really kept track of anything like that. I never even thought of it, and I didn’ t know anything about it until a couple of races before it happened. People started saying,“ You’ re getting very close to a thousand round wins.” It’ s like,“ What? A thousand what?” I didn’ t really understand. And now that I think about it, that’ s a lot of damn round wins. That’ s pretty impressive.
Anytime you get in a rare record book alongside John Force, you’ ve done something well, obviously. We all certainly consider him the guy that’ s done the most for the sport, and no one will never get to the records that he’ s had. So anytime I can be mentioned with him, that’ s obviously a heck of a feather in the hat.
But like I said before, it’ s great, it’ s fantastic, it’ s wonderful, but I’ m not necessarily worried about the numbers like that. I worry about next week. Can I get to 1,002, 1,003? Just whatever it takes to win the next race, that’ s what I live for. 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. You never know when you’ re not going to be able to win again, so you’ ve got to cherish every one of them. You’ ve got to make them special and feel like they mean everything.
And that does for me. I still feel great. Every single race win I get, no matter what racetrack it’ s at, I feel fantastic. That’ s what does it for us and that’ s what moves you on to the next one and takes you home and makes you work harder to try and make a better product so you can go back to the next race and have a chance to win that next one.
Being in that exclusive club with John Force, perhaps the most iconic drag racer of all time, how surreal is that?
It’ s crazy. It’ s absolutely crazy. There’ s so many things that I don’ t even consider myself even close to being on the same level as John Force, but people start talking when you do things like this,“ You and John Force, you and John Force,” and I certainly don’ t consider myself an equal, no way, no how, and I probably never will, but it’ s still cool. It’ s still something I can talk about when I finally do step out of the car and stop doing this. Then I can think about this stuff more and it’ ll probably mean a lot more to me then. But as I’ m still doing it, it’ s just part of the deal it takes to win that next event. And that’ s everything to me.
How rewarding is it to hit that thousand-round mark while competing in this modern era of Pro Stock with so many tough, young competitors?
Yeah, it’ s definitely different now. I know it sounds like a cliché – this class gets tougher every year – but it does. In my opinion, it does. I was certainly around through all the days when Warren Johnson would win a lot, when Bob Glidden would win a lot, but the difference to me to back then is you had those two or three guys in the class that could win. Nobody else really could win, so it’ s not like that anymore.
Bob Glidden or Warren Johnson didn’ t rent engines and race cars the same as they were driving to guys that were 20-30 years younger than them. And that’ s what we’ re doing nowadays. We’ re renting the same exact equipment that I’ m racing, the same exact equipment that Erica Enders is racing. Her teammates all have the same car, the same engine, the same capability
Over the last several years, Anderson has immersed himself in the engine building side of the business, doing anything from machining components to assembling engines.
98 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 196