Before breaking his 15-race winless drought this season, once-unconquerable Greg Anderson had learned to take it on the chin.
 
He kept his chin up after that Brainerd victory, even though he lost in the quarterfinals at Reading and the first round at Indianapolis and Charlotte for a disappointing start to the Countdown.
 
But at the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Nationals near Dallas, the three-time Pro Stock champion took it on the chin -- and won the event.
 
That Saturday night, he prepared for final eliminations by going to the gym. Instead of working out, he got worked over -- by the chinning bar.
 
"My hand slipped off of it and I kind of tweaked the wrist and whacked me in the chin with the other side of the bar," Anderson said, calling the accident "stupidity . . . flat stupidity."

Before breaking his 15-race winless drought this season, once-unconquerable Greg Anderson had learned to take it on the chin.

He kept his chin up after that Brainerd victory, even though he lost in the quarterfinals at Reading and the first round at Indianapolis and Charlotte for a disappointing start to the Countdown.
 
But at the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Nationals near Dallas, the three-time Pro Stock champion took it on the chin -- and won the event.
 
That Saturday night, he prepared for final eliminations by going to the gym. Instead of working out, he got worked over -- by the chinning bar.
 
"My hand slipped off of it and I kind of tweaked the wrist and whacked me in the chin with the other side of the bar," Anderson said, calling the accident "stupidity . . . flat stupidity."
 
He said, "I hate to even tell the story. It's embarrassing. But I survived and we found a way to win the race."
 
The victory, Anderson's 59th, moved him from sixth place to third in the standings.    
 
"We can't win the championship this weekend," he said at the outset of the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park, "but we could certainly take ourselves out of the running. We bought ourselves some time with that win, and now it's up to us to find some performance. At the very least, we need to continue to keep pace with Mike (current points leader Edwards), and hopefully we'll be able to gain ground on him.
 
"We established some positive momentum we last week, and it's important we maintain it," Anderson said.
 
Anderson and teammate Jason Line have advanced to the final round at every Memphis race since 2003. Anderson has won at the West Tennessee racetrack twice, in 2003 and 2005. In eight career starts at Memphis, Anderson is two-for-three in the final round and has four semifinal-or-better finishes.
 
"Of course, we're pleased to be going back to Memphis, where our team has had so much success," Anderson said. "And it looks like we're going to get a break with the weather. Our engines perform better the closer the atmospheric conditions are to sea level than they do in the hot 95-degree days we faced in Dallas, so the cooler temperatures could be just what the doctor ordered.
 
He said he plans to use the same Summit Racing Pontiac GXP in which he won at Dallas. "After all, it worked flawlessly all weekend," he said, "so it would be foolish to swap right now, even though I know there is nothing wrong with the car I parked."
 
 That has changed his thinking a bit.
 
"I know most of the class doesn't have this mindset," Anderson said, "but we used to think that if we didn't have the best car we probably wouldn't win. However, based on our Summit Racing Pontiac's performance last weekend in Dallas, I guess we proved in spades that we could win without the fastest car, which is a tremendous boost for the entire team.
 
"Would we still rather have the best car? You're doggone right. Are we going to give up trying to make ours the best? Absolutely not – that's why we spent one day this week testing. The bottom line is that it opened our eyes to the fact that even if you don't have the fastest car on the grounds, you can still win. I know 90 percent of Pro Stock already felt that way. Still, it was an eye-opener for us, and gives us added confidence heading into Memphis."
 
Anderson said he knew he didn't have the top-performing car. Mike Edwards did, but in a strange turn of events at the Christmas tree, Edwards lost in the semifinal to Anderson, who went on to defeat Johnny Gray in the final.
 
Neither was Anderson the top-performing driver. He indicated that maybe his aching left wrist actually helped him.
 
"It throbbed and hurt all day long," Anderson said. "I honestly thought getting in that car, 'If I lose, I'll be OK,' because it just hurt so doggone much to drive the car. I guess it took my mind off of worrying about who was in the other lane, how fast his care was, how fast mine wasn't. It just got the mind right."
 
It's not something he wants to repeat, though.
 
"I don’t want to sacrifice a limb every time I go to a race," Anderson said. "I'm not going to break any more limbs -- I need 'em all. It's hard to drive with one (hand), I can tell you that. Not going to try that again.
 
"But it just goes to show somehow that you've got to get your mind clear and stop worrying about who's in the other lane . . . (and) if you're at an advantage or disadvantage -- because boy, it'll tie you in a knot," he said.   
 
That's what he's hoping to do to his competitors. He'll try to win back-to-back races for the first time since last summer, when he won at Englishtown, Norwalk, and Denver.
 
A shoeshine boy on the streets of Memphis reportedly inspired Johnny Cash to write the snappy song "Get Rhythm." Get rhythm when you get the blues. C'mon, get rhythm . . . when you get the blues. A jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine. It'll shake all the troubles from your worried mind. Get rhythm . . . when you get the blues . . . "
 
Anderson had the blues. He's starting to get rhythm. This weekend will tell whether he'll keep the beat.

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