Brainerd: Greg Anderson Friday notes

Third on Friday, Anderson Aims Higher for Saturday in Brainerd

Coming off a runner-up finish at their last outing in Sonoma, Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing Equipment team came into Friday's opening day at the Lucas Oil Nationals determined to maintain their forward momentum. Despite having to deal with the unusually high temperatures and humidity at Brainerd International Raceway, they accomplished their goal, posting one of the quickest times in each of the two se ssions, with their 6.742-second, 204.01 mph best placing them third midway through qualifying. Even so, Anderson was confident there was room left for improvement, especially in light of the cooler temperatures forecast for Saturday.

"We made two solid runs, and even though they could have been better, the good news is that today was really just a tune-up for tomorrow, when it should be cooler," said Anderson. "Today's times will help us better understand what goes on out there, and we think we learned a few things. We certainly don't feel we're stuck in the third position, but we will have to take advantage of the conditions to move up the ladder.

"Still, it wasn't a bad first day. You naturally feel a lot better when you make two good runs, and the only guy who's com pletely happy is (provisional #1 qualifier) Mike Edwards. We're not far off -- we're just a tick off here and there, so we should be able to tune it up and get right back where we need to be. All in all, it was a positive day, and tomorrow is shaping up to be even better."

-credit: kbr