Sat, 19 Sep 2009, 10:14 PM Smith Snags No. 8 in Concord Qualifying

Courtesy of Judy Stropus

CONCORD, N.C. -- Matt Smith rode the Nitro Fish Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle to the No. 8 qualifying position for the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway today, posting his quickest pass of 7.058 seconds at 182.18 mph in today's third qualifying session.

His other passes were a 7.468/179.16 (No. 16), 7.069/183.49 (No. 7), and a 7.060/186.48 in his final attempt.

Smith, from nearby King, N.C., was not able to earn any bonus points this weekend awarded to the top three qualifiers (three, two, one) in each of four rounds, and will face No. 9 qualifier Steve Johnson in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

"We didn't get qualifying points like we wanted, but we'll try to race well on Sunday and see if we can make it up there," said Smith, fourth in the Countdown to 1 playoffs point standings.

"We just struggled with the tune-up here. Everybody is missing it; it's not just us. It's so humid here and when it's this humid the engines have a hard time making power. That's the big problem we're having and so is everybody .

"We probably should have been here doing a lot of testing so we'd have had an upper hand. We'll just do what we can to make the Nitro Fish Suzuki perform well on Sunday and do our best to win the event."

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