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INTERVIEW P118 NHRA PRO STOCK CHAMPION MATT SMITH the race and then we went to Chicago and I was the low qualifier and got beat in the final. From that point on, our team went to 11 finals in 16 races so we had a dominant team from Englishtown on." After the Norwalk victory, Smith climbed to third in the points battle with several more strong finishes, including another runner-up against teammate John Hall in Indianapolis, which gave him the number-two seed when the Countdown began. As much as he tried to focus his attention elsewhere, from time to time Smith couldn't help but recall the bitter end to his 2008 season. He entered the final event of the season as the points leader, but lost the title to Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson's Eddie Krawiec when his battery shorted out. For Smith, who also builds his own engines and works as his own crew chief, it is hard to ignore the mechanical aspects of his S&Spowered Buell. "I guess if I was just a hired rider I wouldn't think too much about these things but I'm not," he said. "I work on these bikes and I know what makes them run and I know their strengths and weaknesses. In 2008, we went to the last race and I just needed to win two rounds and we couldn't do it. That was the year that Eddie won the championship and didn't even win a race. Yeah, that was in the back of my mind this year, Smith believes he will make the transition to four wheels in the next few years. but towards the end we had a big enough lead that I didn't think it would happen again." This time, Smith entered the penultimate race of the season in Las Vegas with a sizable 125-point lead over Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana Jr. With a maximum of 150 points on the table at any given event, Smith didn't need to do much in order to clinch the title, but he took care of business in short order by winning his fourth race of the year. Incredibly, Smith won three of the six events during the Countdown playoffs and compiled a 16-3 record in elimination rounds, the best for any NHRA pro racer. "Before Las Vegas, I wasn't nervous at all," Smith said. "I just knew I needed to basically win two rounds at the last two races in order to clinch and it didn't matter if it was two rounds in Vegas or one in Vegas and one in Pomona. I really wasn't worried about the bike. I was more worried about me doing my job. I just hoped that we didn't have a little $5 part cost us a win. It was just one of those deals where I knew what I had to do and everything fell into place and we ended up winning the race." For most of the year, Smith had the enviable task of campaigning three bikes from his Viper Motorsports stable, including one for his wife, Angie, and one for Hall. Midway through the Countdown, with the championship still very much up for grabs, Smith made a surprising announcement when he added a fourth S&S-powered Buell with rider Scotty Pollacheck, who had abruptly departed George Bryce's Sovereign/Star team. With the addition of a fourth bike Smith somehow managed to juggle his duties as a rider, crew chief and team manager. Some argued that adding a fourth bike was a mistake, but Smith had no regrets about his decision. "You know Scotty was in a bad situation," said Smith. "When he first called me he was so upset that he didn't even want to race anymore and I just made the offer to him. I said, 'Hey I've got a bike here if you want to buy it. It's not

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