PRO STOCK LEADER ANDERSON LIKENS HIS CAMARO TO RACEHORSE, FORREST GUMP

 

Greg Anderson has no complaints.

Not one.

Not even a little one.

Not this weekend – maybe not even this season.

But he does have one thing at Norwalk, Ohio, for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals – a superb race car he likens to a curious cross between a Triple Crown-winning Thoroughbred and Forrest Gump.

It carried him early Saturday to a 6.602-second pass on the Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park quarter-mile that remained quickest in qualifying to give him his sixth No. 1 starting position in the Camping World Drag Racing Series’ first seven events.

It’s Anderson’s 112th top starting berth, third-best of all time in the NHRA pro ranks.

Anderson also already is third on the Pro Stock class’ overall victories list, but a triumph Sunday would tie him with his now-idle mentor Warren Johnson for second at 97. (Funny Car racer John Force leads with 153.)

And the driver of the HendrickCars.com/Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro said he is hopeful, thankful, confident, and lucky as he prepares for a first-round match-up Sunday against No. 16 starter Fernando Cuadra.

“Things are all set up,” Anderson said. “I’ve got the horse. I’ve got the racehorse to ride. I feel great. I feel like I’m hitting the light good. It’s been great all through qualifying. And I know as long as I stay positive tomorrow and I look in the grandstands and I see all these great people out there and I see that ‘Summit’ name on top of the board , that’s going to make a difference. It’s going to keep me positive all day. And hopeful I will not stumble and we’ll get ’er all the way to the final and find a way to close the deal.

“I could ask for no more,” he said.

He knows he’s repeating himself, but he can’t help it: “I’ve got a great race car, as I’ve said million times before. But I do. It’s the truth. It’s bad to the bone. It’s fun to drive. It’s easy to drive. It makes me look like a hero.”

That’s what he looks like right about now. He won the Gatornationals – on his birthday - to begin the season. He has led the points after all six completed races. He has led the field into eliminations in six of seven chances so far. And he has two victories in three final rounds and a 14-4 race-day record.

“I can’t possibly find any negatives through today, through yesterday, through this weekend. And hopefully all day tomorrow I won’t find any negatives, either,” Anderson said. He said he has the primo race car and he’s at his sponsor’s race and racetrack.

“If that’s not all the mojo a guy would ever need to try to close the deal tomorrow, I don’t know what else you need,” he said.

He said with Summit Racing Equipment still a major associate sponsor, “it’s all just positive, positive, positive. Summit’s been great for so many years. They’re still heavily involved. Now we’ve got Hendrick (Hendrick Cars, part of NASCAR titan Rick Hendrick’s automotive empire) involved. What a great company that is.

“If I was starting from scratch and I asked The Lord, ‘What would be the two greatest supporters/sponsors that I could ever hope to be involved with?’ I would think of those two right there. And I’ve got ’em,” Anderson said. “How lucky am I? I’m the luckiest man out here, I think.”

He said the situation for him “pretty much is” one in which he almost counts the hours until he can slide into the seat of his Camaro. “It honestly is,” he said. “You hate for a day to ever end. You hate to go down [the track] and shut it off and park it for the night. You want to keep riding the horse. She wants to run and run and run. It’s like Forrest Gump. It just doesn’t want to stop. I hate to ever park it, to be honest with you. But we have to – they make us. We’ll give her an eight-hour timeout. But she’ll be ready to ride tomorrow.”

 

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