It is rare to know that you are witnessing history in the moment. Oftentimes, we don’t fully comprehend what a season, a race, or a single run will mean in the grand scheme of the history of the sport until years later.

But Sunday’s showdown between Greg Anderson and Erica Enders had all of the classic markers of a matchup for the ages. Between them, 10 championships. 144 Pro Stock race wins. Four consecutive titles. So it was only fitting that two of the best to ever strap into a racecar closed out the 2022 season in style with another classic matchup in their rivalry at the Auto Club NHRA Finals.

Anderson, fresh off of his historic 100th race win just two months ago, provided a fitting farewell to KB Racing team owner Ken Black who announced earlier in the weekend that he was stepping away from the sport. And he did just that with a holeshot victory over his chief rival to give Anderson the 101st victory of his career.

“It has been an emotional weekend for me. It’s been 20 years of glory to be honest with you. It’s been a hell of a ride with Ken and Judy and the entire Black family,” Anderson said. “They’ve made all my hopes and dreams and fantasies come true. I never dreamt in my life that I could have achieved anything like this, and I couldn’t have without Ken Black. He absolutely made it happen and he was my lottery ticket.

“We had 20 great years together and I loved the man and the family. He has been like a second father to me. So coming down to Pomona, and we’re not going to win a world championship this year, so really the only way that I can possibly even give him a small thank you for all those years is to find a way to win the last race that he attends as a team owner.”

In the final round at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Anderson had a tremendous .020 light and cruised to a 6.516-second lap at 210.31 mph to earn his second Wally trophy of the year in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro. His other win came at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in September.

Enders, meanwhile, had a quicker 6.515 at 210.01 mph in her Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, but had to settle for the runner-up position after an uncharacteristically sleepy .061 reaction time. It was Enders’ 13th final round of the season after clinching her fifth career championship two weeks ago in Las Vegas.

“All the cards fell right today. I felt good as a driver, I had a good weekend of driving and my racecar was fast. It came down to the best way I could have written a story, just like back at Indy. I think these two wins, that Indy win earlier this year where I got number 100 and this one right here to give Ken Black his final trophy, are probably my two biggest wins,” Anderson said. “And beating Erica in the finals, that is always fantastic. I love racing here at Pomona. I’ve been here a lot of times and I’ve made the final a lot of times, but when I go out there and stand on that starting line when I’m not in the final, that’s when I realize how cool it is to race in the final round at Pomona at the World Finals. There’s nothing cooler than what we do when the sun goes down and it gets dark out there for the final round. That’s the coolest time of year and I thought all day, ‘I hope I can get there and experience that one more time.’ And I did and I made it pay off somehow.”

Anderson had a great weekend all the way around qualifying second and collecting wins over Chris McGaha, Bo Butner and Fernando Cuadra. Anderson had a close race with McGaha in round one - a 6.523 to a 6.566 - before suffering a bit of a scare in the second round.

After sending Butner home with a 6.537 at 209.95 mph, Anderson’s chutes deployed late and didn’t fully blossom as he just got his machine stopped short of the sandtrap at the top end.

In round three Cuadra lit the red light, moving Anderson into the finals for the fifth time this season.

Anderson was especially proud of his reaction times throughout the day and attributes his success on the tree to the motivation of getting his team owner one last race win.

“It is almost like I need some sort of extra motivation. I need more on the line. I need it to be more pressure,” Anderson said. “Just like Indy, just like when we got number 100, and just like here; there was more on the line. That meant everything to me, to find a way to give Ken that trophy.

“I’ve done this a long time. I can remember back when I started out racing and I was a young dude who would go eat chocolate bars and I’d drink Coca-Cola and every kind of caffeine you could get before going up to the starting line. As the years have gone by, I don’t do that anymore. I guess I need a new way to get my heart started. Ken did that for me this weekend and you see the results.”

Enders, who earned her third championship in four years this season - with Anderon’s 2021 title splitting those wins - had wins over Mason McGaha, Troy Coughlin Jr. and Aaron Stanfield to reach the final round. Enders amassed 10 wins this season and nearly led the championship end-to-end.

“The way they responded after last year was incredible. What an offseason they had,” Anderson said. “That is what I need to do this year. I’ve got all the pieces in place to make that happen. I’ve got a whole lot of new supporters and I’ve got a new attitude and now you add this. We’ve got four months to cherish this win and then it is back to work.

“Right now I’m going to forget about the fact that we didn’t win the world championship. We won the last race of the year and it was the coolest way to win it. We beat the world champ in the final on a holeshot.”

Wasting little time, Anderson is already talking plans for next year as he and crew chief Rob Downing prepare to take over the KB Racing program with help from others that he is not yet ready to name. Until then, Anderson will get to work preparing the team for a run at the dominant Elite Motorsports team, which finished the year with the top three drivers in the championship standings.

“I’m excited about the future. It’s chapter three for me. Chapter one was Warren Johnson. Chapter two was Ken Black. And now it is chapter three, and I’m very excited about it,” Anderson said. “It’s absolutely going to be everything that we’ve put in place so far going to make this KB Racing team a stronger team in the future. Whether that involves Greg Anderson driving for years down the road or not. This is going to shore up all the shortfalls we have and basically shore up our future and make sure this KB Racing team is out here forever.”