Erica Enders wasn’t aiming to have the quote of the day Friday at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, but it just happened to work out that way. 

She emerged from her Melling Performance/JHG Chevrolet Camaro as the provisional low qualifier following six races of sheer frustration. Without batting an eye, Enders proclaimed, “It sucks to suck.”

Friday night, her performance indeed didn’t suck as she drove to the top of the qualifying leaderboard with a 6.627 elapsed time at 205.88 miles per hour. Her run edged out teammate Cristian Cuadra, who stepped up in a fast Friday evening session with a 6.632. Defending event champion Aaron Stanfield’s 6.636 was the third quickest of the Elite Performance logjam.

“I was apprehensive to say I think we figured it out because you don’t really know until you figured it out,” Enders admitted. “So that was the proof in the pudding. We feel like in Chicago E1, we figured out what our problem was. We made the run, we were low for the session and tested and then translated here. So super, super exciting.”

Even when Enders was ballin’, so to speak, misfortune was always on the outside, creeping in just a little to let her know to keep her emotions in check. Going to No. 1, it also let her know there's more in the tank. 

“I tagged the chip and the 1-2 [shift], and then my transmission tried to deadhead going into high gear, and the G-meter just fell,” Enders said. “So I know that there was more left in that run. That’s the only reason why I’m telling you that. Either way, just super, super excited to be back on the pole.”

Following a 2022 season where she could do no wrong, Enders learned how the pendulum of momentum could swing downward. Headed into this weekend’s event, Enders only has one round win to her credit, and that came in a four-wide format where two racers advance in the first two rounds. 

Indeed, the struggle has been real since the season opener in Gainesville.

“Coming off of a season like last year for anyone, I don’t care who you are, is definitely hard to capitalize on,” Enders said. “It’s just you come in expecting the same success, in a sense, not in an arrogant way, just nothing changed in the offseason. We went to Gainesville, which was the first race of the year, and we qualified on the pole, and then my teammate, TJ Coughlin, got us on mile per hour, so we were one [and] two. Our race car did not suck. And then, Sunday morning, I went to hit the starter button, and it wouldn’t fire. Ever since that day, it has been a downward slide, and we’re not doing anything different. 
 
 “I didn’t forget how to drive. Jake Harrison and Kyle Bates did not forget how to build horsepower. Richard Freeman did not forget how to run a team. So it’s just kind of one of those deals. Pro Stock has been this way for the 20 years I’ve been driving and the 20 years prior that I watched. The pendulum swings, and when it’s not swinging in your direction, it’s extremely painful, but it always comes back. You just have to be able to weather the storm, and that’s something that our team at Elite Motorsports is great at. We won the 2014 and 2015 championships back-to-back. We switched manufacturers, went from carburetors to EFI, and we barely finished in the top 10. So it’s peaks and valleys, and you've just got to stay strong. What we’ve been through together would tear most teams apart, and that’s what’s so coveted about our team, in my opinion. You can’t buy what we have.”

Just because she weathered the storm didn’t mean her mindset wasn’t a bit chippy from time to time. 

“My sister joked yesterday on the way back from the airport that we’re going to hide all the razor blades,” Enders admitted. “But all joking aside, it’s painful. It sucks. It’s awful because you spend the same amount of money, you work just as hard, you’re trying everything that you can, and as I mentioned a second ago, we didn’t forget what we’re doing. It’s not working in our favor right now, and that’s okay. But it’s definitely dark. It definitely sucks. 
 
 “I’ve deleted my social media apps off my phone because I want to strangle idiots on the internet that have no clue what they’re talking about. But at the same time, it’s part of what comes with living in a fishbowl, right? Like, they sit on their couch and eat Cheetos, and they watch us race, and they think that they can be a Monday morning quarterback when we’re doing all that we can. And so we just try to keep a positive mental attitude about it, but the human aspect is not always easy.
 
“One of my crew chiefs this morning walked in, and he put a finger on each side of a temple, and he’s like, ‘It’s the six inches right here that’s going to make the difference,'" Enders confided. “And that’s what’s made the difference and made me a five-time world champion, is what happens up here. 
 
 “I give my dad a lot of credit for that because before he made his money in business, he was a positive mental-attitude coach. So Courtney and I grew up in that environment. We didn’t have to go sit in seminars. It was pounded into our heads since we were little kids. So being mentally strong and mentally tough is a huge benefit to it. But there’s the other side of it where some mornings you wake up, and you really have to talk yourself into it. You’re not feeling it. Like you get out of the rental car, and you’re like, ‘I do not want to deal with these people today.'

“But we’re all human. We all put our pants on the same way, and it’s a struggle, but you just got to focus on the good because I could have a normal job and go to work from nine to five, but instead, I get to come out here and play with race cars.”