CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
AAA TEXAS NHRA FALLNATIONALS
TEXAS MOTORPLEX IN ENNIS, TEXAS
RACE RECAP AND DRIVER QUOTES
OCTOBER 20, 2019

Chevrolet Camaro picks up 199th Pro Stock victory

Greg Anderson wins Pro Stock in all-Chevy final
Robert Hight extends Funny Car points lead
Brittany Force, Austin Prock set track Top Fuel records

ENNIS, Texas (October 20, 2019) – Greg Anderson and Jeg Coughlin Jr. have faced off 102 times, including 21 in the final round of a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock event.

This time, the win light came on for Anderson, who prevailed by five-thousandths of a second in the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals. Anderson, driving the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS, ran 6.609 seconds to defeat the No. 1 qualifier and collect his 94th career victory.

“It’s big. I not quite sure anybody saw me coming today. I think a lot of people wrote us off after the last race, including me,” Anderson said. “Great day for Summit, Greg Anderson, KB Racing. Thank you to everybody who helps us, Chevrolet. We’re back and it’s not over yet.”

It’s the second consecutive race in which the No. 10 qualifier won, and the first time the four-time Pro Stock champion has won from the 10th spot. Anderson’s victory also marked the 199th victory for a Camaro in Pro Stock history. Bill Jenkins in 1970 delivered the first win. Overall, Chevrolet has 317 wins in the class.

“I remember the 100th win and I think we got that one, so I would love to put that feather in our cap amongst the KB team,” Anderson said.

Anderson and Coughlin, driver of the JEGS.com/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, met in the final 16 years earlier at Texas Motorplex. Anderson also won that meeting. Combined, they have competed in 268 final rounds and have earned nine championship.

The race at Texas Motorplex was the fourth of six in the NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship. Next up is the Dodge NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil on November 1-3 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

John Force, who earned his fifth Funny Car low qualifier honor of the season and 160th of his legendary career, reached the semifinals in the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil/BlueDEF Chevrolet Camaro SS. He moved to four points out of second place.

Teammate Robert Hight, who was coming off his sixth win of the season, qualified second and also made his way to the semifinals in the AAA Texas Chevrolet Camaro SS. Hight, who won the October race at Texas Motorplex in 2018 and ’17, extended his points lead in the class.

Brittany Force, who reset the track Top Fuel elapsed time record and earned the No. 1 qualifier for the eighth time this season, advanced to the semifinals for the second consecutive race in the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet dragster. Force remained third in the standings but closed to 46 points of first-place Steve Torrence.

Teammate and rookie of the year front-runner Austin Prock set the track Top Fuel speed record in the first round of eliminations with a run of 334.40 mph on a career-best 3.688 seconds. Prock, driving the Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster, also fell in the semifinals but moved up to sixth in the Countdown standings.

Anderson needs three wins to tie Warren Johnson for first on the all-time Pro Stock list and second to John Force (151) in all professional categories. Coughlin, appearing in his 109th final, ran past Matt Hartford (The Hose Connection Chevrolet Camaro SS) and Anderson got past Charlotte 2 winner Deric Kramer (American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the semifinals.
Anderson defeated No. 2 qualifier Erica Enders (Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the second round. Enders remains atop the Pro Stock standings, with Hartford moving 28 points behind to second. Coughlin is third.

Randy Taylor of Artesian, New Mexico, advanced to the semifinals of the SAMTech.edu Factory Stock Showdown in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro. Drivers of the COPO Camaro won two of the eight races in the series and recorded a pair of runner-up finishes.

An interview with Pro Stock winner GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (third win of season, 94th of career; first win of career at No. 10 qualifier; 159th final round; five-time winner of FallNationals):

HOW BIG IS THIS FOR YOU?
“It’s big. I think a lot of people wrote us off after the last race, including me. Great day for Summit, Greg Anderson, KB Racing. Thank you to everybody who helps us, Chevrolet. We’re back and it’s not over yet.”

