Sun, 12 Feb 2017, 13:57 PM Pro Stock Champ Jason Line puts Summit Racing on the Pole at NHRA Winternationals |
Courtesy of Kelly Topolinski Photo copyright 2017 Auto Imagery, Inc. |
POMONA, Calif. --
 Pro Stock champion Jason Line raced to the 50th No. 1
qualifier award of his career in the blue Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro at the 57th annual NHRA Winternationals in Pomona. |
"To start the year off this way is what you hope for," said Line, who earned his second Winternationals pole and seventh in Pomona, including five No. 1 qualifiers scored at the season-closing NHRA Finals. "To be one and two is a great thing for us, so yeah, Team Summit is pretty happy right now."
After the first round of qualifying, Anderson was No. 3 with a 6.578-second pass at 210.08, while Line was No. 5 on a 6.584, 210.21. The second round on Friday boosted both drivers up significantly, with Anderson clicking off a crisp 6.557, 210.60 that moved him into the No. 1 spot and Line recording a 6.563, 210.93 to jump up to No. 2.
Line was speedy on Saturday, and launched into day two of the event with the quickest and fastest pass of the bunch, a 6.530, 211.49 that moved him into the top position in the early session. Anderson recorded a respectable 6.549, 211.26. The team was moderately satisfied to see progressively quicker passes each run down the racetrack, but they knew they had more to squeeze from their naturally aspirated 500-cid engines.
In the final pair of Pro Stockers to race down the historic Pomona quarter-mile, Line and Anderson marched right on past the competition with their steadily charging Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaros. Anderson's 6.530, 211.66 was top speed of the meet, and Line's 6.525, 211.53 was the second-quickest pass ever in the new era of electronic fuel injection Pro Stock racing (he also owns the quickest new-era pass, a 6.519 recorded last season in Englishtown).
Although they are clearly off to a strong start, Line doesn't see that the KB Racing team has much of an advantage over the competition anymore. He notes, however, that the tightening of the pack will make for some close racing throughout the season - starting on Sunday during eliminations for the Winternationals.
"It's definitely fun to be No. 1 and No. 2. It's depressing to come to the racetrack and not run well," said Line, who will race No. 16 Val Smeland in the first round on Sunday. "The truth is, we aren't really any faster than we were last year, but you can see that everybody else has improved. There is going to be some tight racing this year, there's no doubt about it, and that's what everybody wants to see. We worked on a lot of things over the winter, but we didn't seem to come up with anything better; I literally have the same exact engine. It's going to be tough to make gains from here on out. You're just going to have to pay attention to the details. If we have any advantage, it's by a very small margin, but it's better than nothing. I don't want to trade places with anyone, that's for sure."
A humble Anderson was quick to give the credit to crew chief Rob Downing for the strong performance so far this weekend. The veteran competitor enters Sunday at Auto Club Raceway with 86 NHRA Pro Stock national event wins on his scorecard and as the second most winning Pro Stock driver in the history of the class. He is 11 victories away from tying Warren Johnson as the most decorated Pro Stock driver ever.
"Rob Downing, he did a good job this weekend throughout qualifying, and Jason did a good job tuning the engine," said Anderson, who will race Kenny Delco in round one. "The thing that we're happiest about is that the cars got faster every qualifying round. You want to learn from the last run, you want to make the right move for the next one. Between Rob and Jason, they made the right move every run. You can't ask for any more than that. That's perfect qualifying.
"It didn't look like it was going to work out this way after the first qualifying run or two. It definitely looked like we were going to have to scratch and claw just to be in the top four. I'm very happy the way it turned out, but that doesn't mean it can't change tomorrow. We're still going to have to find a way to get better tomorrow because the rest probably will. But it feels good today. We did the best on Saturday. Sunday is a new day, the sunshine is going to be out, and it will be different. Rob is going to have to make changes to the racecar, and so will the rest of these guys. We'll see who can make the better change. But after what he has done so far, my money is on him."
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