The simple statistics from the O’Reilly NHRA Nationals will show that Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team earned the second qualifying position for Sunday’s final eliminations at zMAX Dragway, with his best time of 6.513-seconds, which came with a track record top speed of 212.69 mph slotting him directly behind his teammate Jason Line. This marks the fourth consecutive race (and sixth overall in 2011) the talented tandem will have captured the top two starting positions (with Line earning the top honors at the last three).
However, a closer inspection of the four qualifying sessions at the magnificent Carolina speedplant will show that the four-time champion was the class of the field on Saturday, posting the quickest time in both sessions to earn six additional bonus points (for a total of eight) and putting himself in a good position to win his third consecutive race at the “Bellagio of Drag Racing” and get his playoff season off to a near-perfect start. In addition, with teammates Line and Ronnie Humphrey (in the Summit/Genuine Hotrod Pontiac, who qualified fourth) also running well, Anderson is understandably proud of his team’s effort.
“Although we’re not 100% satisfied, because we left something on the table in each run, it was still a good day, because we still ran quicker than everyone else,” said Anderson. “Our Summit Racing Pontiacs are very consistent, and we’re just trying to make them a little quicker. They’re not far off, and we have a lot of data we can use for tomorrow.
“We’ll see what the weather brings and what changes we’ll have to make, but we certainly can’t complain about our weekend so far. We’re still looking for that perfect run just like everyone else, and we think we can do it, hopefully four times tomorrow. In any case, we’re in good shape, and still have some positive momentum going. We did our jobs about as well as we could so far with three Summit cars in the top four spots, so obviously the team is doing a great job with our hot rods.
“They’re a pleasure to drive right now, because even if it makes a bad run, it’s still a pretty good run, which is getting us a little spoiled. The bottom line is that our slip-ups are not that big anymore, which gives us a great feeling heading into race day. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, trying to get our Countdown off with a bang.”
However, a closer inspection of the four qualifying sessions at the magnificent Carolina speedplant will show that the four-time champion was the class of the field on Saturday, posting the quickest time in both sessions to earn six additional bonus points (for a total of eight) and putting himself in a good position to win his third consecutive race at the “Bellagio of Drag Racing” and get his playoff season off to a near-perfect start. In addition, with teammates Line and Ronnie Humphrey (in the Summit/Genuine Hotrod Pontiac, who qualified fourth) also running well, Anderson is understandably proud of his team’s effort.
“Although we’re not 100% satisfied, because we left something on the table in each run, it was still a good day, because we still ran quicker than everyone else,” said Anderson. “Our Summit Racing Pontiacs are very consistent, and we’re just trying to make them a little quicker. They’re not far off, and we have a lot of data we can use for tomorrow.
“We’ll see what the weather brings and what changes we’ll have to make, but we certainly can’t complain about our weekend so far. We’re still looking for that perfect run just like everyone else, and we think we can do it, hopefully four times tomorrow. In any case, we’re in good shape, and still have some positive momentum going. We did our jobs about as well as we could so far with three Summit cars in the top four spots, so obviously the team is doing a great job with our hot rods.
“They’re a pleasure to drive right now, because even if it makes a bad run, it’s still a pretty good run, which is getting us a little spoiled. The bottom line is that our slip-ups are not that big anymore, which gives us a great feeling heading into race day. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, trying to get our Countdown off with a bang.”
