Anderson hit another historic milestone- 1,000 round wins- while competing at the Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway earlier this summer.
I’ m kind of an instant gratification guy. I don’ t look that far down the road, and I’ ve said it a million times, your last win could always be your last win.
and obviously it kind of spilled out into the public there in Bristol. We did a pretty good job of hiding it over the years. But the simple truth is yeah, we go to each race wanting to demolish that group and they go to each race wanting to demolish us, and that’ s good. What people got to see there at Bristol probably made fans a little bit more engaged. Maybe we created a few enemies, maybe we’ ve created a few more fans, but it moved the needle. It made you have to think about it.
I think that probably divided up some of our fan base, but that’ s good for the class, I think. I think it’ s a good deal. We opened up a lot of eyes that maybe we don’ t necessarily love each other as groups, but that’ s OK. I’ m good with that. We still can be civil, and obviously you have to be to be professional about this, but both groups want to win that bad.
Don’ t steal my porridge, you know what I mean? We’ re fighting for our own piece of cheese and it means everything to us. This is our living. It’ s how we make a living. In drag racing, there’ s not a ton of money to go around for everybody. Everybody’ s certainly not getting rich, so you’ re all fighting for that same piece of cheese. Sometimes the emotions spill over. Yes, most of the time you try to keep a cool head about it, but if once in a while it spills over, so be it. That’ s OK, and it just tells the true story. You just really want to win that bad. There’ s a lot of guys and a lot of girls in this class that really, really want to win bad.
Pro Stock has seen its ups and downs over the years. What’ s your take on where the class is today and where it’ s going?
Well, it’ s so different than it was years ago. These young guns can come in now and they can find sponsorship or find money on their own end and they can come in and they can join the Elite umbrella or the KB Titan umbrella or the McGaha umbrella and they can get great equipment and go out there, and if they have some driving talent, they can contend for wins instantly. That’ s something we didn’ t have years ago. That’ s the new Pro Stock and that’ s what I think has made it better.
I don’ t know why, I don’ t know how, but over the last two or three years since this has happened where you have all these people that can win, we still haven’ t had that many different winners, but you look at the class from top to bottom and everybody can run within basically two hundredths, maybe three hundredths in E. T. That can be made up on the starting line every time you go out there. Everybody that qualifies in Pro Stock can win that race, and you didn’ t have that years ago. I think the class is better than it’ s ever been because of that.
Like I said earlier, years ago, all I had to worry about was Greg Anderson and Jason Line, making our cars fast, and now I have to worry about seven or eight of them, making them all just as fast as my car. You had to swallow your pride a little bit, and it’ s just a new way. It’ s the new Pro Stock and I’ m good with it. I’ m all right with it because I think it’ s made the class better overall. I think the class is in a great place.
What do you say to the critics who call it“ Pro Camaro”?
You hear the grumblings or whatever:“ I wish it wasn’ t all Chevrolet. I wish it wasn’ t all Camaros. I wish it was what it used to be with Chevrolets and Mopars and Fords.” I do too.
106 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 196