Greg Anderson, HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro
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Six-time champ Greg Anderson takes HendrickCars.com to the final at unforgettable NHRA opener
GAINESVILLE (March 9, 2026) —Greg Anderson and the KB Titan Racing team closed the door on the winter with a resounding thud, charging into NHRA’s 75th anniversary season with a bolstered roster and horsepower that promises to make this a year to remember. For Anderson, the 57th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals will be positively unforgettable. Drama in qualifying and a strong rebound on Sunday sent him to an astounding 192nd final round of his career, but that was only part of Anderson’s Gainesville story. His son, Cody, also made his long-anticipated NHRA Pro Stock debut.
Qualifying was a surprising battle, one that Anderson and company certainly did not expect. The driver of the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro holds the longest running qualifying streak amongst professional NHRA drivers. For 490 consecutive events, Anderson had qualified for the field — the next closest was Top Fuel’s Tony Schumacher, whose streak of 444 comes with a somewhat different perspective as he has not raced the full schedule each season — but Pro Stock’s most decorated competitor found himself in a precarious position as the weekend progressed.
The severity of the situation came across quietly at first as the excitement of the next generation of Pro Stock entering the scene bubbled amongst observers. Veteran Anderson was on the outside of the field by the slimmest of margins after Friday evening’s session, and on Saturday he had to make up, at the very least, .002-second to break in.
Confidence was steady in the KBT camp, but the air and racing surface set up a nerve-wracking scenario. The team knew they needed a safe run, but the 6.608 that came up on the scoreboard was not going to get the job done.
“We had a little misfortune Friday and broke an engine, and that put us at the front of the pack in the first qualifying session,” said Anderson. “Nobody was able to get off that starting line. We had to make some major moves to back it down, and we just backed it down too far and ran too slow. We had to get some guts for the last session and just go for it, because if we didn’t, we were done.”
The right calls were made, and the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet sailed down the quarter-mile dragstrip to a perfectly balanced 6.556. With a sigh of relief for all, Anderson was in the field in the No. 13 position, and, stunningly, he was on the same side of the ladder as Cody.
With 21 cars vying for position in the 16-car field, it was impressive that Cody had even made the show, but when he sliced off a crispy .021-second reaction time and surged past veteran Greg Stanfield’s troubled pass in the first round with a 6.585-second hit, it set the stage for a quarterfinals match that neither Anderson nor his son would soon forget. Anderson had defeated first-round opponent Deric Kramer, 6.564 to 6.568, to set up the family’s first official father-and-son battle. Although the fight was short-lived as Cody missed a step in the staging process and left before the tree came down (a “rookie mistake,” the humble newbie readily admitted), the mere fact that they got to race one another so soon in Cody’s career stood out.
“It was so cool, and I’m so proud of him,” said Anderson with an enormous grin. “He’s just doing a fantastic job, and Greg Stanfield is a tough customer. Cody did his job and earned that win, and he’s got plenty of time to whip my butt out there. He can hold off for a little while.”
The next round sent Anderson up for a meeting with another six-time Pro Stock champion, Erica Enders. Anderson got the jump and left the starting line .004-second ahead of his opponent, sealing the deal at the top end with low elapsed time and top speed of the round, 6.571, 209.17, to top a 6.602, 208.33. The final round was set, and KB Titan Racing-powered Matt Hartford was in the other lane. Although KBT’s Cody Coughlin had earned the No. 1 qualifier award (the second of his career), it was Hartford who claimed the most bonus points in qualifying. Anderson knew the final round would be a hearty challenge, but his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was a top performer on raceday — and as the most winning driver in the history of the class, he had a very good shot.
The first race of the season came to a conclusion with Anderson leaving first and Hartford powering past for the win light, 6.530, 210.41 to 6.562, 209.72.
“It was a good weekend,” said Anderson, who will arrive at the next race, the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals March 20-22, No. 2 in the Pro Stock standings. “We dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole in qualifying, but we recovered well and certainly could have won this race if it wasn’t for the buzzsaw we ran into with Matt Hartford in the final. The good news is, that’s our engine, so we know what it can run like, and that’s a confidence builder for this team. We just have to figure out what he’s doing better than us.
“We’re off to a good start. You come to the first race every year not sure how you’re going to stack up, but it looks like we did, in fact, have a good winter of work. We’re definitely capable of winning a lot of races this year, and the KB Titan team is strong, from top to bottom. Any one of these cars can win the race, everybody has the same opportunity to go slug it out. It was a great weekend with the recovery we made and making it to the final round, and my HendrickCars.com Chevy is great. Cody qualifying and winning the first round, then getting to race him — you only get one first race, and this was a memorable one for both of us. It’s going to be a fun year.”
The next event on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule in NHRA’s 75th anniversary season will be the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by NGK Spark Plugs at Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix, March 20-22, 2026.
