Starting Fifth, Anderson Anticipates a Tough Battle in Brainerd

 Starting Fifth, Anderson Anticipates a Tough Battle in Brainerd

Event:  31st annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals

Location: Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minn.

Day/Date: Saturday, August 18, 2012

On the strength of a 6.582-second, 210.54 mph pass made on his second attempt on Friday afternoon, Greg Anderson qualified his Summit Racing Pro Stock Camaro in the fifth position for Sunday’s final eliminations of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.  With Saturday’s slightly warmer temperatures preventing any changes among the top qualifiers, Anderson and the KB Racing crew renewed their efforts to learn as much as possible about their new race cars.

Although Anderson was able to record the fifth-quickest pass of the morning session at 6.601-seconds, and concluded his qualifying effort with a representative 6.625-second, 209.52 mph pass, as he prepared for his first-round encounter with No. 12 qualifier Mark Martino, he acknowledged the team was looking to have as productive a day as possible before heading home for some much-needed test sessions.

“There’s no question we were testing today,” said Anderson.  “We were fairly confident we wouldn’t get bumped down, so we tried to see what we could learn about our Summit Racing Camaro.  After all, the start of the Countdown is not that far off, and we need to find a way to make these race cars fast and consistent, so we’re going to keep digging until we get it right.

“For now, we’ll do as much damage as we can tomorrow, scratching, clawing and grinding our way as far into eliminations as we can, trying to come out of here with as good a result as possible.  After that we will beat feet back to North Carolina and spend every possible hour at a track testing before we head to Indy.”