Line on a progressively improving program as raceday dawns at Carolina Nationals
Concord, N.C., September 13, 2014 – The first race of NHRA’s 2014 Countdown to the Championship is well underway, with qualifying in the books and Summit Racing Pro Stock driver Jason Line heading into raceday to protect his points lead. Starting from the No. 6 position, Line will race Chris McGaha in the first round of eliminations at the seventh annual NHRA Carolina Nationals.
Line launched into qualifying with a 6.618-second pass at 209.56 mph and proved to have a consistently improving car as he clocked a 6.607 at 209.59 in the second session and then woke up on Saturday to bring a 6.596, 210.24 to the table with one of the fastest speeds of the session. In the final qualifying round, Line made a 6.605, 209.56 run that was third quickest of the session, and for his efforts he claimed a bonus qualifying point.
“It was good to get that bonus point, but we shook the tires that run and could have been faster,” said the always-hungry Line. “We were somewhat surprised because we thought we would run a little bit better than this, but we are looking at the graphs and can see why we are slower than we had hoped. We’ll be better for tomorrow.”
The conditions at zMAX Dragway, a beautiful facility located on the outskirts of Charlotte, were muggy during qualifying, causing the naturally aspirated factory hot rods to slow. The projected weather for Sunday, however, is drastically different and should allow for a significant drop in temperature. Cooler conditions are often conducive to quicker times for the Pro Stock crowd, but with such a swing the teams will have no current data to determine the set-up and will have to look back in their notes from year’s past. Thankfully, Line and the Summit Racing team have had much experience – and success – at the Concord racetrack.
“I think that the change in the weather will actually be good for us,” said Line, who most recently raced McGaha in the first round in Houston and got the round win. “Sometimes when you’re struggling a little bit and there is a big change like that, it mixes things up for everybody. We’ve all been running on this hot racetrack all weekend, so nobody has raced yet in the conditions that we will probably see tomorrow. That could work to our benefit.”