Line Sees Progress within Team, Ready to Race at Summit Racing Southern Nationals
Atlanta, Ga., May 10, 2013 – Summit Racing Pro Stock driver Jason Line and Team Summit were certainly disappointed that qualifying for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals was relegated to just two qualifying sessions and delayed by a week due to rainy, stormy weather on the originally scheduled weekend, but the postponement did nothing to faze their forward-progress, and they carefully utilized the two available qualifying passes to prepare for a strong run for the trophy on raceday at Atlanta Dragway.
Line launched into qualifying with a 6.628, 209.23 mph blast in the first session that had him paused briefly in the No. 8 spot, and he followed up with an improved 6.609 at 209.69 to earn a start from the top half of the field as the No. 7 qualifier.
The most satisfying outcome of the first full day of the abbreviated event is the fact that Line is once again situated on the opposite side of the ladder from Summit Racing teammate Greg Anderson, setting up the possibility for a third consecutive all-Summit Racing final in Atlanta. Anderson qualified fourth.
“That’s what you hope for when you come to your sponsor’s race,” said Line. “You just hope that you can get everything lined up to where both cars are on the opposite sides of the ladder and you’ll have the chance to face each other in the final. You’d like to think that you can make it happen, but you never know – you could qualify really well and end up on the same side. It worked out for us today, and that gives us a shot at repeating what we’ve done here before. That’s all you can ask for is a chance.”
On raceday, Line will square off in the first round with young gun Vincent Nobile. Last season, when Line was the No. 1 qualifier here at the Summit Racing Southern Nationals, he defeated Nobile in the second round on the way to the final.
“Vincent is a good competitor, he’s a good driver, and you have to do your job against him. I’ll be going up there intending to do my best in my Summit Racing Camaro,” said Line. “We were relatively happy with qualifying – we came here knowing we only had two qualifying runs, and a lot of things can happen when you’re in those circumstances. You have to get down the racetrack so you can at least give yourself a chance to race. We haven’t been spectacular yet, but it all lined up pretty well, and we definitely feel like we have something that we can build upon.
“Hopefully, tomorrow we can tune the cars up a little bit and get them going faster, and you never know, it will take a little more good fortune, but two cars are going to the final round tomorrow. We’d sure like them to be the Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaros.”