NHRA Pro Stock Legend Greg Anderson Knows He's 'Close To the End'

• Greg Anderson, 60, with 95 career wins is second winningest active driver in the NHRA behind only John Force (151).

• Anderson trails only Warren Johnson (97) on the all-time Pro Stock list.

• Among active drivers in the Pro Stock class, Erica Enders and Anderson each have four championships. Anderson's last championship came in 2010.

Greg Anderson has the Toby Keith song “As Good As I Once Was" stuck in his psyche.

The NHRA Pro Stock veteran was No. 1 qualifier at both races so far this season, and at each he set the low elapsed time of the event. He won at Gainesville, Fla., where he also registered the fastest speed.

At the four-wide Las Vegas event, Anderson advanced from the first round, then he clocked the quickest E.T. in the second quad but lost because of a reaction time that was respectable but worst among the four racers.

That all sounds fantastic, and it is. But Anderson, who won the season-opening Gatornationals March 14, on his 60^th birthday, said he wonders how long he can stay competitive.

Earning that 95th Wally at Gainesville—his first in a dozen races dating back to October 2019—reassured him, especially in a class in which racers often win and lose at the starting line.

“I guess I can still compete with them. It makes you feel good,” Anderson said. “Put it on paper, I shouldn't be able to compete with them. They should be able to kill me on the starting line. So if I can hang near them enough to win a race, I’m still doing all right.

“I've said it for years to the reaction-time thing. It's not a physical thing; it's a mind thing. It's 100 percent a mind game. Ninety percent of this game is a mind game. So you can stack up with them. It just seems like you can't do it every single time like they can. It's easy for them. Unfortunately, the older we get we can still do it—we just can't do it every single time. It's like that song.”

He said, “That's the glaring difference between myself 20 years ago and now.”

It seems like the blink of an eye, the past 20 years. It hardly seems like two decades since Anderson earned his first victory, at Bristol, in 2001. And has that much time passed since he went on a tear of three consecutive championships from 2003-2005, winning 35 times in 69 races and setting track, class, and NHRA records that last today? In the past 19 years, he has finished in the top 10 in the final season points standings a total of 18 times, and in the top three for 14 of those years.

Funny Car legend John Force, with 151 victories and a 72nd birthday approaching May 4, is the only active driver to win more than Anderson. Idle Warren Johnson is second all-time with 97 trophies.

Anderson, with 95 wins, needs just three more victories to pass Johnson and become the winningest Pro Stock driver in NHRA history.

But the Pro Stock landscape has changed dramatically, just since last November. No longer are teammates and fellow champions Jason Line and Bo Butner competing alongside him. No longer does he have primary-level funding from longtime marketing partner Summit Racing Equipment. Instead he has to secure support on a race-by-race basis. No longer was he sure of winning at least one race a season—he was shutout in 2020, as rival Elite Motorsports grabbed the trophies at eight of the 11 races.

His chief rival, Erica Enders, matched his legacy with her fourth championship. Young shoes Matt Hartford and Aaron Stanfield won in Texas and were runners-up at other races, as were class rookies Troy Coughlin Jr. and Kyle Koretsky.

For Anderson, it’s a brave new world to navigate. But while he still is engaged and enthusiastic, he also recognizes that his future is uncertain.

“I feel like a senior citizen out here,” Anderson said during qualifying at last weekend’s Denso Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “It's interesting, though. It's kind of cool to watch these young kids. We all say we need young blood in the class, and we got it now. We absolutely have it. It used to be all old people like me, and now I'm probably one of one or two guys that are older. The rest of them are young. So the class switched, and that’s what it has to do to continue on.

“So it's all good. I'm loving it. I'm liking racing against these young kids,” he said. “They have no fear. They're all starting their careers and like (with) great equipment, which we couldn’t say that when we started. We had to claw and scrape just to get in a car period, and it certainly wasn’t competitive enough to win a race. And now it's like all these young cats, they’re jumping in race cars that are at the top of the performance chain and they can go out and win a race right away. Completely different deal, but it creates a hell of a challenge for an old guy like me. Well, I'm enjoying it. I'm loving it.”

Anderson said he sort of feels like The Lone Ranger in his pit, although the new-guard headliner Koretsky and his Chevy Camaro (with steady funding) literally are just steps from him.

“It’s weird without Jason, no question about it,” he said of three-time champion Line, who remains with the team as a mechanic and dyno/technical expert.

“So things have changed, but I still haven't lost any desire to do it. I still have the desire to do it. I'm still having a ball doing it. I think I'm having more fun now, because I know I'm close to the end and there's no guarantee on how much longer I'll be able to do it,” Anderson said.

“You’ve still got to have sponsors. You’ve still go to have funding to do it. So you never know when you’re just not going to have that and you won't be able to do it. So if this is the last year . . . Who knows? If this is the last race or the last year or there's two more years or five more, you don't know,” he said. “I think that's why I'm enjoying it so much more right now—because you know the end is coming.”

He said Funny Car’s almost-72-year-old John Force—one of the few racers who has more victories than he does—is “he's certainly proving people wrong. But the bottom line is you have to have the funding, and that's getting tougher every year to find the funding to be able to do it. I've got Denso this weekend. Summit is still here but in a minor role. They’re not a major sponsor anymore, so they're still on board and they're still great supporters, but not at the level they used to be.

"I have to find someone else for the door (sell advertising space for the door) every race I go to—or someone that needs to stay on there all year long is the goal. Hopefully before long, we'll have something that stays on the door the rest of the year. But if we can't come up with that, you never know when your last race, your last season is.”

If Anderson had to park his car, “I’d have to stay at my shop and work on engines and work on stuff and just continue rental programs like these,” he said, nodding to Koretsky’s car. “I’ve got to pay for the house car with sponsorships. It’s just the way it is. If I can continue to do that, I'll continue racing. If I can't, I'll stay at the shop. I won't race a car, but I'll continue furnishing engines and coming to tune race cars. I'll still like it, but it won't be as much of a thrill.

“I honestly think I'm enjoying the driving part more this year than ever, because I know I’m getting close to the end of the road,” Anderson said. “But I think even before that (last win) happened I said, ‘You know what? This is fun. If it goes away next month or three months or six months from now. I’m going to enjoy (it).’”

This season, Anderson could surpass Johnson, and it’s possible he could reach the 100-victory plateau before year’s end. But Anderson has more pressing matters than reaching his 100th trip to the winners circle.

“I would love to,” he said, “and that is a goal. That’s certainly my goal. I would love to, but if I don't, my life has still been pretty good.”