Chevrolet Well-Positioned Heading into Eliminations of Gatornationals
· Jason Line leads Chevrolet top-three sweep in Pro Stock qualifications
· Courtney Force qualifies second in Funny Car for second consecutive event
· Robert Hight sets Funny Car track record with 327.43 mph pass
· Brittany Force qualifies fifth in Top Fuel
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2016) – Chevrolet swept the top three positions in Pro Stock qualifications for the third consecutive event of the young National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) season, and Courtney Force recorded a career-best pass to qualify second in Funny Car for the second consecutive event heading into eliminations of the 47th Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.
Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) will lead a Pro Stock field into Sunday’s eliminations for the 42nd time in his career. Line, who will have a first-round bye, recorded passes of 6.584 seconds in the third round of qualifications and 210.44 mph in the fourth round — the best elapsed time and fastest speed to date with the new Pro Stock technical package. He is a four-time Gatornationals winner.
“We made good runs. My Summit Racing hot rod is pretty fast right now, and even I can’t screw it up right now,” said Line, who won at Phoenix three weeks ago and was the runner-up in the season opener at Pomona.
Bo Butner (Butner Auto Sales Chevrolet Camaro SS) qualified second with a fourth-round pass of 6.591/209.33 and Greg Anderson (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) qualified third at 6.595/209.65. Each of the three KB Racing drivers have qualified No. 1 this season (Anderson at Pomona and Butner at Phoenix).
Also, Alex Laughlin (Gas Monkey Garage/360 Wraps Chevrolet Camaro SS) checked in a season-high fourth and Drew Skillman (Ray Skillman Chevrolet Camaro SS) tied his quickest pass of the season and qualified fifth.
Courtney Force (Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS) jumped from fifth after the third round of qualifications to second with a fourth-round pass of 3.893 seconds at 322.96 mph – the first sub-3.9 pass of her career.
“Our team has definitely been on a roll lately getting this car down the race track, making impressive runs and making consistent runs. We made it through the rain and got in all of our qualifying passes this weekend,” Force said. “The fact that we can run a number like that with the car not even at 100 percent makes me feel great about tomorrow. I just hope we can continue to do what we have been, improve and learn from each pass and go rounds tomorrow on race day.”
John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight, who has two Gatornationals victories and a semifinal appearance in the past four years, reset his 2012 track speed record with a blazing third-round pass of 327.43 mph in the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS. He qualified second, while John Force (PEAK Antifreeze Chevrolet Camaro SS) qualified ninth.
In Top Fuel, Brittany Force (Monster Energy Chevrolet Dragster) qualified fifth at 3.745 seconds, which was quickest of the first day of qualifications. It’s her highest qualifying position at the Gatornationals.
Stephen Bell (1320 LLC Chevrolet COPO Camaro) qualified second in Super Stock, while Brian Massingill (SamRacing.com Chevrolet COPO Camaro) led the Chevrolet charge by qualifying fifth in Stock Eliminator.
FOX Sports 1 will telecast live coverage of eliminations and finals at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Right now (the motivation) is fear that (the competition) is going to catch up. Our car is running good and I’m enjoying that right now. Fear is a good motivator. I don’t want to have a year like I had last year, so I have to do a better job and right now there are a lot of good things going on.”
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “All three of the (KB Racing) cars are set up so similar that the No. 1 qualifier was going to be one of us three by a few thousandths of a second and that’s the way it ended up. We’re all trading being the No. 1 qualifier, so it should be mine turn to win the race, which would be great.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “I thought I did pretty good, but I looked in the other lane and I could see was the rear bumper of that blue car (Jason Line) so maybe I didn’t do that good. The good news is that’s our team car so I know how fast I can run. We just have to turn the right screws on mine. The potential is there. Hopefully we can have a big Chevy day tomorrow.”
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, TRAXXAS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “We ended up in the No. 2 spot and ran our career-best with a 3.89 and we did it with a hole out. I felt like I was driving that car all over the place, but I had to do whatever I could to just get it down to the other end and I’m glad that I did. It was a great run even with that problem, but it definitely gets me motivated for race day tomorrow.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK ANTIFREEZE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “I know how to race here. I know this racetrack really well. I didn’t make a full pull this weekend but I am confident we’ll get this figured out for tomorrow.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “We screwed up the two night sessions and we were hoping to run 3.8s both nights. This Auto Club Chevrolet is plenty capable of doing that. We are running 3.92 in the heat. It is a real handful right now. It is carrying the front end but these guys will fix that. If the conditions are good in the morning I believe we’ll run in the 3.80s. If the sun is out and it is hot this is the fastest car out here in the heat. I have a lot of confidence. I am ready for race day and we’ll get these problems fixed. When you win one of these events you have to earn it. It is not going to be easy racing but I feel good about racing anyone on my side of the ladder.”
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER: “I am excited to be out here at the Gatornationals. I came here as a kid and this is a huge race on our circuit. You can tell by looking in the grandstands. It is a packed race. I think we are off to a great start. We made some great runs yesterday and we struggled a little today but we are still No. 5, which is pretty good. We have Morgan Lucas in the first round and that Lucas Oil dragster will be tough. We’ll take it one step at a time. It feels really good knowing that I have a consistent race car. I feel really confident since we have made so many quality runs. I don’t have to worry about going up to the starting line thinking about how this Monster Energy dragster is going to run. I know it is going to go right down the track.”