go to jail for that,” Smith said, assuming he will win that match-up. Mrs. Smith might have other ideas. Considering he’s the one who tunes her bike, he has more pressure on him than she has on her. And she reinforced that, warning that if something bad happens to her bike mechanically, he’ll be to blame. They kissed on the podium.

So with kissing, fake weeping, oildown accusations, manipulative strategy, and (seemingly) just a couple of nice young kids plotting against each other, and talk of “wife beating” of sorts, the call-out procedure was like bystander Steve Torrence, the Top Fuel driver, characterized it: “It got pretty juicy.”