Disappointment would be a reasonable response to an early exit after winning the most recent race, but this weekend at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas left Greg Anderson and his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro team reassured that they are well on their way back to the winner’s circle with one of the best cars in NHRA Pro Stock competition.
Phoenix winner Anderson came to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a good hand and raked in five bonus points in qualifying, two in the first round as a reward for being the second-quickest of the session, and three in the final qualifier as the quickest of the bunch. His powerful racecar led him into raceday in the No. 3 position.
“I was happy with qualifying,” said Anderson. “I knew we were on the right track, and we absolutely had the ability to be the best out there on Sunday. After making a good run in the first round, we were confident that today could be our day. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way for us, but we aren’t going to kick rocks. There’s no time for that; we’ve got to get back home and get ready to do this again in Charlotte in two weeks. That’s another home race for us, another four-wide, and another opportunity to win.”
Anderson’s HendrickCars.com Chevy rocketed into Las Vegas eliminations with a 6.597-second pass at 206.23 mph, low elapsed time of the entire event, to emerge as the winner in his quad. First-round opponent Erica Enders was second to also advance on a 6.616, 206.83, while Aaron Stanfield and Sienna Wildgust finished third and fourth, respectively.
In round two, it was Enders (6.600, 207.46) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (6.605, 207.18) to advance, while Anderson’s 6.602, 206.29 and David Cuadra’s 6.644, 205.22 did not make the cut.
“I had the car this weekend, and we could have gone back-to-back with wins, but this doesn’t throw us off pace,” said Anderson, who remains No. 3 in the Pro Stock points. “We’ve been at this a long, long time, and we’re better than that. We’ll shake this off and get right back to work. The KB Titan Racing team gets to sleep in our own beds next week, and Charlotte is home for Rick Hendrick and the HendrickCars.com folks as well. It’s another very special race for us, and all of our friends and family and everyone from Hendrick will be watching. We’ll be ready.”
The next event in the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series will be the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, April 26-28.
This story was originally published on April 16, 2024. 
