Matt Smith won his fourth race this season aboard the Nitro Fish Pro Stock Motorcycle Sunday before his sponsor Kenny Koretsky’s hometown crowd, defeating Angelle Sampey in the title round of the Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
Clay Millican, making his first POWERade Series appearance in six months, drove the Nitro Fish/Hope4Sudan Top Fuel dragster into semifinals before losing to eventual race winner Tony Schumacher. Millican upset J. R. Todd and Morgan Lucas before losing the Schumacher, who went on to win his fifth straight race.
And Richie Stevens, at the controls of the Nitro Fish/Indicom Electric Pro Stock Pontiac GXP, came within six-thousandths of a second of beating Justin Humphreys in the first round.
Stevens left the starting line first—. 052 to. 064 – but couldn’t hold off Humphreys, who won with a run of 6.652 seconds at 207.43 mph to a 6.670 at 206.64.
Stevens took the blame. “I left on him but it wasn’t enough. He left the door open for us to get the round win but I didn’t walk through it. I just should’ve been better.”
Mechanical problems prevented Stevens from making his two Saturday qualifying sessions, but crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia and the team fixed the trouble before eliminations.
“I thought the car ran pretty good,” added Guarnaccia. “We are making laps and Richie is getting comfortable in the car.”
The team plans to test at St. Louis prior to the next race, the Mac Tools U. S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Aug. 29-Sept. 1.
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