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MODERATOR: Greg Anderson is the driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro. He is a four-time Pro Stock world champion and currently sits second in points. He's 72 points behind points leader Erica Enders. Let's start with Reading. Obviously every time you pull the car out of the trailer, you want to win. That's the goal of any racer. But now that we start looking at points and going rounds, you race to a runner-up finish. Erica had troubles early in the day. Is there some joy that you could take out of Reading or did that still sting not getting that win? GREG ANDERSON: Well, definitely some joy but definitely still stings. You're right on that one. The first two races, actually the first three races I've had a great, great, great race car. I've had probably the best car on the grounds, and the first two races we went to, Charlotte and St. Louis, Erica just flat did a better job of driving hers, and she won the race and runner-up the next one, basically through car performance and even more importantly on holeshot on her driving end of it. So she's been driving flawlessly. They had a skip this weekend. They had some engine troubles first and second round, and she ended up going out second round. Opened the door for me to gain some big points on her, and I did gain points, but I didn't finish it off. I left 20 on the table. I definitely felt I had the best car there and should have won the event, and I slipped in the final round on reaction time and got beat. It's all on me, and you know, I did make up ground on her and got back in the hunt but could have closed the gap even more by 20, and more importantly got the race win at Reading, which is what I really enjoy doing. I go to these races to try to win them, and I know the championship is important to everybody, and it certainly is here, too, but I live for the minute. I live for the race that I'm at trying to win that race, and I didn't win it when I should have. It definitely still stings a little bit but got to get my head straight, got to get right. Got three chances left to try to make up that 70-point deficit. The good news is I've got the car that can do it. The car has been fast. The car has been getting bonus points at every race I go to for quick qualifying runs, and it's certainly capable of going the distance on Sunday. I've just got to find a way to get myself back on the rails that I've slipped off of a little bit these last few faces and get my driving back where it needs to be, and then I think I can give her a serious run for her money. But she's very tough. She's not making mistakes and she's very tough, so it's going to be a heck of a battle the rest of the way.
GREG ANDERSON: Well, it's where I hoped we would be, but the bottom line was last year, yeah, I thought we could make up enough points to get in the Countdown, but the bottom line was we just struggled with the performance of the race car a little bit. Even if I would have made the Countdown, I probably had just about zero chances of winning it anyway. So we're going to call last year a rebuilding year, but this year has been a completely different story. My guys have done a whale of a job with the race car. They've got the performance better all through the year, and it absolutely is right now the baddest car out there. They've given me everything I need to go ahead and win races and win this championship, and it's up to me to carry the rest of the ball over the goal line, and I've stumbled on the 1-yard line the last couple of races out, so I need to find a way to punch it in the end zone these last three races, and I think I can get it done. But completely different year than last year. I certainly feel better. I feel great, and the heart is wonderful. Got a second lease on this deal, and I'm trying to make the most of it, and I've got every piece of equipment I need to get it done. I just need to finish my end of the bargain. Q. After winning four championships and being right there in the thick of it this year, how does this run at the championship differ? Does it feel different than the other four? GREG ANDERSON: It is very different. Not only am I older, but like I said, I went through that complete rebuilding year last year. There were certainly times there where I wondered if I'd ever be able to get in a race car again and drive one, let alone compete for a championship. I'm a very lucky man, and you know, everything is on a silver platter for me to go ahead and capitalize on it and go back to the top again, which I had no earthly idea if I'd ever be able to do again. So very special, very unique opportunity, and you know, at this point in my career, you just never know when it's going to be your last race or last championship, so you've got to try and make the most of it, and I would like nothing better than to finish this year off on top. It would be a great story for me personally and all my support group here, what we've gone through the last year and a half. It would really be a neat story, I think, here at the shop. It would probably be my most special championship ever if I can get it done.
GREG ANDERSON: Well, it certainly gets mentioned both ways. No matter who wins, everybody is always going to think somebody purposely laid down for somebody, but no, we don't do that. We've never done that and we're not going to start at this point in our career. You've got to have pride in what you do, you know, and if we're going to go on and win a championship, you don't want an asterisk by it. You don't want somebody saying, well, it was half handed to you, so you want nothing to do with that. We've been able to win it before and absolutely earn it on our own, and that's the only way it should be done, so that's the way it is. We are teammates, but we are separate. We're separate entities, and he's won championships, I've won championships, and in those years that we've won or lost we've had to go head to head with each other. A lot of times, yes, those have decided who's going to be the champion. But that's the way it should be. You've got to feel good about yourself at the end of the day, and you've got to feel good about that win, that championship that you won, and it's that asterisk thing that they always talk about. You don't want that next to your name. Q. Greg, from what you were saying and from what I've gleaned from all these great champions in the past and the present, it's hard to try harder at this level. Is there a best way to approach every round when it has that Countdown intensity?
