A year in a Dodge Dart made the category's most prolific female racer an afterthought to many, but as soon as she got back in her Chevy, she quickly re-established herself as a top contender.

"Not a bad first Sunday, especially after the year we had last year," Enders said. "I'm extremely proud of my guys this weekend, as I always am. We are still a little bit behind the top cars but they can bet their butts we're going to catch up and if anything they definitely know we're here again.

"I'm extremely pleased with our outing and Phoenix will be even better."

With a stunning race-day average reaction time of .011 seconds, Enders powered past Matt Hartford and teammate Vincent Nobile before squaring off with four-time champ Greg Anderson in the semifinals. There, despite yet another stellar reaction time which gave her a .02-second headstart, she was beaten by Anderson by half a car length.

"All three of the Elite Motorsports Elite Performance powered cars are running really well and I think you can expect to see a lot out of all three of us," Enders said. "It's going to be a long year, it's going to be a great year. I chose to believe that we'll be on top at the end."

Elite Motorsports teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. also was happy to be back in a Chevrolet this season.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Tim Marshall photo)

"We're light years ahead of where we were a year ago this time, not that that means a darned thing, but I feel great and I think we're all very optimistic,” Coughlin said. “We're a team poised to race together, win together and have fun together."

Coughlin had to beat first-round opponent Deric Kramer, which he did, launching first (.018 to .054 seconds) and arriving at the finish line first with a competitive 6.574 at 210.24 mph to Kramer's 6.638 at 205.41 mph.

In the second round Coughlin came up against Greg Anderson. Anderson managed to get a slight edge at the starting line and was able to hold off Coughlin's JEGS.com Chevrolet Camaro at every timing cone, winning with a 6.567 at 210.93 mph to Coughlin's 6.585 at 209.85 mph.

Shane Gray (Ron Lewis photo)		Tanner Gray (Tim Marshall photo)

Rookie Tanner Gray was joined by his father, Shane, at this event. Shane announced at the end of last season that he would be giving up the driver’s seat to his 17-year-old son, but just couldn’t resist the chance to run a second car at some events this year.

Tanner got his first round-win with a 6.588/210.73 over Chris McGaha’s 6.603/209.88 and Shane got past Allen Johnson, who clicked off his Dodge Dart after it moved toward the centerline. Both lost in the next round, Shane to Bo Butner and Tanner to Jason Line.