News flash... Erica Enders is a human being - though her performances may sometimes look robotic. 

The four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion, with her win on Sunday at the NHRA Gateway Nationals, extended her point lead to 120 with a final round victory over Dallas Glenn. The victory marked her eighth of the season.

Enders also posted her sixth win at World Wide Technology Raceway and her fourth in a row. She beat Chris McGaha, Troy Coughlin Jr., and No. 1 qualifier Kyle Koretsky to reach the final round. 

"Sounds to me like a good day," Enders said. "It was pretty intense. Coming in, we lost in the semis last week in Charlotte. My teammate Aaron went on to win, and we had a 64-point spread on him, and it got further as you went down. But second-round racing, my teammate TJ, I know exactly what he is capable of and the power that he has because I have the same. So being able to beat him and watching Aaron and Greg both go out that round, it was a pretty huge point swing there. Then going on to win the race was obviously the best outcome."

Enders raced at the strip in the shows of the Arch as far back as 15 years old, when she competed in the Super Gas division. In the time since, she developed an affection for the track, which remains in place. 

Sunday's win made her the winningest driver now at two drag strips. She's also the winningest at The Strip in Las Vegas with nine.  

"We have a ton of data here," Enders said. "We've been racing Pro Stock here for 18 years, and it always seems that the trend goes that way. Wherever we have been successful before, we are successful again. From Vegas with nine wins there, here, six wins, Bristol, Dallas, all of these tracks have been really, really great to us. So it was pretty cool to come in here. My sister said this a couple of years back; everything changes in St. Louis. 

"It's in the Countdown. After this race, you kind of know where you stand within the points and what you have to do in order to go on and win a championship. So she says it always changes in St. Louis, and the last four years it really has, and I'm super excited that we've spread the gap."

This is where the human vs. robot comparisons come into place. Enders was actually nervous headed into race day. 

"Not nervous in a negative way but excited, and I don't want to let it slip through my fingers," Enders explained. "I want to go out there. As a human, I'm the variable, so I want to go out there and showcase what my guys give me every weekend. So we were able to do just that today. It's my crew chief Mark Ingersoll's home track, and all his friends and family are here. So it was really great. The icing on the cake to win here for him."

Enders heads to Dallas in two weeks with a six-round lead in the championship chase. Only 12 rounds of competition remain in the 2022 season. She's not counting her chickens before the eggs hatch, but Enders likes her chances. 

"I'll definitely speak with confidence about the remaining three races. We haven't had the success that we would want in Dallas, but we've won there before. We can certainly do it again. But then, heading to Vegas, we've won nine national events there. In '15, we locked up the championship there, so it obviously has a lot of fond memories. And then, going back to 2014 for our first world championship, final round winner take all in Pomona. So that memory always is at the forefront of my mind. 

"So yeah, the next three tracks are definitely our tracks, and I'm excited. I think you're accurate in what you say, and I definitely feel confident in what we're capable of. And I say bring it."

With such a lead in the pocket, the temptation might be to go into cruise control. 

"We race to win; we don't race not to lose," Enders said. "And there's a difference between playing offense and playing defense. It's not ours. It's not ours to protect. So we just need to go out there and throw down every single time. I always say when there's seconds left on the clock, we want the ball because we performed the best, and when [the crew's] backs are against the wall, they give me the best car. 

"I love the pressure. I didn't love it at first 18 years ago as a rookie, but I've made myself love it. I would rather race somebody like Greg Anderson first round than have a No. 16 qualifier because you race differently when you race somebody that could come up and sneak in and take it from you. That's just been our mindset. I've raced that way for a long time, but I'm really getting after it these last couple years. I don't want it to be taken from us, and we're going to give it everything we have."

Spoken like a true robot... umm, four-time champion drag racer.