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Ron Lewis photo
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Anderson had contended with freak occurrences
in early qualifying sessions at Gainesville
and Las Vegas but had rebounded both times to
dominate qualifying, set track records, and
win.
"If you get off on the wrong foot, it's tough
to regroup, tough to get your bearings back,"
Anderson said. "Luckily we've done it by the
end of the race each time it happened, but that's
not the way to race."
So while on the surface Anderson's 13th victory
in the last 17 events might have appeared to
be a given, it wasn't. Anderson called it "probably,
at least in the last six months, my toughest
win, without a doubt. I was kind of looking
forward to doing it (Sunday), because I wasn't
really the underdog, but I wasn't the dominant
car. I wanted to see if the driver could step
up. That's why it feels special."
It felt like the same old frustrating story
for the other Pro Stock drivers, who regarded
Anderson's early struggles as a sign his stranglehold
on the class was slipping. It wasn't. He advanced
to beat Dave Connolly and Line before dashing
Morgan's dream of his first win since August
2002 at Sonoma. Morgan lost to Anderson at Seattle
last year in his previous final-round effort.
This time, ironically, the legendary Glidden
was tuning Morgan's car.
Anderson defeated Larry Morgan this time by
.007 of a second (with a 6.812-second e.t. at
203.00 mph to Morgan's 6.850/202.58) to match
Bob Glidden's record of five consecutive victories
in a single season.
"Maybe this weekend was even more deflating
to them," Anderson said of the Pro Stock field,
"because I was able to win, not having the dominant
car. I can remember when Jeg (Coughlin Jr.)
was kicking everybody's butt. He never had the
dominant car. He'd just kick their butt on race
day. He found a way to win.
"That's what you're going to have to do to
win championships. You have to win ugly. You
have to win the ones you're not supposed to
win. I wasn't supposed to win this one, but
I won it," he said.
And with a nod to the upcoming NHRA Route 66
Nationals at Joliet, Ill., Anderson added, "Hopefully
we won't race like this, that it won't be so
gut-wrenching. Hopefully we'll be back to a
couple-hundredths (of a second) advantage. If
we're not, I'm fine with it -- I kind of like
racing like we did today."
The victory was the first in four consecutive
final rounds for Anderson at the Southern Nationals.
It also was the 22nd of his career in 33 final-round
appearances. He leads closest competitor Kurt
Johnson in the class standings by 243 points.
The Route 66 Nationals is the second of back-to-back-to-back
races and the second of six races in a seven-week
stretch.
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