Anderson Charlotte II final report

Early Exit in Charlotte Has Anderson Eyeing Strong Rebound in Texas

Greg Anderson

Photo by: Ted Rossino

After qualifying second and posting the quickest time in each of the final two sessions on Saturday, Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team came into Sunday’s final eliminations of the O’Reilly NHRA Nationals looking to score their third consecutive win at the Concord quarter-mile, getting their championship defense off to a strong start. Unfortunately a combination of different factors resulted in an uncharacteristically early exit for the four-time champion.

In the opening round, friend and rival Shane Gray was able to gain the advantage at the starting line, and even though it appeared Anderson would be able to chase him down, issues during the run produced a 6.571-second, 205.47 mph pass, which fell just shy of reaching the finish line first. Fortunately, Anderson was able to maintain second place in the Full Throttle championship standings (behind his teammate Jason Line), as several of the other Countdown qualifying drivers suffered a similar fate. Even so, the Mooresville, NC resident expressed disappointment in his premature departure from the event, and looked forward to a strong rebound at next weekend’s race in Dallas, TX.

“There’s two ways we could look at our performance today,” said Anderson. “On one hand, given our early exit, we were extremely lucky to not have dropped further in the points. However, with many of our fellow contenders suffering a similar fate, we could have also strengthened our lead. In either case, we’re just disappointed to have missed out on a golden opportunity. We had the best hot rods we had all year, and the biggest gap we’ve had on the field all year, and we let it slip away. It’s a tough pill to swallow as drivers, but the blame is on us.

“The good news is that we don’t have too long to dwell on it, because we’ll be back on the track in Dallas in five days, and we’ll be taking the same fast Summit Racing Pontiacs with us. To be honest, as well as things had been going for us the last few races, maybe we needed a little wake-up call so we could regroup and come back stronger. That’s the approach I’m going to take moving forward.

“Coming into the Countdown, I had said you could not have a first round loss if you expected to be the champion. After today, it is my goal to prove that I was wrong when I said that. I’ve dug myself a bit of a hole, and it’s time to get myself out, starting next weekend in Dallas.”