Phoenix: Greg Anderson Saturday report

Starting Ninth in Arizona, Anderson Works with NHRA to Resolve Issues with Racing Surface The second day of qualifying at the Arizona Nationals took on a different complexion, as rain forced NHRA officials to curtail the day's action to a single ...

Starting Ninth in Arizona, Anderson Works with NHRA to Resolve Issues with Racing Surface

The second day of qualifying at the Arizona Nationals took on a different complexion, as rain forced NHRA officials to curtail the day's action to a single mid-afternoon qualifying session. In addition, the cooler ambient temperatures totally changed the tuning scenario for the naturally-aspirated Pro Stock Cars. Of greater significance, however, the racing surface continued to be a major issue, as the Pro Stock class suffering its second severe crash in as many days, with countless drivers experiencing problems during their runs.

Therefore, at the end of qualifying, Summit Racing Pontiac driver Greg Anderson was more concerned about rectifying what he saw as a problem with the track than with his ninth starting spot, gained from his 6.652-second pass on his opening attempt.

"I really don't know what to say," said Anderson. "As we saw in that last session, there's an issue with the racetrack. Unfortunately, I don't know what it is or how to fix it, and we've just had a meeting with Dan Olsen and the NHRA and they want to fix it as well, but they're not sure what it is either, which is obviously a problem.

"The way things are at the moment, not only can you not make a quality run, but you also can't judge whether you ran well or not. Besides, there has to be a reason why we've crashed two race cars this weekend, and why so many of us had problems. I can feel it inside my Summit Racing Pontiac and see it on my computer graph after the run. The way this track is at the moment, I would compare it to Columbus 2003 (when two Pro Stock cars crashed during the first round of eliminations.)

"It's a bad deal, but it's in our hands as racers, drivers and the NHRA to figure it out and get it fixed. We're going to work on it all night and tomorrow morning, studying every possibility trying to figure out what to do, and hopefully we'll come up with an answer. Otherwise, we run the risk of losing more race cars, which is unacceptable."