When Erica Enders-Stevens set the new NHRA Pro Stock mph record at 214.69 mph March 14 at the Gatornationals, it was quite impressive.

The run was even more memorable after realizing what took place before Enders-Stevens drove her Elite Motorsports Camaro up to the starting line at Gainesville, Fla.

"It was pretty awesome," said Rickie Jones, who is co-crew chief on the car with his father, Rick Jones. "Any time you can say you have the fastest Pro Stock car in the world that is cool. It's a testimony to the good equipment we have right now. Elite Performance has done a great job. Richard Freeman and everyone at the engine shop have done a great job with the engines. That was a brand new engine that was shipped to the track. We took a brand new motor out of the crate from our engine shop and we set the speed record."

Enders-Stevens, in the first qualifying session at the Gatornationals, clocked a 6.483-second elapsed time at the record speed.

"The conditions were there to run fast, but to do that with a brand new engine was a great accomplishment," Jones said. "Normally you get something new and it takes a little bit of time to figure it out. They told us this was good and Erica got in the car and it ran great. I'm just really confident in our engine program."

Jones said the new engine was put in Enders-Stevens' car March 13 in Gainesville.

There actually was plenty of thrashing going on at the RJ Race Cars shop, owned by his family in Galesburg, Ill., following the national event at Phoenix Feb. 23 until Gainesville March 13.

"Erica's car came back to our shop after Phoenix and we tore it all apart and put (in) the new 2014 Camaro updates with the new front ends and tail lights," Jones said. "The whole car got disassembled and sent off to the paint shop and we mounted the new front end. It was a huge amount of work in a short amount of time. The car went straight from our shop to Gainesville. We didn't test or anything. It was a great effort from RJ Race Cars and Elite Performance to go out there and set the speed record on the first run."

When Jones saw the numbers Enders-Stevens posted on that lap, he was initially looking at her elapsed time.

"None of us had ever run in the 6.40s," Jones said. "That was a great feeling to see the 6.48 come up on the board and then they announced the speed record and it was a great experience. We also had a great weekend."

Enders-Stevens qualified second and she made it all the way to the final round before losing on to Allen Johnson.

"Our confidence level is really high heading to Las Vegas (March 28-30)," Jones said. "We would have probably run over 215 mph in Gainesville, but as qualifying went on over the weekend it got hotter and the conditions got slower. I know 215 is out there - we just have to wait for the next good conditions."

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