In the opening round, he defeated Michael Phillips with a round-quickest 6.907-second lap and top speed (at the time) of 192.55 mph. In the second round he dismissed Matt Guidera on a holeshot with a 6.952/188.46.

He then faced eventual event winner Craig Treble in the semifinal round. Smith rode the Suzuki to the quickest elapsed time of the event of 6.904 seconds at 191.87 mph, but Treble crossed the finish line ahead of Smith with a slower but winning 6.961/191.81. Reaction times: .104 for Smith (.000 is perfect), .033 for Treble.

Smith moved back into second place in the standings.

With the final qualifying session on Saturday rained out, Smith was unable to improve his qualifying time and ended up 10th when he experienced a tire problem in that final third round. "We had the new engine in for Saturday and we only got to make that one pass and that tire problem pushed us to the wall and I couldn't get it back.

"We just changed tires and we went out there and flew today. I had a good light first round, an .03; second round I had an .01. We saved it there because we got outrun. And third round we ran fast again and I didn't do my job.

"Can't blame anybody but myself. I'm pretty down about it, but, on a positive note, I think we have the Suzuki back running again like we did the first of the year.

"We moved back into second place, and that's great," said Smith. "But, we want to win. That's all there is to it. The points are the big picture. We know it doesn't matter what happens the rest of the year, because we'll be there for the Countdown. We're high in the points, so we'll be there.

"But, we have to get a win under our belts. I don't know if we're putting more pressure on ourselves than what we should be doing, but the simple fact is that I made a mistake today and it was my fault and I take full blame."

Next up is the NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, June 26-28.

Courtesy of Judy Stropus