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Standings
(unofficial) after Gainesville, race 1 of 20
- Matt Hartford, 125
- Greg Anderson, 92
- Dallas Glenn, 74
- Erica Enders, 72
- Cody Coughlin, 65
- Matt Latino, 57
- Aaron Stanfield, 54
- Cody Anderson, 52
- Greg Stanfield, 39
- Deric Kramer, 35
- Eric Latino, 33
- Troy Coughlin Jr., 33
Step one, complete: Greg Anderson, son Cody both qualify for Gatornationals Pro Stock field
GAINESVILLE (March 7, 2026) —NHRA’s 75th anniversary season is destined to be one to remember, and it has definitely started on the right foot for Greg Anderson and his son, Cody. Anderson, driving the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro in the 50th anniversary season of Hendrick Automotive Group, had a surprising challenge in qualifying for this weekend’s Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. In the final hour, though, he and his experienced team dialed in to exactly what it would take to break in and race alongside Cody in his Pro Stock debut.
“We knew we would be alright, we just had to go up there and do what we know how to do,” said Anderson, who has the longest qualifying streak in NHRA professional racing. He has now qualified for 491 consecutive events.
Although seeing his son make his first official passes at a national event was thrilling for Anderson, the first day of qualifying left much to be desired in regard to his own position on the ladder. In the first session, a 6.595, 209.56 was decent, but it certainly wasn’t what the most winning driver in the history of the class had envisioned for the first run of his 28th season behind the wheel. He was No. 10 after the first session, and when his car gave him trouble in Q2, he was outside the field by .002-second.
“We had a little misfortune Friday and broke an engine, and that put us at the front of the pack in the first qualifying session today,” said Anderson, who clocked a 6.60-second pass early Saturday afternoon that was simply not enough to crack the code of a tricky racing surface.
“Nobody was able to get off that starting line,” Anderson continued. “We had to make some major moves to back it down, and we just backed it down too far and ran too slow. We had to get some guts for the last session and just go for it, because if we didn’t, we were done.”
The right decisions were made, and when the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet launched down the quarter-mile dragstrip, it was steady and intentional. The scoreboard flicked on with a 6.556 that cut right into the pack and set Anderson in the No. 13 position. He will race Deric Kramer in the first round.
“This is a whole new chapter for me, with Cody coming to Pro Stock to race with me and our KB Titan Racing team, and it’s pretty damn cool,” said Anderson. “He’s going to be part of his first race ever, the Gatornationals, and what a story that is. I’m just a very proud papa, and I’m certainly looking forward to Sunday.”
Eliminations for the 57th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals are set to begin at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 8, 2026.
Qualifying results
Q1: 6.595, 209.56 (No. 10)
Q2: 10.191, 88.26 (No. 17)
Q3: 6.608, 209.79 (No. 17)
Q4: 6.556, 208.84 (No. 13, +1 bonus point)
Who is Greg Anderson?
Six-time world champion drag racer Greg Anderson, born and raised in Duluth, Minn., campaigns the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro out of the KB Titan Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C. The productive partnership between Anderson and Hendrick Automotive Group launched in the second half of 2021 and immediately generated race wins that would culminate in a world championship. In 2024, Anderson followed up with another NHRA series title for the Hendrick team with a steady, experienced approach in an incredible to-the-wire battle with a younger generation of racers.
The veteran racer first licensed in NHRA Pro Stock in 1995 and made his driving debut in Columbus three years later. His first victory came in 2001 in Bristol, and heading into the 2026 season of NHRA Pro Stock, the most winning driver in the history of the class has amassed a total of 112 national event wins. Notably, Anderson is the second-most winning professional driver in NHRA history, behind only Funny Car legend John Force.
Diving into the history of this world-class competitor, Anderson was first introduced to the sport by his father, Rod Anderson, who raced Modified Eliminator in NHRA’s West Central Division. The younger Anderson helped his father at the racetrack as a youth, and his first official job in racing was in 1979 with Pro Stock driver John Hagen, a family friend and fellow Division 5 campaigner. Tragically, Hagen lost his life in a racing incident at Brainerd International Raceway in 1983, and the event had great impact on Anderson. He stepped away from the sport, but drag racing, as it does, called him back.
Anderson’s Pro Stock career took new root as a crew member – and then crew chief – for fellow Minnesotan Warren Johnson, and he was on board for 12 seasons and three of Johnson’s six NHRA championships (1992, 1993, and 1995). Anderson would never forfeit the wrenches, but in 1998, he had the opportunity to drive a Pro Stock car for his father-in-law, Troy Humphrey. The experience led to a stint as part-time driver and consultant for Mark Pawuk’s Pro Stock team.
Las Vegas-based Ken Black, along with then-partner George Marnell, hired Anderson as crew chief and part-time driver in 2001, and the chemistry was immediately evident. KB Racing was officially formed by Black with Anderson in 2002, and crew chief Rob Downing was added to the mix in 2003 to form solid footing for a team that would blaze into history.
In 2023, KB Racing and Titan Racing came together to form Pro Stock powerhouse KB Titan Racing. With Anderson and his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet leading the charge, the group entered the 2026 season in possession of 210 national event wins and 11 world championships.
Greg Anderson’s career stats
(Ahead of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series)
6-time NHRA Pro Stock series champion (2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2021, 2024)
571 Pro Stock races
112 wins
191 overall final rounds
140 No. 1 qualifier awards
Career round wins: 1,022
Career best e.t.: 6.443
Career best speed: 215.48 mph
