Pro Stock racer Greg Stanfield didn’t believe he could feel any lower than he did when he and the team packed up prior to the final qualifying session in Indianapolis and sat out the session. Their lack of horsepower was evident.

That was until this weekend at the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Tex.

Before the first tire turned under power, Stanfield and the Attitude Apparel team learned that team owner Greg Hill’s granddaughter, Erika Bauermeister, had been killed in a traffic accident.

Stanfield learned that it’s darkest before the dawn. Pro Stock racer Greg Stanfield didn’t believe he could feel any lower than he did when he and the team packed up prior to the final qualifying session in Indianapolis and sat out the session. Their lack of horsepower was evident.

That was until this weekend at the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Tex.

Before the first tire turned under power, Stanfield and the Attitude Apparel team learned that team owner Greg Hill’s granddaughter, Erika Bauermeister, had been killed in a traffic accident.

Stanfield learned that it’s darkest before the dawn.

“It’s a tragic loss,” Stanfield said. “Both Greg and this whole team has been through a whole lot this year. We’ve been unable to get our engine program up to where it needed to be and I felt going into this race that we had our engine program probably about 70% of where it needed to be. We’ve struggled.”

There was a spirit pushing Stanfield and the team as he nosed out a .008-second triumph over defending world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr.

“I consider Jeggie the best in Pro Stock, I used to wear him out in Super Stock,” Stanfield recalled. “I knew going into the final that I was going to have to give it all I had. I was going to lay it on the line, if I was red, I was red. I just wasn’t going to be late like I was in Bristol.”

This weekend marked the second final round of the season, his previous coming in Bristol, Tenn., against Coughlin’s teammate Dave Connolly.

“Emotionally they tell you that kind of stuff doesn’t play out in a driver’s head, but I’m here to tell you it does,” Stanfield admitted. “I had a few people telling me all day that it was going to be my day.”

Stanfield limped into the final spot for the Countdown by fending off seasoned veteran Warren Johnson’s charge in Indy. The former sportsman world champion revealed the team had pinpointed their problem this weekend.

“I’m not going to divulge what it is we found,” Stanfield said. “There were some parts on the car when we blew up the engines. The one last thing we hadn’t changed in the process of elimination was the one thing that picked us up over the top.”

The final-round appearance was Stanfield's seventh in Pro Stock without a previous win – including two runner-ups this year, in Las Vegas and Bristol. Stanfield also has two career victories in 10 Pro Stock Truck finals and seven wins in 12 finals, with wins also in Comp, Stock, and Super Stock, the latter in which he was a four-time NHRA world champ.

“We’re not looking for a championship, if we can keep the wheels on here, we’ll be happy,” Stanfield added.