JIANNA EVARISTO Enters Seventh NHRA Season After ‘Rough’ 2025 Campaign

March 3, 2026

• JIANNA EVARISTO is gearing up for her seventh NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season with Matt Smith Racing after what she frankly calls a “rough” 2025 campaign. Her 9-14 elimination record and seventh-place points finish weren’t what anyone expected, but we love her honesty about the struggle. The team spent the offseason grinding on the dyno, hunting for more horsepower because sometimes you’ve got to go back to the drawing board.
• What’s remarkable about EVARISTO’s journey is how she found her way to two wheels despite growing up in a Top Fuel family. Her father Mike won NHRA national events, sister JASMINE SALINAS races Top Fuel, but JIANNA didn’t even touch a motorcycle until she was 19 because her dad knew how dangerous they were. She chose the freedom of two wheels over being “strapped in a car,” and frankly, we respect that self-awareness about what makes you tick.
• The mental game is where EVARISTO really shines, leaning on the championship experience of Matt and Angie Smith to develop her perspective on success. She’s building toward bigger things with a “small wins lead to big wins” philosophy, and her career-best fifth-place finish in 2023 proves the trajectory is there. More importantly, she and JASMINE recognize they’re role models in a sport where women racing alongside men is just normal – something other motorsports could learn from.

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