19-year-old Greg Anderson teamed up with car owner Pete Stewart and Craftsman Truck Series driver Nathan Buttke for the 5th Annual Carquest Night "Road to Charlotte" 150 at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, North Carolina, on April 28th.
Greg took to the track Saturday with hopes of a win in the NASCAR Late Model Series division, considering the winner of this race will be given the opportunity to compete in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 26th. Qualifying was crucial and this race drew some stiff competition.
This was Greg's first appearance at Caraway Speedway and his first attempt at driving this type of Late Model. This situation, however, is not new to Anderson, as he has experienced much success driving different race cars at different tracks. Last year, in Greg's first Southwest Tour Series start at Cajon Speedway, he dominated the first half of the race and led the most laps.
Anderson and the team struggled with chassis set-ups through practice and qualifying and was only able to pull off a 17th place starting position. After qualifying, a faulty shock was found to be the problem. The team was quick to make the necessary changes and as the green flag dropped, Anderson wasted no time setting his own pace as he made his way to the front. Greg was in 8th place after passing teammate Buttke and he was chasing down Travis Swaim when the first caution flag came out on lap 50.
As the field checked up on the restart, Ted Musgrave, Jr. got into the rear of Anderson coming off turn four sending Anderson slamming into the pit road crashwall. Greg's impressive drive to the front came to a sudden halt.
Anderson said, "It's too bad the night had to end that way. I had a strong run going and I think I could have pulled off a top 5 finish. We actually ran better than we expected, considering the little time the team and I had to prepare for this race. I'm looking forward to running more races this year with Pete and his team."
Along with Anderson's busy race schedule, he will be making several appearances in the Featherlite Southwest Tour Series.
