ANDERSON + INDY = GREAT CHEMISTRY
It seems like just yesterday, although it was 2001, when Greg Anderson earned the first of five U.S. Nationals victories
He sat there in the media center at what was then named Indianapolis
Raceway Park, not accustomed to all the attention. He looked almost
stunned at his success. After all, he had just won his first NHRA Pro
Stock race that April 29 at Bristol, Tenn.
"How did this happen?" Anderson said several times.
Well, Anderson got used to winning and interviews pretty quickly. By
2003, he was winning 12 races, then 15 the next year, taking the class
by storm and generating talk of dynasty and domination as the Minnesota
native and North Carolina transplant reeled off three straight
championships.
It seems like just yesterday, although it was 2001, when Greg Anderson earned the first of five U.S. Nationals victories.
He sat there in the media center at what was then named Indianapolis Raceway Park, not accustomed to all the attention. He looked almost stunned at his success. After all, he had just won his first NHRA Pro Stock race that April 29 at Bristol, Tenn.
"How did this happen?" Anderson said several times.
Well, Anderson got used to winning and interviews pretty quickly. By 2003, he was winning 12 races, then 15 the next year, taking the class by storm and generating talk of dynasty and domination as the Minnesota native and North Carolina transplant reeled off three straight championships.
Realty set in soon enough, and the rest of the class caught up with Anderson's performance level. Just the same, he was runner-up the past three years. But the Summit Racing Pontiac driver struggled this season until Aug. 16, when he won the Brainerd, Minn., event.
This weekend, as he goes for his sixth Mac Tools U.S. Nationals triumph at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Anderson is wondering if his testing risk will pay off.
Perhaps because he has, in public-relations representative Jon Knapp's words "a virtual encyclopedia of tuning notes" about the storied racetrack at Clermont, Ind., Anderson chose to test not at Indianapolis this past week but rather at zMax Dragway, near his Mooresville, N.C., shop.
"This is where we will start the Countdown. I hope that decision won't come back to bite us," Anderson said, "although I noticed we weren't the only ones in Pro Stock who didn't test in Indy. So I feel a little better about our decision."
That decision surprised even himself a bit.
"I've always gone there to test in the past and sworn I always would, given our success there," he said. "However, this year will be the exception."
"We know we’re pretty much locked into fourth (to begin the Countdown), but we still want to end on a high note, peaking as we go into the playoffs. I think our Summit Racing team has done very well the last three or four races, and certainly don't want to stumble this weekend, so it's very important for us to have a good race," Anderson said.
"Besides, I still go to every race looking to win, and even more so when it's Indy," he said. "With apologies to the NHRA, I'm not really thinking about the Countdown or points this weekend, because this is the U.S. Nationals. I am going there to win."
No one can deny Anderson's record on the O'Reilly Raceway Park surface. He has five victories in seven final-round appearances there and eight finishes in at least the semifinals.
In the Pro Stock class, only Bob Glidden, with nine victories, and Warren Johnson, with six, have won more at Indianapolis. In all pro categories, Anderson ranks sixth best at "The Big Go." Top Fuel aces Don Garlits, with eight wins, and Tony Schumacher, with seven, are ahead of him, and late Pro Stock Motorcycle legend Dave Schultz had six.
Anderson's most recent U.S. Nationals victory was in 2006, when he was No. 1 qualifier. He has led the field three times in nine career starts and has seven total starts in the top three positions.
"I can't really pinpoint why we've been so successful at the U.S. Nationals," Anderson said. "I guess it could have something to do with my believing it's so special that I prepare that much more or dig down deeper and race that much harder. Whatever the reason, our Summit Racing team always seems to put in a better effort at Indy. We treat it like it's more important, and maybe that's why we've had so much success there."
No matter how he had fared there, Anderson has a huge respect for the tradition of Indianapolis.
"The U.S. Nationals have always been more important to me than ten other races combined," he said. "I don't know if it came from my upbringing with my father, or when I was working on teams with John Hagan and Warren Johnson, but I absolutely believe this race is the biggest in the sport of drag racing. The years that I won the championship, I honestly felt that if I didn't win Indy, my year was not complete, because I consider it to be just as important as winning the championship.
"When our Summit Racing team pulls on to the grounds at ORP, I just get a different feeling than I do at any other track we go to," Anderson said. "I know some people say it's just another race, and that the points are the same, but I don't look at it that way. I treat it like it's the most important race of the year."
It is right now no matter what, as it is the one right in front of him. But he indicated he won't be resting on his 29-4 elimination round record at O"Reilly Raceway Park.
"I've always loved the surface at O'Reilly Raceway Park," Anderson said. "It's a very, very good racetrack, very flat and smooth, and by the time you get to Saturday and Sunday, once you leave the starting line, it's a better surface than we'll see all year long. I don't know if it’s because it's that good or because of the amount of cars that are running there throughout the weekend, but it just ends up being a better quality track. So you don't have a lot of excuses for not running well there.
"We're obviously never 100 percent satisfied," he said, "but I feel good about our Summit Racing team heading into this weekend. We're headed in the right direction, and things are definitely getting better. I believe we are now in the position of having a good shot at winning every race we go to, which I couldn't have said a few races ago. We definitely have confidence after that first win in Brainerd and hope it carries over into this weekend, giving us a chance to win Indy."
Make that "win again."
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