YOU WERE THE DARKHORSE OUT THERE TODAY.
“We had a good race. I not quite sure anybody saw me coming today or would have bet a nickel on me if we were in Vegas like we’re going to be in a couple weeks. You just never know. You can’t give up. I think after Charlotte everybody was throwing dirt on me and saying he’s out, it’s over. But you can’t quit. You just have to be able to take your lumps and get back up. We had a great day and sometimes you do your best when you’re not expecting much out of it.”

WALK US THROUGH YOUR RACE DAY.
“I guess I’ll start with the first round and my matchup with my teammate Jason Line, who certainly had what we considered the best hot rod of the KB fleet for the last half-dozen races and we think has the best chance to find a championship this year. It’s almost a no-win situation which way it goes down. If I lose again it’s depressing because I keep losing first round in the Countdown. If I win, then I’ve knocked his chances of a championship this year. But you have to race and every time we race we lock horns, we go 100 percent. Whoever wins, wins and it doesn’t matter what the stakes are. Luckily, I got the win. Second round Erica Enders. You just have to be perfect against her; everybody knows that. She does a great job of driving the race car. She’s had the fastest hot rod for the last several weeks now; the thing is absolutely on a string now. She’s the favorite right now and to knock her out was absolutely huge. That saved the day for beating Jason first round. It kind of saved his bacon and saved the bacon of a lot of guys who are in the championship contention. I made a lot of friends with that one. Third round against Deric Kramer, who just won the last race. He’s got a great race car and he drives it fantastic. You don’t have any margin for error there either. Thank my lucky stars I came up with another great reaction time and the car made another great run and I won another close race. And who waits in the final round but my old buddy Jeg. We’ve had so many titanic clashes that mean so much, with so much on the line and I knew it would be close. I knew I had to do a great job again in the final, and both of us I think had our worst light of the day. We were basically identical leaving the starting line and my car made a better run, so it’s a total team effort. Sometimes the driver gets the job done. Sometimes the car gets the job done. And we had both today, and that’s what it takes to win a national event in Pro Stock right now. You’ve got to have perfection every time out there.”

YOU TALK ABOUT JASON HAVING THE BEST CHANCE AT A CHAMPIONSHIP. DID YOU FEEL YOU COULDN’T?
“After Charlotte, I’m a realist, and I was 150 points back and my car is not performing anywhere near like Jason’s or Erica’s or Jeg’s and the list goes on and on. I don’t quit; I don’t ever give up. We keep trying, we keep digging and we made a lot of changes this week to give it one last shot and we hit on it. We came here and all of a sudden my red Summit Chevy is fast just like our other team cars are and it’s got a chance. It didn’t show it on Friday but it sure showed it on Saturday, and I knew coming into today I had a race car that had a chance to go for the title. Now it’s just a matter of can I drive the car well enough and somehow the good Lord out his hand on my shoulder today and he let that clutch go at the right time, every time and – sometimes you don’t understand it. I don’t feel like I don’t do anything different every time I’m up there. It seems I try to concentrate as hard as I can and cut a good a light as I can and sometimes they come up .090 and sometimes they come up .003. I don’t understand it; I wish I did. After 20, 30 years of racing you think you’d be able to know, if you’d be able to tell, and I can’t you the difference right now between a .003 and a .040 or .050 light. You just do the best you can and hope that your lucky stars are there and the good Lord turns on a good number for you.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE COMPETITION LEVEL IN THIS CLASS THIS YEAR?
“It’s not just so intense, it’s so deep. There’s so many of them. When we cut off the Countdown to 10, quite honestly there were 12 or 14 cars that could contend for the title. So we cut it down to 10 and there’s legitimately 10 cars that could win any race of the Countdown and contend for the title. The class has never been that deep before by talent and people with a realistic chance to win races and win the championship. I don’t know who’s going to win this thing because everybody can beat everybody else. That’s different than it’s been in years past.”

HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO BEAT ERICA TODAY?
“After what happened first round, beating Jason, that was hugely important amongst my own team. Quite honestly, she’s had the car lately and she could sweep the table. To knock that momentum down and stop her the second round is huge. I hope I can continue this run.”

HOW SIGNIFICANT IS TO WIN THE 199th RACE IN A CAMARO BODY?
“I remember the 100th win and I think we got that one, so I would love to put that feather in our cap amongst the KB team. For us to have a realistic chance at the championship, one of our team cars need to win that event in Las Vegas. It’s (team owner) Ken Black’s home track. It’s where we love to go race and feel we perform very well. I can’t wait to get there.”

COULD YOU ADDRESS THE ISSUE, THE SPECULATION THAT YOU WOULD LOSE TO JASON IN THE FIRST ROUND TO HELP HIM IN THE POINTS.
“It doesn’t matter how many times you prove it, and I feel as a team, Jason and I, we have proved it so many times over the years we’ve gone out there and raced heads up and cost ourselves championships, cost ourselves money, cost ourselves our livelihood. That’s just we are; we have a lot of pride. We’re not built that way; we can’t even think of the word throw a race. It’s not in our DNA and that’s why I think Summit Racing Equipment buys into us and supports us and thinks that’s why we’re the team to represent them. We can sleep at night and feel good at it.”

CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT

TOP FUEL:

BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “Going into first round, this Advance Auto Parts team made some big moves especially when points leader Steve Torrence got taken out and No. 2 Doug Kalitta by my teammate Austin Prock. That opened the doors for this Advance team to pick up some points and catch up. We made it to the semis and would have obviously liked to have gone all the way but I’m not looking down on it. I’m staying positive and we’re still in the hunt for this championship.”

AUSTIN PROCK, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONTANA BRAND/ROCKY MOUNTAIN TWIST CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 7 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team had a solid outing today. My guys gave me an excellent car. We were low of round one and two, got the speed track record, ran a career best ET, and just barely missed it in the semis. We were out front and it got loose on us before the 1/8 mile but we have good momentum going into Vegas. I think we’ll be the car to beat.”

FUNNY CAR:

JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL/BLUE DEF CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We had four cars in the semis today so that’s good for John Force Racing. Robert (Hight) didn’t get hurt and nobody moved on him, I couldn’t even move up but a couple are coming up from the bottom so we have to stay focused and I’m only a couple points out of second. Robert has a sizeable lead; Brittany (Force) is just outside of second and the (Austin) Prock kid moved up so we’ll see how it goes at this next one.”

ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in semifinals on red light): “That’s never how you want to end a race day. That was driver error. We had a great car today; the AAA Texas Chevy Camaro was going to be tough to beat. Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham, they had the right combination to get us another win, carry over our momentum and our set up from Charlotte and I didn’t do my job on the line. I know it happens, sometimes it’s the tune-up, sometimes it’s the driver. Unfortunately, today, it was the latter. The most important thing to focus on is that we are coming away from the weekend with an even bigger points lead than when we entered and with how competitive the field is, that’s a big deal. I’ve said it before, but I really believe this championship is going to come down to the last race of the season, the Auto Club Finals, and it could even be the last day, the last pass of the year that determines this year’s title.”

PRO STOCK:

JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in final): “I feel really confident about the whole program right now. It’s a real feather in the cap for crew chief Rickie Jones and the rest of the JEGS crew. It felt great to run up front. We’ll try to keep this momentum going.”

ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier, fell in second round): “To have our cars (hers and teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr.) be 1 and 2 really means a lot. Our guys have been working really hard. I’m just proud to be part of it. For Jeg to accumulate the baby points if we can’t and knock the other guys back, it helps.

JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in first round to teammate Greg Anderson): “Overall, we’ve got some good cars in the KB Racing camp right now. I’m happy with my silver Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro. I have a lot of confidence in my car. I’m happy to see Greg’s car coming around.”