Greg Anderson Wins Sixth Pro Stock World Championship in KB Titan Winner-Take-All Final
The 2024 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Pro Stock championship came down to the final round at the final race of the season, and the most winning driver in the history of the class showed the world that he still has what it takes to get it done. Driving his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, Greg Anderson threw down the quickest passes of the weekend in stunning succession at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals to make his way to the 182nd final of his career and score the 106th Pro Stock win of his career. In doing so, he locked down a sixth Pro Stock world title of his own and 10th for the esteemed KB Titan Racing team.
“I just about can’t believe it,” said Anderson, who earned a trophy at historic In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip for the 15th time. “I’ve been thinking about this scenario the last week and a half, hoping, praying, and wishing – and it came true. I’m a very lucky man, and I can’t thank all my guys, my crew, Mr. Hendrick and the great folks at HendrickCars.com, Summit Racing, and everyone who supports us. That support is everything. This is incredible.”
The final round came down to Anderson and KB Titan teammate Dallas Glenn, who put forth the best season of his young career. Glenn won the regular season and was the points leader for much of the year, battling it out with another young driver, Aaron Stanfield, as they traded the points lead and held the veteran drivers at bay.
Anderson, though, had the car to beat on many occasions. Eight times this season, including at this weekend’s In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, Anderson was the No. 1 qualifier. He won Phoenix and the Charlotte race in the spring and reached three additional finals through the season – including two during the pivotal Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
“I struggled the last few months, though, and I hadn’t been able to close the deal and win a race,” said Anderson. “I’ve had a great car, but something crazy would happen every weekend. It was like a slug to the gut – you have to take it, go back to work, and figure it out for the next race. We kept at it, and I kept dreaming that maybe one day things wouldn’t go wrong. Today was that day. My HendrickCars.com Chevy was just flawless all day long, I didn’t screw it up driving, nothing crazy happened, we got four win lights, and we are world champs.”
Sunday in Pomona was the stuff drag racing dreams are made of as the three drivers in contention for the series title were spaced perfectly on the ladder to create a series of insanely intense, nail-biting scenarios.
With Anderson on the same side of the ladder as Stanfield, the two could possibly meet in the semifinals, and if they did, Anderson would hold his fate in his own hands: if he beat incoming points leader Stanfield, whom he trailed by two rounds, then won the race, he would win the championship. On the other side of the ladder, Glenn was dreaming of his first world title, and his steady hand at the starting line and strong performance in the Countdown – including two wins and a pair of semifinal-finishes – made him an enormous threat to any driver standing in his way.
In the semifinals, Anderson did indeed defeat Stanfield, while Glenn beat last season’s world champion, Erica Enders, setting up an all-KB Titan final round that assured a 10th championship for the team.
Anderson had dealt some of the quickest passes of the season in the earlier rounds, utilizing a 6.492, 211.66 to defeat Kenny Delco in round one, then a nearly identical 6.492, 211.63 to shut down teammate Cory Reed in round two. His critical win in the semifinals over Stanfield was a monster 6.488, 211.43 that was low elapsed time of the weekend by a sizable margin. He also left ahead of Stanfield, .030 to .034, something that he had been challenged with all season long.
But he knew that the final would be his toughest match of the day. In the end, Anderson was .031 on the tree to Glenn’s .018 and made up the difference at the finish line, 6.501, 211.30 to 6.516, 210.50. The margin of victory was just .002-second.
“These guys are relentless,” said Anderson. “It’s effortless for them – they cut double-oh and teen lights like it’s nothing for them, and I have to dig down and come up with an out-of-body experience, basically. But I stayed close enough to them, and I got it done. I had a great hot rod, and that made a difference.
“Dallas was deadly all weekend; I think that .018 in the final was probably his worst light. I tried to fast-forward yesterday to today and think, if there was some way I was able to make it to the final and Dallas was there, what was I going to do? He was going to be somewhere between .000 and .010, and what the heck was I going to do? Thank God, I did just enough.”
Anderson is now tied at six NHRA Pro Stock championships with Warren Johnson and Enders, and the trio trails class leader Bob Glidden, who has 10. For Anderson, the accomplishment is a testament to more than his own abilities. The championship belongs to every member of the team that he had a heavy hand in putting together 22 years ago.
“We’ve built a helluva organization here with KB Titan Racing,” he said, smiling ear-to-ear. “I’m proud of the career I’ve had, but what I’m most proud of is putting this team together with Ken Black. He handed it to me and said, go figure out who you want to work for you, and that’s what we did. He stepped back and let me build a team, and what I’m most proud of is who I’ve surrounded myself with all these years. I learned through experience that the people are absolutely everything. It’s not an individual sport. I didn’t win all of these races and championships – this KB Titan Racing team did, and I can’t thank all of them enough. We did this together.”
This story was originally published on November 18, 2024.
The post Greg Anderson Wins Sixth Pro Stock World Championship in KB Titan Winner-Take-All Final first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