If that doesn't work -- which sometimes that does work; sometimes when extra pressure is added, it seems like sometimes you do a better job. But it's been the opposite for me in this Countdown. So somehow, some way, I've got to figure out how to get it out of my mind and forget about that there's a championship on the line and just tell myself when I wheel on up there that I'm a lucky guy and I'm about to wheel a really cool hotrod down the racetrack and enjoy the ride and have fun with it and not worry about anything else, and that's when I'm going to get my best result. It's a different deal. You try and figure out what you want to do every time you go up there, but lately as it's worked out for me, I need to be at ease and I need to not think about it and need to not worry about it. In the past there's been times that I've pressed harder and got more angry, gritted my teeth more, whatever you want to call it, got more psyched up, and that's worked out, but it's not working right now, so time to find a plan B, and plan B for me is going to be to get it out of my mind what's on the line. Q. That's a good analysis, good mental analysis. Is there a way to share your championship ability, say, if you were trying to give advice to others? GREG ANDERSON: Well, like I said, there's several different ways of going about this, and obviously people watching from the sideline think, man, how could you have had a reaction like that; how could you have handled that? Did you fall asleep? Were you not trying? And quite honestly it's the opposite. Sometimes you just try too hard, you press too hard and you tense up too much, and when you tense your muscles up they don't work too good. It's hard to explain to people, but you've got to do what got you there, and what got you there is just going to race and just relaxing and having fun and going out and making runs in your race car. It works good in qualifying, and come race day, things seem to change, and that's why, because you tense up and you put too much pressure on yourself. It's a mind deal. It's absolutely 100 percent in your mind, it's mind over matter. You've got to decide to yourself, you know, what kind of mindset you want to have when you get up there, and everybody is different, but for me right now, it's going to be just basically to relax, have fun, put a smile on my face and enjoy the ride.
GREG ANDERSON: I haven't figured out what I'm going to do yet this weekend, but it's probably not going to be anything too high tech. There's a big NASCAR race in town this weekend; the Charlotte NASCAR race is down this weekend. I'm probably going to stay as far away from racing activity as I can. I'm going to do something that's not near a racetrack, not racing involved, and get my mind completely off of it, so when I get back next week to Dallas, I'll want to go racing again. And sometimes -- I love to race as much as anybody, and a lot of times I say I wish we could race every week, but sometimes you've got to get away from it and see life. Racers, we've kind of got blinders on sometimes; we think there's nothing more important in life than going to that racetrack and racing our cars. But there is. There's other things more important, and I'm going to do something that my family enjoys this weekend that gets my mind completely off of racing so when I get to Dallas I'll be hungry again and I'll want to get back in that race car. Q. Okay, so my thought that I might text you tonight when there are several Cup drivers who get a chance to run down ZMAX Dragway, you're not going to be there? GREG ANDERSON: I'm not going to be there. I did get an invite. They actually wanted to bring our cars over, make a couple of exhibition runs for those guys, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stay away from the racetrack for a while and recharge our batteries. Q. Looking at your teammate Jason Line, he has some uncharacteristic first-round losses in Charlotte and St. Louis, lost in the second round in Reading. Are you guys trying anything different with that program, or is it just -- they've been close racing, but has it just been missing it just a little bit? GREG ANDERSON: Yeah, unfortunately we've just been off with his race car for the last really two, three months. Somehow we lost our way with his race car and the performance hasn't been there. When the performance isn't there, sometimes you get a little crossed up in your mind, too, and you get dejected, you get disgusted, and you're struggling to drive again. So it's been a little bit of both. He's struggled a little bit on the driving end and lost a few races on holeshots, but more times than not for the last two, three months, we haven't had the performance in his car, and I think we've finally turned the corner this weekend and learned some things about what we've been doing wrong on his car. So we fully expect when we get to Dallas we're going to have three team cars - myself, Jason and Bo Butner - that can qualify in the top three, four, and have a chance of beating anybody we race out there and trying to knock some of the competition out of our way. Excited about getting to Dallas. I think finally we'll have three equal cars, and when that happens, Jason's mind comes right back into focus, too, and he becomes a great driver. Looking forward to the future for him, too.
GREG ANDERSON: Well, I can tell you one thing, it's going to be more fun to race that way. When it's hot and sweaty and greasy out there, yes, like you said, it's tough on the fans, but it's certainly tough on us, too. It's not fun buckling into that race car with all that fire suit and helmet on when it's 95 degrees. I'm glad they did that, and I'm excited that it's going to be another super-fast track as part of the Countdown. Those are the ones we enjoy the most. We've had great success through the summer racing in the hot conditions, so I've got a car that does like hot conditions, also, but personally as a driver and as a racer, it's a whole lot more fun to race when it's comfortable out there and the race cars run faster. That's what we're all about as racers. We want to go as fast as we can, and the cooler the conditions, the better the conditions, the better we can run. So looking forward to getting to Dallas in real good conditions. Q. It's the 30th anniversary of the Fall Nationals, and when that track came online it was credited for changing the way NHRA did business, et cetera. Is that the way that you still look at that 30 years later, where the Motorplex stands? GREG ANDERSON: Absolutely. It started it all. The Motorplex name was perfect for it, and a lot of people have followed suit ever since, and now we've got a lot of great facilities on the circuit. It definitely started there. It'll always be the Motorplex, and it's held up through, what has it been, 20-some years or whatever it's been since it came around, and it's still just as good a race surface as it ever was. It's still fun to go there. It's still fun to call it the Motorplex, and absolutely, it started the game. It started the ball rolling.
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