ENDERS OVERCOMES STRUGGLES, WINS PRO STOCK CROWN AT VEGAS

Written by Tracy Renck, photos by Burghardt Photos, NHRA    Mon, 2021-04-19 17:00

 

Odds of Pro Stock star Erica Enders winning the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, were long at best.

Enders, the reigning and back-to-back world champion, had to fight and scratch to just qualify as she began race day in the No. 13 spot.

That was coming off a first-round loss at the season-opening Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 14.

All those struggles were forgotten by Sunday evening.

Enders powered her way to the win as she clocked a 6.656-second lap at 205.88 mph in her Chevy Camaro. She edged her teammate Aaron Stanfield at Richard Freeman’s Elite Motorsports, who came in at 6.667 seconds at 205.26 mph.

“It feels like a decade ago,” said Enders, who won her latest world crown at the season-ending race in Las Vegas in 2020. “When we showed up on the property and blew the back window out of the thing on Friday and again Saturday we didn’t get in (the field) until the final session I was semi a little nervous and questioning a lot. We kind of went back to our old faithful setup and my guys worked from there. We didn’t show our hand in the final session obviously because we had the car gathered to just get it down the racetrack. We went a 69 and progressively got better all of race day.”

Although Enders was concerned about race day – her team wasn’t.

“My guys just stepped up to the plate,” she said. “I say that all the time, but when their back’s our against the wall they perform. I should have been nervous because they do that every single time, I ask them to. This was a great win for everybody on our team, especially with me and Aaron coming in first and second. I would not have thought that when I went to bed on Friday. I’m thankful. It is so fun to win. This feeling is replaced by nothing else in the entire world. Performance is a great deodorant for whatever drama you have going on and it definitely boosts the team.”

Enders has won Pro Stock world championships in 2014-15 and 2019-2020. This was Enders 30th career Pro Stock national event win.

“It is challenging enough to have one competitor, but having three competitors and yourself, I know the starting line game,” Enders said. “It is my favorite part. It is so important where your eyes go. Having all that flickering and the distractions of people getting in a hurry or not sure what lane they are in and hanging you out inadvertently, you have to be ready for anything. You have to focus more than any other drag race and it makes this win even more significant.”

After her Vegas victory, Enders is brimming with optimism.

“I was very disappointed in my performance as a driver at the Doorslammer Nationals, losing on a holeshot to one of the Cuadras and the same thing happened to me in Gainesville,” Enders said. “My guys just had my back. We joke that we win as a team and lose as a driver. I was pretty down. I was apologizing to them because they gave me the hot rod to do it and I just didn’t get it done. They boosted me up. They told me we had plenty of time to get the ball back on our court and this was a great place to kick it off. We just got to keep the momentum going, most importantly, I have to keep the mental side of this game intact.”

 

 

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