CHEVROLET EARNS PRO STOCK VICTORY, REACHES FINALS IN ALL THREE CLASSES
Jason Line captures 38th victory in all-Chevrolet Pro Stock semifinals field
· Brittany Force advances to Top Fuel final, comes up short on holeshot
· John Force reaches Funny Car final to pace John Force Racing contingent
· Robert Hight sets Funny Car track records for elapsed time and speed

CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 28, 2016) – For the second consecutive event of the young National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Chevrolet was the class of the Pro Stock category by sweeping into the semifinals and coming away with the victory at the 32nd CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.
Also, Chevrolet teams reached the final round in Top Fuel (Brittany Force) and Funny Car (John Force) at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

Jason Line, the No. 2 qualifier in the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS, earned his 38th Pro Stock victory with a pass of 6.666 seconds/205.16 mph in the final against Chris McGaha (Harlow Sammons of Odessa Chevrolet Camaro SS).

McGaha eliminated Bo Butner (Butner Auto Sales Chevrolet Camaro SS), who a day earlier earned his inaugural Pro Stock No. 1 qualifier honor in his 19th event, in one semifinal on a holeshot. Line, who fell to Greg Anderson (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the final of the season-opening Winternationals two weeks ago, turned the tables on his KB Racing teammate in the other semifinal.

Brittany Force (Monster Energy Chevrolet Dragster) faced Leah Pritchett in the Top Fuel final, which set up the second all-female Top Fuel final in NHRA history. The other was Shirley Muldowney meeting Lucille Lee in 1982. Pritchett had a starting line advantage and held on for the holeshot win by 0.0207 of a second (about 10 feet) to earn her first Top Fuel victory.

In Funny Car, John Force Racing advanced at least two entries to the semifinals for the second consecutive event. John Force eliminated daughter Courtney Force (Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS), who entered race day as the No. 2 qualifier, in one of the semifinals.

Robert Hight (Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS), the third John Force Racing entry in the semifinals, fell to Tim Wilkerson. In the first round of eliminations, Hight set Funny Car track records for elapsed time (3.905) and speed (327.11).

John Force (PEAK Antifreeze/Republic Services Chevrolet Camaro SS), who has qualified for every race at the Arizona track dating to its inaugural season in 1985, fell to Wilkerson in the final. Force has a record eight Funny Car victories at Wild Horse Pass and has made it to a record 242 final rounds in his illustrious career.

In Stock Eliminator, Dan Fletcher (PEAK/K&N/ATI Chevrolet COPO Camaro) fell in the first round. In Super Stock, Rodger Comstock (MTS/Hoosier/Lucas Oil/MCNX WR Chevrolet COPO Camaro) and Bryan Broaddus (DNB ENGINEERING Chevrolet COPO Camaro) also lost in the first round.

Up next is the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals on March 17-20 in Gainesville, Florida.

ROGER ALLEN, CHEVROLET RACING NHRA PROGRAM MANAGER: “It was another exciting weekend at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, with Chevrolet entries in the finals of all three Professional classes and Funny Car track records being set by Courtney Force and then reset by Robert Hight. Congratulations to Jason Line in winning the Pro Stock category and to the other Chevrolet teams that comprised the semifinals for the second consecutive event. And congratulations to John Force Racing for its stout performances in Top Fuel with Brittany Force and Funny Car with John Force just missing out on winning those classes. We’re looking forward to Gainesville and the team continuing to challenge for victories.”

JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “The last two races (to start the season) have been awesome. The change to fuel injection has been a challenge for all of us, but we’ve had a lot of great help from GM, Roger Allen and Jim Campbell. The Summit team did its homework over the weekend and we’ve been very fortunate. We’re in our infancy as far as learning about fuel injection and how to tune this. I don’t know if we did the greatest job today, but it was good enough to win. It was a fun day and a great way to start the year. Last year for me was kind of a dismal year, and we’re off to a much better start this year. I think everybody is kind of refocused and we’re on a mission.”

