The accolades aren’t finished for Erica Enders.
On Sunday at the NHRA Nevada Nationals, Enders scored career national event victory No. 48, beating Greg Anderson and put her in the driver’s seat for a fifth Pro Stock world championship.
At Dallas, Enders celebrated being the winningest female driver in drag racing. Yet, she was still tied with Angelle Sampey in professional drag racing wins. Now, she is the undisputed leader thanks to a weekend where she picked up her 10th career victory at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Seriously, the stress level on a scale from one to 10 was nine million,” Enders admitted. “It was kind of do or die. We needed to perform perfectly, and my guys went out there and did just that.
Enders entered eliminations as the No. 2 qualifier and opened with a win over Mason McGaha. She then took out a chunk of the Coughlin family, first by beating Troy in the second round and Jeggie in the semis.
There was a reason Jeggie pulled the parachutes early, and Enders’ comments pointed out both cars were loose at the top end.
“It was a challenging day,” she said. “I watched Mason go double-O on somebody in St. Louis and send him back in first round, so you just know that that kid can be good. I wanted just to go up there and do my thing. Then TJ Coughlin, obviously, my teammate, I know the horsepower he has. He has literally been within a .01 on his reaction times all through qualifying and eliminations. I knew I had to do good there. And then Jeg Coughlin, .004, .005, .007 in qualifying, his graphs look perfect. He’s a legend. Him and I both got pretty loose out there, and it was a little scary. But yeah. And then the final round against Greg, just kind of epic.”
The epic exchange with Anderson was better than the anticlimactic final round.
“When Greg and I both won the semifinals, we shook hands down there, and he said, ‘Old guys to the top,'” Enders said with a smile. “I really enjoy racing him, but I enjoy beating him even more, respectfully.”
At the green, Anderson’s car had issues and he pushed in the clutch.
For his part, Anderson, the eighth-quickest entry in the field, opened by stopping Aaron Stanfield, No. 1 qualifier Kyle Koretsky and then Matt Hartford.
“It was just a tremendous day,” Enders said. “Vegas is always great to us and we knew, coming in, that that was working in our favor, but you still got to put your head down and go to work, and it’s stressful, it’s antagonizing, it’s all kinds of things. I said it to [Fox Sports reporter] Amanda [Busick] down there. The biggest lesson this weekend is about just trying to stay positive through all the negativity.
“People try to put water in your boat and make you sink, and you just got to keep them out, and that’s what my guys do the best. We put our arms around each other, we put our heads down, and we go to work. We don’t complain when we lose. We just do our thing, and that’s what I’m most proud of today.”