Line Shows Power on the Mountain at Mile-High NHRA Nationals
DENVER, Colo. (July 26, 2015) – Sunday at the 36th annual Mile-High NHRA Nationals brought a hot racetrack for eliminations after two days of cooler night qualifying, but Jason Line and the Summit Racing Pro Stock team didn’t shy away from the challenge. Line, driving the blue Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro out of the Ken Black-owned KB Racing stable, had one of the most powerful cars on the mountain. The team put together a pair of big-speed runs that whet their appetite as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour moves on to continue the three-race Western Swing.
Despite the challenges of racing in the thin air that virtually leaves the naturally aspirated factory hot rods starving for horsepower, Line qualified his blue Summit Racing Chevrolet in the top half of the field. Starting from the No. 7 spot, the Mooresville, N.C.-based Line squared off with KB Racing teammate Vincent Nobile.
Line launched first in their morning meeting, recording a quick and clean .017-second reaction time to his opponent’s .026, and he kept the edge for a 6.915-second victory at a monster 199.97 mph. Nobile was 6.940, 198.50 at the finish line stripe.
The massive speed was just shy of 200 mph, a number that Line had yet to clock at Bandimere Speedway heading into the weekend. That situation was rectified, however, in round two as Line raced to a 6.910 at 200. Although Larry Morgan, the eventual event winner, got the nod for his 6.918, 199.37 that was paired with a slightly quicker reaction time, Line and Team Summit finally had the assurance that they could make a big move down the quarter-mile racetrack at the mile-high facility.
“Today was a much better day than what we had in qualifying, but I was just a little tardy there in the second round,” said Line. “You cannot make a mistake in this class, you just can’t. I’m much happier with the performance today than what we saw earlier this weekend, we just struggled to find it here.
“Denver is a difficult place to race, and we got a little behind early in the weekend, and it took us too long to catch up. But we changed things today. We had a chance to think about it last night, and we made changes that made a difference. And yes, I suppose it is a little bit of a consolation to have gone 200 mph. That is an accomplishment for the KB Racing team, and the guys all worked very hard for that. We learned a couple of things this weekend, and those things will absolutely translate to sea level next week in Sonoma. We still have a lot to look forward to.”