Anderson Looks to Bright Days Ahead Following Brainerd Outing
BRAINERD, Minn., August 23, 2015 – Greg Anderson came to Brainerd and the 34th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals with high hopes, particularly as he has been on such a different page this season after a troubling end to 2014. Brainerd is home for Anderson, who grew up in Duluth, Minn., and he wanted to make his home crowd proud. His performance this weekend certainly outshined what happened in Brainerd last year, but he truly had hoped for more. Anderson qualified in the top half but exited two rounds earlier than he had wished.
“We aren’t that far off, but in this class, a couple hundredths is everything,” said Anderson, now No. 2 in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock points. “We have to get that couple hundredths back, and then the driver has to do a good job. We have to get the car back to its happy spot, and the driver has to get happy, too. We’ll get there.”
Starting from the No. 8 position, Anderson was quicker on the starting line than Jonathan Gray in the first round, and it mattered at the finish line stripe as the two posted identical 6.578-second elapsed times. Anderson, whose time came with a speed of 209.36 to his opponent’s 210.05, won the round by .008-second. In the second round, he came up against Jonathan’s big brother, Shane Gray, who defended his family’s honor with a 6.561, 211.39 defeat of Anderson’s 6.581, 209.98.
“We’re going to go home and regroup, and then we’re going to go test,” said Anderson. “We’ve kind of gone off the rails. We definitely lost some of the tune-up with my car. Jason [Line, Summit Racing teammate] had a car that ran well all weekend, so we’re going to figure out why mine didn’t. We’ve got a big race at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indy, and it’s my favorite race of the year. I’m still confident and happy, and I’m still excited – we just have a few things to fix before Indy. The good news is that we have a little time. We haven’t been able to test for a while with the Western Swing and all the races leading up to that, so thankfully we have a week off to go home and do this.
“It’s fun this time of year. It’s so much better than it was last year for me, and you know, I love coming up here to race in front of our friends and family in Brainerd. You love to put on a good show for them, and we just weren’t able to do that last year. This year, I’m a little let down we didn’t do a great job, but the Summit Racing team got a car to the final round with Jason, and next race out, we can go and win the race. We feel positive. Things are good for the KB Racing team.”