Erica Enders was unable to advance out of Round 2 during Sunday's final eliminations at the zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. While Enders entered and left the NHRA Carolina Nationals in sixth in the points, she is well aware that a strong result will be critical next weekend in Redding.

"We don't have a choice but to [make up the points in Reading] or we'll run out of time before we know it," admitted Enders during Monday testing at zMAX Dragway. "We're here testing on Monday again, so it tells you how we performed yesterday.

"It's not been a secret what we've struggled with, and that's the first 60 feet of the racetrack. This new tire has been a challenge to get a hold of and we're giving up three hundredths going past the Christmas Tree.

"If we can just pick up half of what we lack at 60 foot, it will translate significantly down track."

A broken motor sidelined Enders in Round 2 against eventual event winner Tanner Gray at zMAX Dragway. While Elite Motorsports' return to Chevy power has helped them in 2017, Enders confesses that she was hoping for more.

"We fully expected to be back, not in our normal dominating fashion that we were in the carburetor era, but we certainly figured that we would perform better than we have been this year," she stated. "We're just trying get these cars faster and more consistent and, as far as my feeling on the Countdown, we're one race in and we've got five remaining so it's a long haul, it ain't over until it's over. I've got the best guys in the world, I have the utmost faith in my team and we enjoy pressure situations so we'll just continue to work hard in these cars and do our best and we'll see what happens.

"Reading is a great place to race. The weather is usually interesting there as far as being a lot cooler. Typically we get a lot of rain there but they've moved it up a little bit in the year so we'll see how the weather is. My sister lives up there and she says it's been beautiful so it will definitely be a nice break from the heat regardless, but I'm optimistic, I think we'll do fine."