One day after clinching his spot in the NHRA's playoffs, Summit Racing Pontiac driver Jason Line
displayed the form that allowed him to accomplish that feat, scoring a runner-up finish at Sunday's
final eliminations of the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, WA. It was Line's third consecutive
final, 40th of his career, and seco nd in a row at Pacific Raceways.
After qualifying fourth, Line defeated V. Gaines, Jeg Coughlin and Allen Johnson in the earlier
rounds before squaring off against Mike Edwards in the final, who has posted the quickest elapsed
time in all three rounds of eliminations as well as in three of the four qualifying sessions.
Despite Line's recording his best reaction time of the day and a strong 6.601-second, 210.50 mph
run, Edwards' 6.583-second time was enough to give him the narrow victory.
"It was another good day for the Summit Racing team, although I would naturally have preferred it
to be a great one," said Line afterwards. "My hat's off to (Mike) Edwards and his team - they did
a good job today. They had been faster than us all day, so we knew we would need to get a couple
hundredths on the tree. I gave it the best that I had, but unfortunately we came up a little short
at the finish line. Although I feel like we are making strides, we're not happy with runner-up
finishes. We want to win races."
After another Top Five qualifying effort, Line took advantage of the cooler conditions on Sunday to
better his qualifying time by one hundredth of a second in the opening round at Pacific Raceways,
tripping the finish-line timers in 6.584 seconds with a top speed of 209.95 mph to defeat veteran
V. Gaines. He was again among the top performers in Pro Stock in the second round, using a strong
6.605 second, 209.52 mph to trailer rival Jeg Coughlin, who shook the tires and veered violently
during his run, slowing to a 13.731 second time.
It was a similar situation in the semifinals, as Line once again ran as if on a string, with his
6.609 sec., 209.92 mph pass more than enough to eliminate No. 1 qualifier Allen Johnson, who had
troubles and also shut off early, setting the stage for the match-up against Edwards.
"Any time you go to a final, you naturally want to win, so we're a little disappointed with today's
results," said Line. "But we've had worse days at the track, and there are still a lot of
positives for this KB Racing team leaving Seattle.
"We didn't have the best car, and I was a little off kilter in my d riving, and we still made it to
our third final in a row, beating some pretty good cars along the way, which is pretty cool. We'll
take what we learned here and head down to Sonoma, where I'll get to see my wife and kids, and
we'll do what we can to get one of the Summit Racing Pontiacs in the winner's circle."
Established in 1968, Summit Racing Equipment is the leading high performance parts and accessories
company. Summit Racing offers the largest selection, lowest prices, and best customer service in
the high performance industry via catalogs, Internet, and Retail Super Stores. The company is
headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio with retail locations in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; and
McDonough, Georgia. For more information, please visit http://www.summitracing.com
