Like the line of NASCAR stars that started with Jeff Gordon, Enders had an impressive resume long before she and Cagnazzi ever met. She won 37 races in her Junior Dragster, was the first Division 4 champion and the 1995 national junior of the year. The exploits of Enders and her younger sister Courtney (headed to A&M in the fall, and her sister’s old Super Comp dragster this season), were made into a successful Disney Channel movie Right on Track.

“In drag racing, we’re used to seeing things going in a different order in terms of getting media attention, but she’s built notoriety in a different way – and because of her ability,” team owner Victor Cagnazzi said.

Cagnazzi, a former Pro Stock truck driver, said her hiring it isn’t so much a bow to the marketing reality of 21st century motorsports as “a natural progression of our business. These days, save for John Force, you see few team owners driving in Top Fuel and Funny Car. Pro Stock was the place where you owned the team, built the car and drove it – but that will change as well.”

Cagnazzi knows it won’t happen overnight, and doesn’t want it to. “We want to take logical steps forward in all of our operation. We’re growing together, and I expect it to take time. We want Erica to get comfortable in the car, the team to get comfortable with each other and we will move forward.”

Even when they move upside down.

In her first round of testing at Bradenton in December, Enders flipped her car and discovered what it’s like to drive one of those 2,450 pound mechanical bulls upside down.

“We’d been going great in testing, but that morning we were having trouble getting down the track. I put it in fourth gear and twice got out of the groove but shut it down and collected it,” she said. “This time, I went the same way, shut it off . . . and everything kind of happened quick. You realize you’re along for the ride and you’re telling yourself this can’t be happening.”

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At the other end of the track her father, and first crew chief, Gregg Enders was having the same thought – while his feet had other ideas. “The time slip showed I had a pretty good 60-foot reaction time running down the track,” he said. “I got on the radio to see if she was all right, and I was wondering would she be scared or mad . . . when her first reaction was ‘I wrecked my (modified expletive) race car,’ I knew she’d be OK.

“Later in the day an old friend, NHRA Fuel champ Tony Schumacher called and asked the same thing. I told him her reaction and he said ‘That’s my girl!’ ” Gregg said.

Most of the Pro Stock pits, starting with Anderson, went down the track to make sure the kid was OK and to offer encouragement.

“Jason Line went through the same experience his first year,” Anderson said of his KB Racing teammate, last year’s NHRA Rookie of the Year. “Like any other new driver, Erica will need lap time and a lot of it. Once we get into the season she’ll see situations and track conditions she’ll have to learn about, and she can only do it through experience and getting laps. But she seems to have the right attitude and focus and everything it takes. She looks like she’s on schedule.”

Cagnazzi’s reaction? “Our shop is right across the street from Robert Yates Racing (home of former Cup champ Dale Jarrett). They know the learning curve involves bending some sheet metal. It’s just part of the process, and she bounced right back the way we thought she would.”