‘Vegas is always great to us’: NHRA’s Enders wins again at LVMS — PHOTOS

Even with all the success Erica Enders has had at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, even with a significant lead in the Pro Stock points standings, she said her stress level was at “nine million” entering the NHRA Nevada Nationals.

“It was kind of do or die, and we had to perform perfectly,” Enders said.

After Enders was knocked off the top spot in qualifying in the last pairing in the last round Saturday, Enders added to her success at LVMS and took another step toward winning another championship.

Enders defeated Greg Anderson in the Pro Stock final (6.557 seconds at 208.23 mph) to earn her 10th win at LVMS on Sunday and extend her points lead to 114 over Anderson.

“It was a tremendous day,” Enders, the five-time Pro Stock champion, said. “Vegas is always great to us, and we knew coming in that it was working in our favor. But you still got to put your head down and go to work. It’s stressful. It’s antagonizing. It’s all kinds of things. But the biggest lesson this weekend is about just trying to stay positive through all the negativity.”

Under the glow from the desert sunset, Enders, Top Fuel’s Mike Salinas and Funny Car’s Robert Hight were the fastest in their respective classes to take home the golden Wally Trophy in the second-to-last race of the NHRA season.

Salinas (3.673, 333.16) defeated Justin Ashley, and Hight (3.851, 326.79) defeated Bob Tasca III in their finals.

Enders became the winningest female driver in all of motor sports after picking up her 47th career victory at the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals earlier this month.

Hight entered the weekend in a self-described “must-win” situation after he qualified third at Texas earlier this month but was eliminated after the first round. With the win, Hight turned a 69-point deficit entering the weekend to a 17-point deficit behind leader Matt Hagan, with second-place Tasca 15 points behind.

“We’re here, and we have to make the best of it,” Hight said. “We’ve got to perform. Those guys are going to be right there. More than likely, it’s going to go down to the final round (the season finale) at Pomona to win a championship. It doesn’t get more dramatic than that.”

Hight fended off Blake Alexander in the semifinals before outrunning Tasca.

“That’s a team you want to beat,” Hight said of Tasca. “Some guys you want to beat more than others. You try a little extra, push a little extra. That goes for our crew chief and myself. That’s a great running car. He’s driving good. We’ve got to do it one more weekend.”

Salinas had to beat out 12th-place qualifier Josh Hart in the semifinals and sixth-place qualifier Ashley in the finals.

“We’ve had some real special things (the car) has been doing,” Salinas said. “It has shown signs of greatness, but the consistency has been evading us. As we’re trying to get more consistent, today is the best day we’ve had all year. The car is showing amazing signs.”

The NHRA season concludes Nov. 9-12 at Pomona, California, where points-and-a-half are on the line.

Steve Torrence has regained the Top Fuel lead with a 15-point advantage over Doug Kalitta and a 34-point edge over former leader Leah Pruett, who was eliminated by Hart in the first round Sunday.

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