Sat, 05 Nov 2016, 22:17 PM One-on-One with Greg Anderson

Courtesy of NHRA Communications Photo copyright 2016 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Greg Anderson celebrates Sonoma win.

Greg Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro. Greg is a four-time Pro Stock world champion. He's notched seven victories this season and 13 final-round appearances. Greg also has five Auto Club NHRA finals victories. Greg, thanks for calling in today. Tell me, how are you and your buddy Jason getting along these days?

GREG ANDERSON: Probably a whole lot better than we are come this Sunday. No, we've been doing good. We've been together a long time, and you know, we work as one around here at KB Racing. We try to make each other's car as fast as we can every day of our life, and we have a great battle. When we put the helmet on, obviously, and stage, you don't want to beat anybody more than you want to beat your teammate. It's like a brother, like you want to pick on your brother. So it's a battle then, but in the downtime in between and the time at the shop here and the time leading up to the race, we're one. We work as one.

No problem right now. A lot of harmony right now, but it may not be that way come this Sunday.

Q. Earlier this year you and Jason dominated the start of the season, and then you guys saw some competition nip at your heels. With the reset of the points and the start of the Countdown and drivers like Allen Johnson and Vincent Nobile, Alex Laughlin and Shane Gray starting to perform pretty well, did you ever think, hey, this might be tougher than we thought?

GREG ANDERSON: Absolutely. We've been scared to death that after the dream season that we've had that come Countdown time, come playoff time, it's going to be a different story, it's going to be hard to close the deal. It's been a lot of sweat and a lot of nervous nights and a lot of nervous days, and we certainly made our mistakes through the Countdown. We've raced pretty good, fairly well, but we've made mistakes at several of the races, and thank the Lord that some of the other guys have, too, so it's kind of swapped back and forth. We've each landed blows to each other throughout the races, and we've come out with more knocks in the nose I guess than the rest of them, so we've been fortunate. But yeah, we've been scared the whole time. You just don't want a season like this with the dominance we had early to go up in flames and not get the deal closed, but just because you had a great early season or mid-season, whatever you want to call it, it doesn't get you anything. When you reset the playoffs, it's game on, start over, everybody starts from scratch, and that huge points advantage we had went away, so we had to regroup and find an extra gear.

Anderson and team celebrate Sonoma win.

Fortunately we've been able to do that. We're going into Pomona with I don't really think realistically -- barring lightning striking, Jason not qualifying or me not qualifying, I don't really think anybody can catch Jason for the title except me, and I can be caught from behind for second place if I stumble. As long as he qualifies, nobody can catch him for the title. Hopefully it comes down to we do our job in qualifying, it comes down to a two-car battle, and the dream scenario, obviously in our mind, if we can make our way through competition on Sunday, qualify well, and on opposite sides of the ladder make our way through the rounds on Sunday and match up in the final round for all the marbles, that would be a dream come true just to have that opportunity.

I remember standing on the starting line a couple years ago when it came down to the final round with Jason and Erica and just thinking to myself, 'Man, would I love to be in his shoes right now, would I love to have this opportunity.' You can't imagine an opportunity like that once in a lifetime. If it were to happen, that would be the best scenario ever, and may the best man win.

Looking forward to this weekend, and hopefully we can execute and make it a dream race.

Greg Anderson

Q. It's down to the final round, it's you and Jason; what have you got in your pocket or wherever you would put it for good luck?

GREG ANDERSON: I've got a lot of stuff in my pocket. Every race I've got medals from soldiers, I've got a good luck charm from my wife. I've always got something in my pocket, so it may be something different come Pomona, but there's always going to be what I consider a lucky something in my pocket, and usually have a medal or something taped to the dashboard in the race car, and yeah, if people tell you they're not superstitious when it comes to things like this, they're probably lying.

I will try anything. I'll take anything, I'll try anything, I'll take a chance on anything that could possibly help me.

It's going to be cool either way that it goes down here, and as I said, dream scenario would be for us to plow through the field and make our way to the final and then duke it out in the final, and it would be historic. It would be the coolest thing of my career and probably Jason's too. That's what we're going to hope for and look for, but there's a lot of land mines along the way. We've got to dodge them all, and hopefully we can make some memories come Pomona.

Q. You call it the coolest thing in your career; where would it rank in your life?

GREG ANDERSON: It's big in my life. I mean, since I last won a championship, I've gone through a heart reconstruction, heart surgery and had questions in my mind if I'd ever be able to do this again. I remember laying in the hospital bed after getting my aortic valve replaced and hearing the doctors talk like I'd probably never race again. There was problems, there was issues that went down, and a lot of things went through your mind, 'This could be the end of it. I may never even be able to get back in a race car.'

As it turned out, we got everything rectified, and I got a second chance to get in the race car, and everything went great, and it's been two years to build my way back to the top, and now I've got that chance. Kind of a second lease on life, a second lease on drag racing, and I really want to make the most of it. It would probably make it the most special one yet.

Q. Greg, you've got five victories at the finals, four world championships. How can you use that past experience specifically at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to make that final push against your teammate Jason?

GREG ANDERSON: It is. It's a great racetrack for me. It's a feel good racetrack for me. I love racing there. I love come Sunday and trying to make your way through the rounds and come final round when that sun goes down and it's dusk and you've got lights shining and the grandstand packed. I love it. The only problem, so does my partner. He loves it, too, and he's had a lot of success there.

It sets up great for both of us. You know, if you could pick anyplace you'd love for a dream finish to come down like that, this would be the place. It's magical. It's where drag racing started, and it's just got so much history. It's so cool to be able to race there in the final round, as I say, when the sun goes down.

I love it. I look forward to it. My partner does, too, and it's all good, so if that happens to be and we can make that happen, it's going to be one we'll never forget.