World champ Erica Enders dealing with ‘unhappy’ car as Reading turns to eliminations

READING, PA – Two-time Pro Stock world champ Erica Enders only made one decent pass in qualifying for the 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals, but the ever-hopeful Texan says she’s confident team owner Richard Freeman has the crew in place to turn their fortunes around during Sunday’s eliminations at Maple Grove Raceway.

“At the end of July when we were racing in Sonoma (Calif.), we didn’t get down the track in any of the four qualifying rounds,” Enders recalled. “On Sunday, we go out in the first round and we were second quickest of the entire session. It just so happens we had Bo (Butner) in the other lane and he was quickest so we lost, but we would have beaten any other car.

“That’s why you race on the track, not on paper. Anything can happen on race day. I have the best guys on the best team in the sport and we will remain positive. I’ve been known to get up on the wheel on occasion so we will see what happens tomorrow. All we can do is remain positive, do our best and let God do the rest.”

Enders opened qualifying for this weekend’s race with a 6.594 at 210.28 mph Friday early afternoon. She then slowed to a 6.638 at 210.47 mph in Round 2 later in the day. But the wheels came off Saturday with back-to-back shutoff runs.

“We came here with a slight renewed sense of hope after our test session in Charlotte,” Enders said. “I drove both mine and Jeg’s cars there. We felt like we were getting somewhere with the set-up and were pretty happy.

“We came here and start off Q1 with a 6.594 and we were qualified No. 4 after session 1. We came back and looked up the data and it was a terrible run so, we thought, ‘this is awesome, we can tune on this and get way better.

“We came back for Q2 and just kinda blew the tire off the car. I got it down the track but it went 6.63. Today we went out there both runs and shook the tires. I was in the right lane, almost hit the wall, this evening I was in the left lane and almost crossed the center line so the car is not happy.”

At the close of qualifying, Enders was slotted ninth, so she’ll surrender lane choice in Round 1 of eliminations to Chris McGaha, who qualified eight with a 6.593 at 210.24 mph.

“Something is bad wrong with the car but I wouldn’t want another group of guys to work on this Camaro than the crew I’ve got,” Enders said. “I’ll sleep good tonight. I have the best guys in the world working hard on making things right so we will continue to keep our chins up and remain positive.”

Pro Stock eliminations begin at 1 p.m., Sunday. Live eliminations will air on FOX Sports 1 from 2-5 p.m., Sunday. (All times are local and subject to change.)