JASON LINE PRO STOCK WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

Q: It seems you and your KB Racing team have picked up on the changes to the car the best so far.
JASON LINE: I guess that would be the best way to word it, but there’s a long way to go. We’re in our infancy as far as learning about fuel injection and how to tune this. I don’t know if we did the greatest job today, but it was good enough to win. It was a fun day and a great way to start the year. Last year for me was kind of a dismal year, and we’re off to a much better start this year. I think everybody is kind of refocused and we’re on a mission.

Q: It seems that performance is coming around fairly quickly.
JASON LINE: We’re striving to be better; that’s what racing is all about. It’s not about being equal but being better than everybody else. That’s our goal and so far we’re off to a good start. These other guys are going to work hard and there’s no doubt they’re going to catch up. We have to keep digging and we have a nice start.

Q: Chris McGaha prevented an all-KB Racing final. Does that give you extra motivation?
JASON LINE: I wanted to hit him but he’s a pretty tough guy. No, he’s really a good fellow, a hard worker and I respect him and I was happy to race him in the final. I would have rather raced Bo, but it didn’t work out. It still was a great day.

Q: Each time you and Greg Anderson line up against each other, it seems to bring out the best in you.
JASON LINE: That’s a fair statement. I knew against him I had to dig deep because he wants to win more than anybody I’ve met in my life, and I was able to do it today.

Q: What do you have to do to keep (the team’s) stranglehold on Pro Stock?
JASON LINE: It all comes down to effort. There are things that we can see we’re doing wrong, what we’re not doing well enough so we have to work on those things. And we have to make more power.

CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “After having the first-round loss at Pomona and to rebound and reach the finals is great. Last year we did the same thing here and progressed from there. Hopefully we can progress from this point on. We’ll test (before the next event) at Bradenton, Florida. I think it fired us up doing this good to go (test). We needed something to lift us up, and this did.”

JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK ANTIFREEZE/REPUBLIC SERVICES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Parts breaking are part of the game. I am not going to make any excuses against (Tim) Wilkerson. He is a great racer sand he does it all. I want to congratulate him on that win. What I look at is you come to these races for one reason – to win and to win the championship. We put four cars (Funny Car and Top Fuel) in the semifinals. We got two cars to the finals today. We didn’t get the wins, but I congratulate Wilkerson and (Leah) Pritchett for a great job. What we have to look at is we are turning the corner. Our race cars can race with anyone.”

ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Another semifinal finish for this Auto Club Chevrolet is pretty good. We want to get those wins and I think we have a car that can get those wins. We’ll have a couple of weeks to get ready for the Gatornationals and we’ll use every one of those days.”

COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, TRAXXAS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “The only thing I’m thinking right now is how impressed I am with this Traxass team. They worked really hard this weekend and together we were able to go to the No. 2 position in qualifying, pick up five bonus points and go to the semifinals on race day. I see a lot of improvement on our car this year as a whole. I feel like out Traxass Chevy is consistent, fast and it’s really looking like a promising season.”

BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER: “It feels good when you consider this is our second races into the season and we are already in a final. That is pretty outstanding, especially with all the change we made in the offseason. Getting to that final makes us feel really good. We have a long season ahead of us, but I know it will be a good one. Now I have a car and IO have to perform well and do the job as a driver. It adds some pressure, but I think it adds pressure in a good way.”

GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Personally I had a great run going and we just made one little mistake. The first one of the weekend. We misjudged the race track there in the semifinal. It changes tremendously and we missed it. It happens. It was the last thing I expected, but it does happen. That’s drag racing. It doesn’t matter how good of a run you are on, it can come out from under you. We know what mistake we made, but we can easily fix that and move on. The good news is a Summit car was going to win that round and go to the final. As long as a Summit car won the final it was a good day!! I’m happy. Jason is happy. KB is happy. It has been two great races to start the 2016 season. I can hardly wait to get to the next one to be honest.”

BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Great weekend for our team. Great weekend for my guys. I let them down. No matter what kind of run the car made, it was me that was late. I struggle with that, and we’re going to do something about that because I am wasting peoples time doing this. So, I’m going to go down to the shop (KB Racing) and do some things on the simulator. We have to make something different here. The car is awesome. I think we had the best car.”