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As the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series starts its 74th season in Gainesville, reigning Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle champions Greg Anderson and Gaige Herrera will be ready to defend their world championships against a pair of highly competitive fields at this weekend’s 56th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Anderson, the winningest driver in Pro Stock history, earned his sixth world title last season in a winner-take-all final round over KB Titan Racing teammate Dallas Glenn at the 91���� Finals in Pomona. This weekend at Gainesville Raceway, Anderson will have his sights set on his sixth Gatornationals title.

“I love coming to Gainesville,” Anderson said. “I always love coming to this track. It's probably the first race I ever went to as a spectator. I came with my father back when I was probably 8 years old, so it's been a long run for me, and now here I am racing at the Gators.”

Along with Anderson and his teammate Glenn, who won five events in 2024, the Pro Stock division will again be stacked with fierce competition. Atop that list is six-time champion Erica Enders, the defending Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals winner. Others to watch will be Aaron Stanfield, who won six events last season, as well as five-time champ Jeg Coughlin Jr.

“We’re coming in this year after winning this championship feeling great and running great equipment,” Anderson said. “We've got great cars within our KB Titan camp, and we feel we like we've had a great offseason of work. I think we're going to have very fast cars this weekend, so I'm excited.”

Herrera, the back-to-back Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, opened his career at the powerhouse team of Vance & Hines with a win at the 2023 Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Since then, he’s racked up 20 more national event wins and dominated the category. This weekend at Gainesville Raceway, he’ll aim to win his third consecutive Gatornationals.

“I'm excited to be back in Gainesville,” Herrera said. “This is where I got my first win and where I basically started my Pro Stock Motorcycle career. This weekend is going to be hard. I've won the last two opening races in Gainesville, but the field is stacked this year. There's a lot of newcomers coming in the class that are fast. My teammate Richard Gadson is really fast. Everyone's fast, so we have to be ready for anything. We'll find out basically after the first round of qualifying and see how everything stacks, but I think it will be good, and it's going to be tough.”

In 2024, Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel), J.R. Todd (Funny Car), Enders (Pro Stock), and Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all won the Gatornationals to open the year. It marked the first double-up victory for Kalitta Motorsports, while six-time world champ Enders won the historic race for the first time. This year’s race will again be broadcast on FS1, including eliminations at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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