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GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Greg Anderson and the KB Titan Racing team closed the door on the winter with a resounding thud, charging into NHRA's 75th anniversary season with a bolstered roster and horsepower that promises to make this a year to remember. For Anderson, the 57th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals will be positively unforgettable. Drama in qualifying and a strong rebound on Sunday sent him to an astounding 192nd final round of his career, but that was only part of Anderson's Gainesville story. His son, Cody, also made his long-anticipated NHRA Pro Stock debut. Qualifying was a surprising battle, one that Anderson and company certainly did not expect. The driver of the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro holds the longest running qualifying streak amongst professional NHRA drivers. For 490 consecutive events, Anderson had qualified for the field - the next closest was Top Fuel's Tony Schumacher, whose streak of 444 comes with a somewhat different perspective as he has not raced the full schedule each season - but Pro Stock's most decorated competitor found himself in a precarious position as the weekend progressed. The severity of the situation came across quietly at first as the excitement of the next generation of Pro Stock entering the scene bubbled amongst observers. Veteran Anderson was on the outside of the field by the slimmest of margins after Friday evening's session, and on Saturday he had to make up, at the very least, .002-second to break in. Confidence was steady in the KBT camp, but the air and racing surface set up a nerve-wracking scenario. The team knew they needed a safe run, but the 6.608 that came up on the scoreboard was not going to get the job done. "We had a little misfortune Friday and broke an engine, and that put us at the front of the pack in the first qualifying session," said Anderson. "Nobody was able to get off that starting line. We had to make some major moves to back it down, and we just backed it down too far and ran too slow. We had to get some guts for the last session and just go for it, because if we didn't, we were done." The right calls were made, and the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet sailed down the quarter-mile dragstrip to a perfectly balanced 6.556. With a sigh of relief for all, Anderson was in the field in the No. 13 position, and, stunningly, he was on the same side of the ladder as Cody. With 21 cars vying for position in the 16-car field, it was impressive that Cody had even made the show, but when he sliced off a crispy .021-second reaction time and surged past veteran Greg Stanfield's troubled pass in the first round with a 6.585-second hit, it set the stage for a quarterfinals match that neither Anderson nor his son would soon forget. Anderson had defeated first-round opponent Deric Kramer, 6.564 to 6.568, to set up the family's first official father-and-son battle. Although the fight was short-lived as Cody missed a step in the staging process and left before the tree came down (a "rookie mistake," the humble newbie readily admitted), the mere fact that they got to race one another so soon in Cody's career stood out.
The next round sent Anderson up for a meeting with another six-time Pro Stock champion, Erica Enders. Anderson got the jump and left the starting line .004-second ahead of his opponent, sealing the deal at the top end with low elapsed time and top speed of the round, 6.571, 209.17, to top a 6.602, 208.33. The final round was set, and KB Titan Racing-powered Matt Hartford was in the other lane. Although KBT's Cody Coughlin had earned the No. 1 qualifier award (the second of his career), it was Hartford who claimed the most bonus points in qualifying. Anderson knew the final round would be a hearty challenge, but his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was a top performer on raceday - and as the most winning driver in the history of the class, he had a very good shot. The first race of the season came to a conclusion with Anderson leaving first and Hartford powering past for the win light, 6.530, 210.41 to 6.562, 209.72. "It was a good weekend," said Anderson, who will arrive at the next race, the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals March 20-22, No. 2 in the Pro Stock standings. "We dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole in qualifying, but we recovered well and certainly could have won this race if it wasn't for the buzzsaw we ran into with Matt Hartford in the final. The good news is, that's our engine, so we know what it can run like, and that's a confidence builder for this team. We just have to figure out what he's doing better than us. "We're off to a good start. You come to the first race every year not sure how you're going to stack up, but it looks like we did, in fact, have a good winter of work. We're definitely capable of winning a lot of races this year, and the KB Titan team is strong, from top to bottom. Any one of these cars can win the race, everybody has the same opportunity to go slug it out. It was a great weekend with the recovery we made and making it to the final round, and my HendrickCars.com Chevy is great. Cody qualifying and winning the first round, then getting to race him - you only get one first race, and this was a memorable one for both of us. It's going to be a fun year." The next event on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule in NHRA's 75th anniversary season will be the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by NGK Spark Plugs at Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix, March 20-22, 2026. NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Standings (unofficial) after Gainesville, race 1 of 20
1. Matt Hartford, 125 2. Greg Anderson, 92 3. Dallas Glenn, 74 4. Erica Enders, 72 5. Cody Coughlin, 65 6. Matt Latino, 57 7. Aaron Stanfield, 54 8. Cody Anderson, 52 9. Greg Stanfield, 39 10. Deric Kramer, 35 11t. Eric Latino, 33 11t. Troy Coughlin Jr., 33
11 NHRA Pro Stock Championships KB Titan Racing includes NHRA Pro Stock drivers Greg Anderson, a six-time world champion and the most winning driver in the category; reigning Pro Stock world champion Dallas Glenn; Eric Latino; Matt Latino; Cody Coughlin; 2026 Rookie of the Year contender Cody Anderson; Deric Kramer; and Matt Hartford
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