Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing team came extremely close to scoring back-to-back wins on Sunday, finishing as the runner-up to his teammate Jason Line in the final round of Sunday’s final eliminations of the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Wash.. Starting from the No. 1 position for the 75th time in his career, Anderson used a first round bye and wins over V. Gaines and Erica Enders in the early rounds to advance to his second final in as many weeks and 101st of his illustrious career, where he would square off against his KB Racing stable mate for the 17th time in their respective careers.
With his teammate holding lane choice, Anderson was relegated to the less-preferred right hand lane, which had proved to be a significant disadvantage for most of the weekend. Knowing he would need every advantage in order to score his 69th career national event win, he used his best reaction time of the day at .016 to gain a slight edge at the start, with the two cars rocketing down track as if welded together.
In the end, it was Line who was able to pull out the narrow victory, using a 6.553-second, 210.87 mph pass to overhaul his teammate, who posted a strong 6.567-second, 211.13 mph effort in the losing cause. Although naturally disappointed, Anderson was quick to point out the many positives gained throughout the weekend, including the teammates reclaiming the top two positions in the championship standings.
“We knew going into the final that it was going to be a great day for the Summit Racing team, because one of our Pontiacs was going to win, and today just happened to be his day,” said Anderson. “Jason’s car was just a tick better today, and he was able to keep lane choice all day, which made a difference at the end. Although he certainly deserved to win, and I’m happy for him, as well as everyone on this KB Racing team, the right lane here this weekend was consistently a good hundredths slower than the left.
“Unfortunately, we made a sIight mistake in the second round and lost lane choice for semis against Erica, and even though I was able to get by her and into the final, I never got out of the right lane and it cost us. Still, to be able to get both Summit cars in the final round was a tremendous accomplishment.
“Today was a great team effort, and I’m extremely happy with the way things turned out. We both moved up in the points and are back to being one and two with two races left before the Countdown. It’s going to be a dogfight for that No.1 spot going into the playoffs, but for today we were able to gain a small advantage. It’s now up to us to see what we can do with it in Brainerd.”
With his teammate holding lane choice, Anderson was relegated to the less-preferred right hand lane, which had proved to be a significant disadvantage for most of the weekend. Knowing he would need every advantage in order to score his 69th career national event win, he used his best reaction time of the day at .016 to gain a slight edge at the start, with the two cars rocketing down track as if welded together.
In the end, it was Line who was able to pull out the narrow victory, using a 6.553-second, 210.87 mph pass to overhaul his teammate, who posted a strong 6.567-second, 211.13 mph effort in the losing cause. Although naturally disappointed, Anderson was quick to point out the many positives gained throughout the weekend, including the teammates reclaiming the top two positions in the championship standings.
“We knew going into the final that it was going to be a great day for the Summit Racing team, because one of our Pontiacs was going to win, and today just happened to be his day,” said Anderson. “Jason’s car was just a tick better today, and he was able to keep lane choice all day, which made a difference at the end. Although he certainly deserved to win, and I’m happy for him, as well as everyone on this KB Racing team, the right lane here this weekend was consistently a good hundredths slower than the left.
“Unfortunately, we made a sIight mistake in the second round and lost lane choice for semis against Erica, and even though I was able to get by her and into the final, I never got out of the right lane and it cost us. Still, to be able to get both Summit cars in the final round was a tremendous accomplishment.
“Today was a great team effort, and I’m extremely happy with the way things turned out. We both moved up in the points and are back to being one and two with two races left before the Countdown. It’s going to be a dogfight for that No.1 spot going into the playoffs, but for today we were able to gain a small advantage. It’s now up to us to see what we can do with it in Brainerd.”
