Pro Stock veteran Greg Anderson recorded his 100th victory with his seventh U.S. Nationals triumph three weeks ago.    

He’s in exclusive company, with just John Force’s seemingly unmatchable standard of 155 victories on the NHRA’s professional side. Sportsman racers Frank Manzo (105 national events), Dan Fletcher (104), and David Rampy (100) also have reached or surpassed the 100-victory plateau.    

But at least in the pro ranks, it might be a long time before any driver earns 100 or more victories. Five active racers (Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, Ron Capps, Robert Hight, and Steve Torrence) have 50 or more victories. Doug Kalitta and Eddie Krawiec both are on the doorstep of 50. And Angelle Sampey has 46. Those drivers have combined for 27 championships and multiple NHRA records. Still, earning 100 victories is an extra-special accomplishment.    

And it took Anderson nine years, from his debut in 1998 to the second Las Vegas race in 2007, to get just half of that.    

Tony Schumacher, the eight-time Top Fuel champion, has the next best chance to reach 100. He heads the all-time class list with 86, so he’s 14 away from triple digits. Although he, along with Anderson, owns the NHRA record for most victories in a season (15), that’s a big ask these days, considering the strength of today’s competition.    

“We're not going to do it this year here. Competition is insane right now. It's as good a competition as I've ever seen,” Schumacher said. “Back in ’99, when there was [Joe Amato] and [Kenny] Bernstein and we got to Indy, there were 10 people that could leave Indy – pre-Countdown – with the points lead. And we were one of them. We had the lead. We left with the lead. We never lost it all year. But the competition was insane – and then it was a little different for a bunch of years. There were two or three cars. It ain't like that. This is throwdown, man. We're not running at the level we were running then.    

“Brittany is,” he said. “But we're on our way. I've been doing this a long time. We're always one run away from having a good tune-up. We'll find it, and we'll win races,” Schumacher said.    

He’s 52 years old – young compared to Force’s 73, the recently retired Chris Karamesines’ 90, Gary Densham’s 76, and the 60s of at least 14 regulars on the pro tour. The question is at what point will he choose to retire? He doesn’t know – but he knows that decision won’t be based on how close to the 100-victory mark he is.    

“Will I get to 100? I believe so. I'm going to be out here for a long time,” Schumacher said. “I don't have a goal of winning 100 or 300. I don't know. I'm out here to win this race, and from that we'll try to win the next one that we can win.    

“But we’ve surpassed so many great milestones that I'm not going to stay out for a year or 10 years because I'm at 99,” he said. “Those milestones fall in time if they're meant to. If we get to 99 and we don't get that, it isn't going to break my heart. We've had so many great ones. Let's just win this race and this championship. Let's please the people that are on our car right now.”    

Funny Car’s Capps, the two-time and reigning champion, and Top Fuel’s Brown, the three-time champion, each have 70 victories. (They include wins in other pro classes – Capps has one Top Fuel trophy, and Brown has 16 in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category.) But how long it might take them to record 30 more victories is uncertain, especially considering both have hinted that they might enjoy stepping from the driver’s seat at some point and developing fresh talent as owners of their own newly formed organizations.    

For Schumacher, Capps, and Brown, the stars would have to align perfectly with personnel, equipment, and technical and performance environment. So Anderson might be the last one in quite awhile to achieve 100 victories.    

Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders, Anderson’s chief rival, said, “Greg’s had an awesome career, and we're definitely happy for him to finally secure that 100th win he's been attempting to do a lot of places. And I'll just say that we kept him out of that position for about as long as we could.”    

She has 40 victories, six behind Pro Stock Motorcycle three-time champion Angelle Sampey for the most among women racers. Even as she opened the Countdown with a victory Sunday at Reading, Pa., to achieve that, she said, “We’re 60 freaking wins shy of Greg Anderson. It’s just monumental numbers. It's crazy.    

“Somebody asked me the other day about going for 100. I don't think I want to do this that long,” Enders said. “My entire career has been a blessing, and it's just been a short time of the 18 years I've been racing.  . . . We only started to have some success starting in 2012, so we've only really been at it for 10 years. And I think that the sky is the limit.”    

However, she said, “It's extremely difficult to just win one race. And that's something that we talk about on the radio’s race car before I hit the starter button and head into the finals: ‘You got to make it count, because being here is so hard and you got to just do your best, make as few mistakes as possible, and execute perfectly.’ So, it's super-challenging to be in the position. And I remember when I started finally winning some Pro Stock races, just starting in 2012. I remember looking at Angelle, she's the one that has the most national-event wins for a female in our sport. I think it's 46. And we're knocking on the door of that. Back then I thought, “Oh my gosh, that's absolutely impossible.’ So I think you can look at it both ways.    

“It's definitely a dogfight out there,” Enders said, “and it's really hard to win rounds, let alone races. So I'd say getting to 100 is extreme challenge, for sure.”    

Anderson knows that, too.    

He said, “I’m certainly coming close to the end of my driving career. I’m 61 years old. I’ve got to be realistic. You can’t compete with the Dallas Glenns and all these young guys. As even as the cars are, you can’t get it done much longer. I don’t think I’m done. I think I’m going to get a few more [victories]. And I’m not going to quit until I can’t win anymore. But I know that’s coming.”    

Robert Hight, won the Funny Car trophy at Reading to expand his points lead, and he said “No one's going to catch John Force. It's just not going to happen. As a competitor, I hate even saying that, because you always want to be the best and end up No. 1, but it ain't going to happen. It's impossible. So, (Ron) Capps and I are battling out for second and Hagan's coming up, too. I mean he's got a lot of wins (42). If you could finish your career No. 2 in all-time wins and No. 2 in all-time championships, that's a pretty strong career.”    

Reading Top Fuel winner Austin Prock earned his first victory at Seattle in 2019 the same day John Force recorded No. 150. With the Countdown opener just his second overall victory, Prock wasn’t ready to make any predictions for himself, whether he could win 100 races.    

“It’s hard to tell. I mean, it took me about four years to get two,” he said with a laugh, “but you could get on a hot streak. We could go win the last five out of this deal, so we'll see. There's no telling. But the 150-plus wins that Force has, I mean that's unreal. He's been doing it so long and back in the ’90s, when he was just absolutely dominating, like, that's just not plausible anymore. There are so many good cars, so many good drivers. It's dog eat dog.    

But if he had to say yes or no to the possibility, Prock said, “Yeah, I believe so. But you never know. Who am I to say?”