ANDERSON ON SONOMA: BRIGHT SPOT OF THE SEASON

On the strength of a track record 6.571-second elapsed time recorded on his third attempt on anderson.jpgSaturday, Greg Anderson qualified his Summit Racing Pro Stock Pontiac in the No. 1 position for Sunday’s final eliminations of the FRAM Autolite Nationals in Sonoma, CA. This is Anderson’s fourth No. 1 qualifying performance of the season.

“To be honest, this is the bright part of my season so far,” said Anderson. “The Summit Racing team has been doing great, Jason’s been doing a tremendous job, and we’ve had some really good cars, while, to be honest, I’ve just been struggling. I needed a boost, something good to happen to get my confidence back and give me a better attitude, and today was it.

“I didn’t plan on this happening, because, quite frankly, we’d been getting outrun lately by Mike Edwards and Allen Johnson. But our KB Racing crew obviously executed a little better than they did today, and that shows that we can go out tomorrow, get both Summit cars in the final and win this race. That’s always our goal, but right now, it feels more realistic than it has all year. That’s the thought I’m going to go to bed with tonight. This will probably be the happiest Saturday night I’ve had all year.”

On the strength of a track record 6.571-second elapsed time recorded on his third attempt on anderson.jpgSaturday, Greg Anderson qualified his Summit Racing Pro Stock Pontiac in the No. 1 position for Sunday’s final eliminations of the FRAM Autolite Nationals in Sonoma, CA. This is Anderson’s fourth No. 1 qualifying performance of the season.

“To be honest, this is the bright part of my season so far,” said Anderson. “The Summit Racing team has been doing great, Jason’s been doing a tremendous job, and we’ve had some really good cars, while, to be honest, I’ve just been struggling. I needed a boost, something good to happen to get my confidence back and give me a better attitude, and today was it.

“I didn’t plan on this happening, because, quite frankly, we’d been getting outrun lately by Mike Edwards and Allen Johnson. But our KB Racing crew obviously executed a little better than they did today, and that shows that we can go out tomorrow, get both Summit cars in the final and win this race. That’s always our goal, but right now, it feels more realistic than it has all year. That’s the thought I’m going to go to bed with tonight. This will probably be the happiest Saturday night I’ve had all year.”

After placing sixth on the first day of qualifying, Anderson was determined to close the gap on the cars ahead of him, including his teammate Jason Line, who came into the day in third place. He not only accomplished his goal, recording two of quickest times of the day, but in true team fashion, the twin Summit cars took advantage of the cooler conditions to vault to the top of the field, with Line slotting directly behind his teammate with an equally strong 6.572-second clocking, marking the third time they will start from the top two positions at Infineon Raceway. Most importantly, Anderson is confident they have regained the handle on their race car’s tune-up, which bodes well for tomorrow’s final eliminations.

“I was very happy with my Summit Racing Pontiac today,” said Anderson. “It actually wasn’t bad yesterday, but today it jumped right to the top of the class where we think we should be. We did run a little slower in that last session, but we were actually a little conservative on the tune-up, thinking the racetrack would go away a little more than it did. If we could have run again five minutes later, we would have run two hundredths quicker. That’s a good thing, because we’re not sitting around scratching our heads wondering why we didn’t run better.

“The racetrack also held up great all weekend, and that’s something we have to keep in mind for tomorrow. Infineon has been good to me for a long, long time, and I think it’s because it’s a tremendous track, with a surface that is as smooth as glass. On top of that, we usually have great weather, which makes these cars really fun to drive. As Pro Stock drivers and engine builders, we like conditions where we can put it all down on the racetrack, running as fast as the car will run every time, which we get here at Infineon Raceway nine times out of ten. We have two great hot rods and a really good track, and we have to take advantage of both tomorrow. It’s about time I made it back to the winner’s circle, and tomorrow sounds like the perfect time and place.” 

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