CHANGES PROMPT ANDERSON TO THINK ABOUT END OF HIS CAREER

by Susan Wade    Tue, 2021-04-20 19:53

 

One day, it seems, four-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson was grooving along, comfortable in his ability to accumulate victories. (He just added another, his 95th, on his 60th birthday last month at the season-opening Gatornationals.) He was comfortable with teammates and fellow champions Jason Line and Bo Butner, as well as with his competitors. He still was at least one of the class dominators, secure in his Summit Racing Equipment banner-carrying at KB Racing.  

But all of a sudden, he looked around and the landscape was different. Line and Butner stepped away from their driving duties. He didn’t win any one of the 11 races last season – while Matt Hartford and Aaron Stanfield won in Texas and were runners-up at other races, as were class rookies Troy Coughlin Jr. and Kyle Koretsky. His chief rival, Erica Enders, was gaining on his legacy with her fourth series title. And his longtime Summit primary sponsorship evaporated, leaving him to chase new funding sources.

 Anderson’s world in 2021 definitely is different. But he’s rolling with these rather painful – or at least stinging – punches.

“I feel like a senior citizen out here,” Anderson said during qualifying at the Denso Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “It's interesting, though. It's kind of cool to watch these young kids. We all say we need young blood in the class, and we got it now. We absolutely have it. It used to be all old people like me, and now I'm probably one of one or two guys that are older. The rest of them are young. So the class switched, and that’s what it has to do to continue on.

“So it's all good. I'm loving it. I'm liking racing against these young kids,” he said. “They have no fear. They're all starting their careers and like [with] great equipment, which we couldn’t say that when we started. We had to claw and scrape just to get in a car period, and it certainly wasn’t competitive enough to win a race. And now it's like all these young cats, they’re jumping in race cars that are at the top of the performance chain and they can go out and win a race right away. Completely different deal, but it creates a hell of a challenge for an old guy like me. Well, I'm enjoying it. I'm loving it.”

Earning that Wally at Gainesville reassured him.

“So I guess I can still compete with them. It makes you feel good,” he said. “Put it on paper, I shouldn't be able to compete with them. They should be able to kill me on the starting line. So if I can hang near them enough to win a race, I’m still doing all right.

“I've said it for years to the reaction-time thing. It's not a physical thing; it's a mind thing. It's 100 percent a mind game. Ninety percent of this game is a mind game. So you can stack up with them. It just seems like you can't do it every single time like they can. It's easy for them. Unfortunately, the older we get we can still do it. We just can't do it every single time. It's like that song.”

He was referring to Toby Keith’s “I Ain’t As Good As I Once Was, But I’m As Good Once As I Ever Was.”

He said, “That's the glaring difference between myself 20 years ago and now. I can still do it. Like I do it every time.”

Anderson sort of feels like The Lone Ranger in his pit, although the new-guard headliner Koretsky and his Chevy Camaro [with steady funding] literally are just steps from him.

“It’s weird without Jason, no question about it,” he said.

“So things have changed, but I still haven't lost any desire to do it. I still have the desire to do it. I'm still having a ball doing it. I think I'm having more fun now because I know I'm close to the end and there's no guarantee on how much longer I'll be able to do it. You’ve still got to have sponsors. You’ve still got to have funding to do it. So you never know when you’re just not going to have that and you won't be able to do it. So if this is the last year . . . Who knows? If this is the last race or the last year or there's two more years or five more, you don't know. I think that's why I'm enjoying it so much more right now – because you know the end is coming.”

He said Funny Car’s almost-72-year-old John Force – one of the few racers who has more victories than he does – is “he's certainly proving people wrong. But the bottom line is you have to have the funding, and that's getting tougher every year to find the funding to be able to do it. I've got Denso this weekend. Summit is still here but in a minor role. They’re not a major sponsor anymore, so they're still on board and they're still great supporters, but not at the level they used to be. I have to find someone else for the door every race I go to or someone that needs to stay on there all year long is the goal. Hopefully, before long we'll have something that stays on the door the rest of the year. But if we can't come up with that, you never know when your last race, your last season is your last season.”

What would Anderson do if he had to park his car?

“I’d have to stay at my shop and work on engines and work on stuff and just continue rental programs like these,” he said, nodding to Koretsky’s ride. “I’ve got to pay for the house car with sponsorships. It’s just the way it is. If I can continue to do that, I'll continue racing. If I can't, I'll stay at the shop. I won't race a car, but I'll continue furnishing engines and coming to tune race cars. I'll still like it, but it won't be as much of a thrill.

“I honestly think I'm enjoying the driving part more this year than ever because I know I’m getting close to the end of the road,” Anderson said. “But I think even before that [last win] happened I said, ‘You know what? This is fun. If it goes away next month or three months or six months from now. I’m going to enjoy these last six months.’”

Force has 151 victories, and inactive Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson has 97. This season Anderson could surpass Johnson and it’s possible he could reach the 100-victory plateau before year’s end. But Anderson has more pressing matters than reaching his 100th trip to the winner's circle.

“I would love to,” he said, “and that is a goal. I would love to, but if I don't, my life has still been pretty good. That’s certainly my goal.”

 

 
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