NHRA

Charlotte: Matt Smith final report

SUZUKI RIDER SMITH'S CONCORD DAY ENDS IN FIRST ROUND CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 20, 2009) - Riding the Nitro Fish Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle for Don Schumacher Racing, Matt Smith, of nearby King, N.C., exited early today at the NHRA Carolina Nationals ...

Edited: Oct 8, 2009, 2:28 AM

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

SUZUKI RIDER SMITH'S CONCORD DAY ENDS IN FIRST ROUND

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 20, 2009) - Riding the Nitro Fish Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle for Don Schumacher Racing, Matt Smith, of nearby King, N.C., exited early today at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in his first-round match-up against Steve Johnson.

Johnson came out the victor with a 7.088-second pass at 186.02 mph to Smith's quicker but losing 7.072/184.95.

With the new points system in place for the Countdown to 1 playoffs for the top 10 in the rankings, which began at this event, Smith is now in sixth place.

"The only positive thing that came out of today is we didn't crash the bike and we didn't blow the motor up," said a disappointed Smith, who entered this event fourth in the standings. "Red-lighting just kills you and being late kills you, but it's part of our sport. It's so disappointing. And it's been a challenge to get the Suzuki to perform consistently.

"We're going to check to see if we can test here tomorrow," added Smith. "If we can, we'll test. We don't want to give up this championship just because we can't get the bike to run and I can't do my job. I need to work on the tree and Steve (Tartaglia, crew chief) needs to work on the bike. The only way to fix that is to test. That's what we're going to do."

Next up is the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex in Dallas, Sept. 25-27.

-credit: dsr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Read also :

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Previous article SC: Series Belle Rose final summary

Next article Charlotte: Matt Hagan final report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

More from

Matthew Smith



Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories

NHRA

NHRA

Good, bad and ugly dominate Gatornationals memories



Capps, Line, Savoie take titles; Kalitta, Johnson Jr., Anderson, Smith earn wins

NHRA

NHRA

Pomona II

Capps, Line, Savoie take titles; Kalitta, Johnson Jr., Anderson, Smith earn wins



Brown earns Top Fuel title, Force takes Funny Car win

NHRA

NHRA

Las Vegas II

Brown earns Top Fuel title, Force takes Funny Car win

Latest news



Max Verstappen slams “unacceptable” bumps at Austin F1 track: “It's out of control”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

Max Verstappen slams “unacceptable” bumps at Austin F1 track: “It's out of control”



Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP



How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

3 h

How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV



Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Talladega II

3 h

Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts

Subscribe