Record-setting Erica Enders seeks NHRA title at Nevada Nationals

Erica Enders remembers being a fan when she was younger and watching female drag racing role models like Shirley Muldowney, Shelly Anderson and Angelle Sampey.

A five-time NHRA Pro Stock champion, Enders has become a role model for the next generation of races, male and female, with her historic career.

She further etched her name in the motor sports record books with her win at the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals earlier this month to become the winningest female driver in all of motor sports with her 47th career victory. Her win broke a tie with Sampey, who held the record for more than 22 years.

“It’s surreal because this is all I’ve ever wanted my whole life,” Enders said. “It’s right here in front of us. It’s taken a lot of years and a lot of hard work. But to have all that accomplished at this point, I still have a very long future in the sport, and that will allow us to add to that.”

Enders, 40, will look for her 10th career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when NHRA stops in Las Vegas this weekend for the NHRA Nevada Nationals in the second-to-last race of the season. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and elimination races are Sunday.

“It’s important to me to make them feel special like Shirley and Shelly and Angel made me special,” Enders said. “Without them showing me that it’s possible, I don’t know if I would be here.”

Brittany Force won the Top Fuel race in last year’s Nevada Nationals on her way to her second Top Fuel title. Force, the daughter of 16-time NHRA champion John Force, said it’s “empowering” to see all the successful female drivers in NHRA.

“It’s pretty awesome when the females end up kicking butt,” said Brittany Force, who holds the track Top Fuel speed record at LVMS at 338.17 mph. “So many females have been successful here, won and have won championships. I’m really excited to see it keep growing and moving in that direction.”

Enders leads the Pro Stock point standings by 85 points over Greg Anderson, and a solid run this weekend could put the championship out of reach. Enders swept both Las Vegas races last year and clinched her fifth title with a win at last year’s NHRA Nevada Nationals.

Other championship battles are much closer. In Funny Car, Matt Hagan has a 36-point lead over Bob Tasca III. Hagan stretched out his lead with a win at Texas earlier this month.

Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing teammate Leah Pruett took control with her Top Fuel win at Texas. Pruett holds a four-point lead over Doug Kalitta and a 13-point advantage over third-place Steve Torrence.

“It takes having that mentality that, ‘Yes, we know we’re doing a good job, but that’s what it takes to continue to get to where we want to be,’” Pruett said. “For them to retain this 100 percent quality job throughout the whole season and now we’re seeing the results, that’s the explosion you’re seeing on the starting line for us.”

Las Vegas was a four-wide race in the spring, but the fall race will be a two-wide race. Force said with the cooler temperatures, there could be track records set.

Force is not mathematically out of title contention in Top Fuel at 165 points behind Pruett in the standings but enters the weekend in a must-win situation to keep her hopes alive for the title.

“It helps that we’ve won here in the past,” said Force, a three-time winner at LVMS. “We have a lot of positives to pull from. Track conditions are going to be cool this weekend, which is awesome because we run great in cool weather.”

Enders said the pressure is “immense” and the stress level is at “nine million” late in the season with the title on the line. She said she had to learn over time how to deal with the pressure on her title journeys, and said the best way she and her team have handled that pressure is to “eliminate as many variables as possible.”

“We just want to be as prepared as possible, and that’s the biggest recipe for success for our organization,” Enders said. “We will treat these (final) six races differently than the others in one aspect, but in the other, we’re still just racing to win.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.