By his own standards, reigning NHRA Pro Stock world champion Greg Anderson has not had the best of seasons in 2022.

Anderson has yet to win a race this season or qualify No. 1.

The latter changed Saturday at the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals near Seattle.

Anderson clocked a 6.604-second elapsed time at 208.07 mph to grab the No. 1 spot.

“I absolutely feel the best I’ve felt all year, to be honest with you,” Anderson said. “I guess it is the heat of the race track. It’s tough out there. It is brutal, but my race car acts like it is 50 degrees out there and perfect. For whatever reason it is happy as can be. All three qualifying rides were a joy. The good news I think we have the same weather conditions (Sunday) so I think the car is ready. Now can the driver come through? I hope and pray I can.”

This was the 119th  career No. 1 qualifier for Anderson and now the all-time leader in NHRA Pro Stock wins can take aim at his 100th national event win on Sunday. Because there are only 15 competitors in the 16-car field, Anderson will receive a bye in round one.

“This is absolutely the best Hot Rod I have had all year without a doubt, ” said Anderson, who arrived in Seattle fourth in the points standings. “We have been playing catch up. We’ve been behind the 8-ball. We have not had a race car and a driver prepared to win. Any win prior to this would have been a lucky day to be honest with you. Hopefully tomorrow we can go out there and show that we can earn a win. We can dominate the competition, we can run as good as anyone, and we can drive as good as anyone, and we can find a way to get number 100.”

Anderson had a season-best effort last Sunday in Sonoma, Calif., advancing to the final round before losing to Erica Enders. Enders qualified No. 2 with a 6.608-second elapsed time at 209.26 mph.

“So, about seven days ago, I certainly never thought that things would go this well this weekend,” Anderson said. “But we got home from Sonoma. We took the red eye flight home. We found some things. We found a couple things. And you know, it didn't look like a huge gain, but it looked like a gain. And we thought, ‘Well, we'll see when we get to the race track just what it proves out to be.’ Will it be worth a couple thousands, or would it be worth a hundredth? What will it be worth? And apparently it's been worth more than I thought it was worth. It's been worth 100 to 200, which is big. Which is huge in this class. So, it's put us right back in the hunt, right back in contention for contending for race wins again on Sunday, and showing up at the race track knowing you've got a car that can win.”

Anderson relishes having the Hot Rod he has in Seattle.

“I haven't had that all year, and I've got it again this weekend, finally,” Anderson said. “First time all year. So, I feel great. And now it's a realistic possibility again, that I can find a way to the winner's circle. So it really wasn't all year. So, it is now. Hopefully we can do it here in the great Northwest. It's been three long years since we've been here, and this track is a challenge. It's always a challenge, and especially when it's 95 degrees out there. But so far, the bigger the challenge, the better it stood in my team. So, I'm happy about that, and looking forward to race day.”

Getting to this point is something Anderson saw glimpses of in Sonoma, Calif., last weekend.

“You know, we thought we got a little bit better before Sonoma, but nothing like this,” Anderson said.  “But we really honestly kind of just made the right moves outside in Sonoma, and we got the right person at the right time, the right draw at the right time. We found a way to get to the final and it was a great feeling to finally be back in the final round. So it gives you confidence. It gives you confidence, number one, that you can race again. You can race with these guys. So, that felt great and yeah, I went home and worked for three days straight, and shipped an engine out here FedEx and sweated on Friday that it would show up on time.”

Well the engine didn’t.

“FedEx called and said, ‘We lost your engine,’ and we all had a heart attack,” Anderson said. “But with the race driver you are over at the trailer for about three or four hours, and pretty soon here comes the forklift with the engine on the hook. FedEx didn't even know where it was. And here it was at the race track.”

Now, Anderson, from his No. 1 qualifying spot, is trying to reverse his fortunes.

“We've been getting our butts handed to us all year, to be honest with you,” Anderson said. “The competition is definitely found some things this year, and they've gone forward. They've gone forward big. And we hadn't. So, it was time to knuckle down and start lifting rocks that we hadn't lifted. 

“Yeah, we've definitely done a lot of different things. I've got some different people working with me at the shop these days, and we're looking at different things. We're looking everywhere. And we've given up that belief that maybe we just can't find anymore power in these engines. The Elite team will show you can find power in these engines. So, we dug in harder, and we looked in a place we hadn't looked for a while, and low and behold we found a little bit this week. So, now we'll do the best we can do Sunday. And win, lose or draw we'll go home on a red eye on Monday night, and we'll work for two weeks straight, or basically 10 days straight and hopefully we can go forward with what we learned this last weekend, and pick up some more performance.”