As the defending event champion and the most winning Pro Stock driver at Texas Motorplex, Greg Anderson knew heading into raceday at the Texas NHRA FallNationals that he had some good mojo on his side. What he needed on Sunday was a dose of that familiar mojo and to extract all the performance he could from his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro. It nearly all came together perfectly on raceday in Dallas as he reached the 171st final round of his career and missed race win No. 101 by a narrow margin.
"It was a good day, but it could have been a great day," said Anderson, who defeated Mason McGaha, Cristian Cuadra, and Aaron Stanfield en route to the final with a string of steady 6.56-second passes.
In the final at the facility where Anderson had six times before been victorious, his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro picked up the pace significantly but came up just two-hundredths of a second short.
"It was a great effort by the whole team today, no question," said Anderson, who recorded a 6.547, 208.74 in the final to Erica Enders' 6.537, 209.63. "We didn't close the deal, but we came in a close second. Honestly, they earned it. We can't kick rocks; we'll go home for a week and make our racecar fast enough to win Vegas."
With the final round, Anderson moved up to No. 3 in the Pro Stock standings, 195 points out of first place with two races remaining on the schedule before the championship is decided. The NHRA Finals will count for points and a half, but even so, it would be an exceptional challenge to overtake the points.
"No. 1 is probably out of reach. That's what we were competing for, and it looks like we didn't get it done this year," said Anderson. "But we go to the next two races to win. I put just as much weight on race wins as I do a championship – that's what I go for, to win races, and there are still two great days to be had this year. By the time we get to Vegas, hopefully we have a chance to win."
The next race on the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series tour will be the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from October 27 – 30.
Qualifying results:
Q1: 6.575-second, 211.27 mph (No. 4)
Q2: 6.553, 209.79 (No. 6)
Q3: 6.518, 210.83 (No. 6, +1 bonus point)
Q4: 6.620, 208.97 (No. 6)
Race day results:
R1: Greg Anderson defeated Mason McGaha, (.022-second reaction time) 6.566-second at 208.50 mph to (.029) 6.602, 209.35
R2: Anderson def. Cristian Cuadra, (.035) 6.565, 208.67 to (.061) 6.582, 208.27
R3: Anderson def. Aaron Stanfield, (.036) 6.568, 204.46 to (.051) 6.575, 209.12
R4: Erica Enders def. Anderson, (.035) 6.537, 209.63 to (.047) 6.547, 208.74
AdChoices