Line Misses by an Eyelash in Houston Quarterfinals
Event: 25th annual NHRA Spring Nationals
Location: Royal Purple Raceway, Baytown, Tex.
Day/Date: Sunday, April 29, 2012
Having been one of the quickest and most consistent cars throughout qualifying, Summit Racing driver Jason Line entered Sunday’s final eliminations of the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Tex. cautiously optimistic about his chances of scoring his second win of the 2012 season. Despite the warmer temperatures and higher humidity that engulfed Royal Purple Raceway on race day, the second-qualified Line and his KB Racing team responded well, posting the third-quickest elapsed time of the opening stanza at 6.571-seconds to defeat Rickie Jones.
In the second round against veteran Mike Edwards, Line was able to deliver the quickest elapsed time of that round, covering the quarter-mile in 6.591-seconds with a top speed of 210.50 mph. Unfortunately, it fell an immeasurable eight thousandths of a second shy of overcoming his rival’s starting line edge and 6.603-second, 209.79 mph run putting a premature end to the reigning Full Throttle champion’s day.
“As close as the competition is right now in Pro Stock, you need an absolutely error-free performance to win,” said Line. “We didn’t have that today, and as a result our day ended earlier than we wanted. We didn’t make a particularly good run in the second round, and the driver could have done a better job. If we had done either of those, we probably would have won the round, but we didn’t, so we have to learn from it and move on.
“The good news is that we have less than a week before our next race, and we have a fast Summit Racing Pontiac. With only a few days to get ready, we’ll need to pay attention to every detail so we can go to Atlanta, qualify well like we did here, and then convert that performance into four round wins on Sunday.”