Erica Enders-Stevens' Chevy Camaro says "Elite" on both sides in bold white letters.

And who could argue with that? The label fits.

Erica Enders-Stevens' Chevy Camaro says "Elite" on both sides in bold white letters.

And who could argue with that? The label fits.

The reigning series NHRA Pro Stock champion claimed her second straight No. 1 qualifying position this season in as many chances as the fields were set Saturday for the Carquest Auto Parts Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.

The fascinating part is that to hear Enders-Stevens describe her weekend after she earned her career 14th top spot, it's clear none of her 2015 accomplishments have come easy at all.

"We were dropping cylinders like a fuel car. The cylinders were going completely dead. The sparkplugs were drowning," the Elite Motorsports driver said Saturday evening. "But we were able to work at it and figure it out."

What's throwing her savvy Rick- and Rickie Jones-led team is the new fuel, which she said is heavier and slower-burning.

"We spend a lot of money with carburetors and intake manifold development. All those things that we had spent lots of money on were out the window until we can figure out how to manage this new fuel," Enders-Stevens said, stressing that she isn't critical of either the new fuel or new tire compound the class has to deal with this season.

"It's a challenge but that's kind of what makes it fun," she said. "If you went out there and did great every time, it wouldn't be as pleasing when you did well. I'm just proud of my guys for not giving up. It's frustrating."

She has to be pleased that her Friday performance held up as quickest among the 17 entrants.

Enders-Stevens and No. 2 Rodger Brogdon, a longtime friend from her Houston home area and an engine-client partner through Elite, clocked identical 6.545-second elapsed times on the Chandler, Ariz., quarter-mile. But she will lead the field because her 211.20-mph speed topped his 210.90. That's how the opening day of time trials ended Friday, and that's how it remained through two sessions Saturday.
 
Enders-Stevens, Brogdon, and No. 3 Drew Skillman made it a sweep of the best spots in the order for Sunday's eliminations for Elite Motorsports' engine shop. All three qualified within three-thousandths of a second of each other.
 
Still, Enders-Stevens wasn't smug heading into Saturday's Pro Stock action.
 
"We're only No. 1 by mile per hour, so it's going to be very close," she said late Friday. Just the same, she said, "Being No. 1 is just a cool perk in this sport. I'm proud of my team and really honored to be here, but at the end of the day, it's how we finish on Sunday."
 
Enders-Stevens will meet No. 16 Joey Grose, a Camaro driver from Lodi, Calif., in the first round of eliminations Sunday. Grose was No. 15 qualifier at Pomona, and he came within eight-thousandths of a second of having to face her in the first round of the year two weeks ago.
 
She said she and her team are "taking baby steps to get back to where we should be." And that has to be hard to crawl again, then take small paces when this team has been used to running and running fast, literally and figuratively. She said the fact the Elite Motorsports team doesn’t test as much as some of their colleagues do is a factor. However, she had a positive spin to it all.
 
"There's certainly a lot to learn, and I'm excited about where we can go with it," she said of this experimentation – which seems to be working out well enough so far.
 
Enders-Stevens said the most helpful aspect of it is the support from her crew chiefs, who prevent her from "worrying about something that I can't control."
 
She said, "I've just got to go up there with a clean head. That's where Rick and Rickie Jones have been so awesome with me, taking that weight off my shoulders. I trust what they're doing with all of my heart. And I just go up there and I'm able to do my job. It doesn’t change my driving style, but when you’re not running as well as you know you’re capable of, it certainly weighs on you. So that's been a small challenge for me."
 
Team owner Richard Freeman has committed to competing at 15 races out of his own pocket. She said she and Freeman, along with a sports-marketing firm he hired, still will look for sponsorship to fill in the gaps for this 24-race season.
 
"Last year was a dream season: six race wins, the world championship, setting both ends of the world record. It doesn’t get much better than that. And our doors are not being knocked down," Enders-Stevens said. "But we'll continue to work at it. None of us will or knows how to quit."
 
Brogdon collected the most qualifying bonus points this weekend with eight, and Enders-Stevens followed with five. Skillman, who qualified fourth in his Pro Stock debut at Pomona, will start third in just his second race and has four bonus points to his credit. Shane Gray picked up three points, Larry Morgan two, and Chris McGaha one.

Salt Lake City businessman Jeff Isbell was the lone Pro Stock entrant to miss the field.

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