ANDERSON ON SONOMA: BRIGHT SPOT 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 Saturday,
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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