Greg Anderson has always said that he favors Indy, and it would seem that Indy favors Greg Anderson, as well. In Friday qualifying after a blistering hot day at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Anderson rose to the challenge and powered his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro to the top of the qualifying sheet. If the provisional pole should hold over two more days of qualifying, it will be Anderson’s fifth No. 1 of the season – but with the weather set to change dramatically in the days ahead, he and his KB Titan Racing team certainly won’t be resting on their laurels.
Five-time world champion Anderson, the most winning driver in the history of Pro Stock with 105 national event trophies, has been the Indy low qualifier on separate different occasions. He’s also one of the most winning drivers in the history of the event with seven previous U.S. Nationals victories. Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden has the most U.S. Nationals wins with nine.
Anderson started the long Labor Day Weekend on the right foot as he powered to a 6.621-second pass at 206.23 mph in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. It tied incoming Pro Stock titlist Erica Enders but he had a bit more HP and won it on speed, 206.23 to her 206.13 mph offering.
“Normally when we come here, the Friday night run sets the field,” said Anderson. “You get your Friday night shot under the lights, the track cools down, everybody goes out there and throws down. Nine times out of 10 it ends up holding up throughout the weekend, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case. It’s going to cool down quite a bit the next couple of days.”
The number that popped up on the scoreboard was unexpected for Anderson, who picked up four bonus points as the quickest car of the session. Typically, the quickest run of a session gets three extra marks – but in Indy, points count for more. In addition to bonus points, the regular points count for points-and-a-half.
“We wanted to come here tonight and just get some data to try get ready for tomorrow and Sunday,” Anderson continued. “We think those are going to be the pole-setting runs. This was a bonus, I didn’t expect to go out there and get all the points tonight and get low e.t. There’s a lot of room left, it wasn’t really a clean run, so I was shocked when they told me I got the No. 1 spot. It’s a pleasant surprise, and for me that’s great news because I know we can do a better job tomorrow.”
Qualifying will continue on Saturday on drag racing’s biggest stage with two more sessions, and on Sunday, two final qualifying rounds will commence ahead of Monday eliminations at the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals.
This story was originally published on August 30, 2024. 
