By Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson's standards, this hasn’t been the best of seasons.

Yet, despite not having any victories in the first 12 NHRA races in 2018, Anderson, a four-time world champion, arrived at the New England Nationals second in the point standings and now will start from the No. 1 qualifying position.

Anderson, who drives the red Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro for KB Racing, clocked a 6.517-second time at 211.73 mph in Q2 Friday night and the elapsed time held on for the top spot after Saturday’s two qualifying sessions in Epping, N.H.

This is Anderson’s 101st career No. 1 qualifying position. He has eight No. 1 qualifier performances on the season, and his most recent pole, prior to Saturday, was in Bristol, Tenn., where he earned the milestone 100th.

“It meant everything (July 6), we were definitely kings out there and we had the race track sort of figured out and our car made sweet runs,” Anderson said. “Then, today we came out and we struggled with the sun on the race track. Unfortunately, we just didn’t make the right moves (Saturday). Today is definitely a learning experience and glad it wasn’t Sunday today. We get another shot tomorrow.”

Anderson shook the tires in Q3 and couldn’t go faster than he did Friday night on Saturday.

“Obviously, we have to learn what to do differently when the sun is on the race track,” Anderson said. “You still have great, great air out there. The air quality is actually better than it was (Saturday) you should have been able to run faster than we did (Friday) and we were slower. We obviously turned the wrong screws, but we learned from it and you have to learn from it and go forward. (Saturday) is just a practice day going into tomorrow and we know certainly things not to do now for tomorrow. Hopefully, we do the right things when it comes out tomorrow. You just never know. It is going to hotter again tomorrow and conditions are going to change a little bit again, you have to make the correct moves.

"You can’t run the same set-up every time you go up there. Every time that track temperature changes, you have to change. Obviously, we have two runs (Saturday) that we have good data on and yes, we didn’t make forward gains, but even backward gains are learning experiences and you know what you can’t do for tomorrow. We will go back and pour through our notes and analyze exactly what we did with all four cars and figure out what we need to be doing for tomorrow and hopefully have a better product tomorrow. I feel a little bad that we underachieved today, but that’s okay, it is not race day yet. Tomorrow is race day, and as long we get it right for tomorrow and learn from today it will all be good.”

Anderson has two wins at Epping in 2015-16 and 90 in his career.