NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

For the riders and crew of Matt Smith Racing, the launch of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship isn’t just another line on the calendar — it’s a reset, a psychological gearshift from a season of data collection into a sprint for the title.

After a grueling regular season that saw nine events’ worth of experimentation, the team is embracing a new mindset: every round matters, every point matters, and the room for error has vanished. The shift is tangible in the staging lanes. Angie Smith has a new engine under her seat, Jianna Evaristo is riding with newfound confidence, and Matt Smith is orchestrating a controlled chaos of four bikes, including the returning John Hall. Together, they’re aiming to turn preparation into domination — and to become a formidable threat to the seemingly untouchable Vance & Hines duo at the top of the Pro Stock Motorcycle mountain.

Mindset Shift: “Every Round Counts”
Angie Smith explained that the atmosphere of the Countdown is unlike anything else on the schedule:
“Indy’s the biggest race of the year, so everybody wants to win that one. But yes, the mindset does change because every single round counts. I feel like we did a lot of testing the regular season. When I say every round counts, I mean every qualifying round, every run counts because you get bonus points and everything — so hopefully you don’t have any bad runs. The mindset does change.”

Those words frame the mental pivot the entire team is making. In the regular season, they could afford to try new parts, play with setup combinations, and bank data for later. Now, each pass is a statement. There are only 24 rounds left to decide the championship, and a single mistake can erase months of effort.

A Four-Bike Armada
When the Smith team pulled up to the staging lanes at Maple Grove Raceway, they didn’t arrive like a pair of bikes sneaking into battle. They rolled in like an army. Angie and Jianna rolled in side by side, helmets off, eyes locked forward. That presence isn’t accidental — it’s part of the strategy. The way the two pulled up the lanes, they looked like an army. You could feel their arrival.  “That’s why I’m always following [Angie] around everywhere,” Evaristo laughed. 

Behind the scenes, Matt Smith thrives in what  Angie jokingly calls “controlled chaos.” With four bikes — his own, Angie’s, Jianna’s, and John Hall’s — he can diffuse his tendency to overthink by spreading his mental bandwidth across the fleet.

“If it’s only just me and him, two bikes, he tends to overthink a lot of things,” Angie said. “He would rather just be… he’s controlled chaos.” This dynamic keeps Matt’s engineering instincts sharp without bogging him down in the tunnel vision that can come with a smaller program. It’s a juggling act that few could manage — but one that could pay massive dividends in the next six races.

Jianna Evaristo: Calm, Clear, and Ready
For Jianna Evaristo, the Countdown marks a psychological turning point. She described feeling a new calm — a clarity born from securing her playoff berth and knowing the only thing left is to execute.

“It’s kind of weird. I mean, I feel really good this race,” Evaristo said. “Like Angie said, there’s so much pressure because Indy’s the biggest race of the year. It’s the last race of the regular season and now it’s like everything that we worked for, we’re all fighting for the championship.

“We secured our spot, and now it’s pretty much just go time. So I mean, there is, you know, a little less stress in the sense of, okay, you’ve made the Countdown. Now you can really just focus on racing. But at the same time, you do also have that stress because you are in the Countdown. There is no room for error anymore. Everything was testing before, learning as much as we can, and now pretty much it’s all or nothing here.”
That mental balance — feeling less burdened yet more focused — could be a secret weapon. If she channels that clarity into sharp reaction times and clean laps, she could play spoiler in the points shakeup.

A Measured First Strike
Asked about expectations for the first qualifying session of the Countdown, Evaristo kept her response measured, showing the maturity of a rider who knows championships are won by stacking small victories: “Right now our first qualifying run is just do everything I can to do my job, make a really good clean run A to B. That way we can get the right data, that way Matt can go back and pretty much make the runs that we need to run throughout the rest of qualifying.”
It’s a textbook approach — gather clean data early, let the tuner work his magic, then unleash the full performance as conditions tighten up later in the weekend.

The Maestro
While the rest of the team fields media and suits up, Matt Smith himself is conspicuously absent from the pre-session chaos. This, too, is by design. Angie revealed his pattern: “He’s always the last to come up. He does all of our [calibration] maps and things first, and then it gives him the time just with nobody in the pits just to do his map, think about it. And he’s probably on his way up now, but he’s always last.”

And when we caught up with Matt moments before he headed to the line, he offered a window into what those final quiet minutes look like:
“I’m just watching the weather as much as I can,” Smith said. “Watching the cloud cover come in — it immediately made the water grains go up just a little bit, the temperature got cooler, and the air got a little bit better. So just trying to watch as much as we can.”

Would those changing conditions prompt a last-minute tune-up for his riders?
“No, they’re close enough. I’m just nitpicking mine,” he explained. “It gives me a reference so I can see how I did based on theirs.”
That balance of caution and confidence is classic Matt Smith — analytical, but never panicked. And his confidence in the team’s preparation is rooted in hard work since NHRA U.S. Nationals: “We’ve worked a lot since Indy on Angie’s bike,” Smith said. “We’ve struggled with her bike all year long, so we built her a new motor. It’s all new stuff — it dyno’d good. So this is the first lap down the track with it, and we’ll see what happens.”

Countdown Pressure, Championship Potential
With a fresh engine in Angie’s bike, a razor-sharp Jianna, the veteran savvy of John Hall, and Matt’s relentless drive anchoring the group, the Smith Racing camp enters the Countdown looking energized and dangerous. They know the math: six races, dozens of rounds, and every point matters.
The pressure is suffocating — but for this crew, it’s also liberating. Gone is the luxury of testing. What remains is the purity of competition: lights out, full throttle, and no second chances.

Coming in to Saturday

Matt Smith — Strong Title-Caliber Form

Position: 2

ET / MPH: 6.753 @ 200.95

Smith is sitting solidly in the No. 2 position, just .008 seconds behind leader Gaige Herrera.

Breaking into the 200-mph zone confirms that his tune-up is sharp and his new Countdown combination is coming together.

He’s in a prime position to challenge for the top qualifying spot during Saturday’s final sessions.

Angie Smith — Top-Five Contender

Position: 5

ET / MPH: 6.806 @ 198.41

Angie is holding down a solid top-five spot, less than a tenth off the leaders.

This marks a significant improvement compared to her early-season form, and suggests her new engine package is settling in well under Countdown pressure.

She’s positioned well to advance into the 6.7s with more track data.

John Hall — Mid-Pack With Speed Potential

Position: 10

ET / MPH: 6.868 @ 199.17

Hall is mid-pack but notably just a few hundredths away from the top half of the field.

Nearly cracking 200 mph shows the bike has power; they’ll just need to clean up the early part of the run to climb the ladder.

With some fine-tuning, he’s capable of moving up several positions on Saturday.

Jianna Evaristo — Need to Get a Clean Pass

Position: 15

ET / MPH: 14.394 @ 52.09

Evaristo is currently at the bottom of the qualifying order.

The 52-mph trap speed suggests she shut off early or experienced a major mechanical issue.

She’ll need a clean, full pass in Q3 or Q4 just to make the field and have a chance at earning Countdown points.