CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
AMALIE MOTOR OIL NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE RACEWAY AT GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
QUALIFYING RESULTS AND DRIVER QUOTES
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017

Chevrolet Drivers Claim No. 1 Qualifier Spots in Funny Car and Pro Stock
· John Force records 155th top qualifier honor of his Funny Car career
· Teammates Robert Hight qualifies No. 2 and Courtney Force is No. 4
· Jason Line races to third consecutive Pro Stock No. 1 qualifier spot
· Defending Gatornationals Top Fuel winner Brittany Force qualifies No. 4

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 18, 2017) – John Force recorded the 155th No. 1 Funny Car qualifier honor of his illustrious career, but he was equally proud of the three other John Force Racing competitors’ qualifying efforts for the 48th Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Force, driving the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS, posted a track-record and career-best pass of 3.832 seconds at 333.25 mph to secure the No. 1 spot for Sunday’s eliminations at Gainesville Raceway.

“I don’t have a magic wand; I just have a great team,” the 16-time National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car champion and seven-time winner at Gainesville said.

Teammate Robert Hight, who has won the Gatornationals three times since 2012 including last year, was the No. 2 qualifier at 3.844 seconds (331.61 mph) in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS. Courtney Force, the No. 2 qualifier for the 2016 Gatornationals, qualified No. 4 at 3.860 seconds (333.25 mph) in the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS.

John Force Racing Top Fuel racer Brittany Force, who won the Gatornationals in 2016 and was the runner-up in the most recent event, qualified No. 4 at 3.719 seconds (326.79 mph) in the Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster.

“The ol’ hot rod went down the racetrack. We made a lot of changes in the last few weeks, from working on the chassis on the Top Fuel dragster, and Robert Hight and I decided to swap teams,” added John Force, who has won at Gainesville Raceway three times when holding the No. 1 qualifier spot. “Sometimes change is just good. “It’s exciting to come to Gainesville. I haven’t run this good in years.”

Reigning Pro Stock champion Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) registered his third consecutive No.1 qualifier spot in as many NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events this season to lead a Chevrolet sweep of the top 10 positions.

Line secured his 52nd career No. 1 qualifier honor with a pass of 6.476 seconds at 213.87 mph. KB Racing teammate Bo Butner (Butner Auto Sales Chevrolet Camaro SS) qualified No. 2 at 6.477 seconds, while two-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders (Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS) qualified No. 3 at 6.490 seconds.

“By qualifying No. 1, for me, is the best way to start,” said Line, who won the season opener at Pomona, California. “Our Summit Camaro is running really well, so I’m excited about tomorrow.”

Jeg Coughlin Jr. (JEGS.com Elite Chevrolet Camaro SS) secured the No. 4 spot with a pass of 6.491 seconds at 214.01 mph. Greg Anderson, who has won this event the past two seasons and is coming off a victory at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, was the No. 5 qualifier at 4.91 seconds and 213.91 mph in the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS.

FOX Sports 1 will telecast eliminations and finals live at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.

David Barton, a three-time winner last year in the SAM Tech NHRA Factory Stock Showdown in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro, and Stephen Bell, driving his Chevrolet COPO Camaro, advanced to the semifinals Sunday.

Bell was the No. 2 qualifier of 64 entries in Super Stock in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro, while Arthur Kohn qualified No. 3 of 76 entries in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro in Stock Eliminator.

CHEVROLET RACING POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES

An interview with JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 Funny Car qualifier at 3.832 seconds and 333.25 mph):

Q: THIS IS YOUR 155TH FUNNY CAR NO. 1 QUALIFIER AND FIRST SINCE 2015. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU?
JOHN FORCE: “It’s exciting to come to Gainesville. I haven’t run this good in years. It’s a good weekend for us; the team gelled. I want to thank my guys back in Brownsburg (Indiana shop). They really did the job this week to give us race cars in time to run Gainesville.”
Q: HOW MUCH DID YOU WANT TO BE DOMINANT AND STICK IT TO SCHUMACHER?
JOHN FORCE: “Well, I want to stick it to everybody I can. He wants to stick it to us. Bottom line, we made a lot of changes (and) Robert (Hight) got fast, Courtney (Force) got fast and I got fast. Our dragster, with a chassis change, is going down the racetrack. I want to come out here tomorrow and I want to win. I’m really excited just to be in the hunt. We have a lot of work ahead of us before the Countdown. I thought it would take us a lot longer to run this consistent.”
Q: ARE YOU AND SCHUMACHER BACK TO BEING BFFS?
JOHN FORCE: “He has his time to do it his way. I do it my way. Peyton Manning said going into the Super Bowl (was) all they wanted to walk about was him being friends with (Donald) Trump. And he said I have a Super Bowl to win, I don’t have time to worry about what everyone’s going to think of what my feelings are. I don’t have time to think about Don Schumacher. I don’t even want to think about his drivers. They are great and they are friends of mine. I don’t want them in my head. I want to go up there and race, whether I race my daughter, Robert Hight or ‘The Hulk’ Hagan or Ron Capps, the champ, I love these guys.”
Q: THIS IS NUMBER 155. DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU QUALIFIED NO. 1 HERE?
JOHN FORCE: “Nope. I remember the first time ever was Baton Rouge. I wanted to do good today with this new car. So I’m going to be around awhile.”

An interview with JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 Pro Stock qualifier at 6.476 seconds at 213.87 mph):

Q: WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EARLY-SEASON STRATEGY?
JASON LINE: “No strategy, just go as fast as we can. I think the strategy is the same early season, mid-season, late season: to put the Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaros in the winner’s circle. Qualifying No. 1 is the best way to start.
Q: YOU WON POMONA, BUT DIDN’T AT PHOENIX. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TOMORROW?
JASON LINE: “I like to only win every other race usually. But, no, we just didn’t race as well as we should have in Phoenix, that’s for sure. But tomorrow is a new day and that’s the beauty of NHRA drag racing. We get to try again. Our Summit Camaro is running really, really well, so I’m excited about tomorrow.”
HOW COMFORTABLE WERE YOU TODAY THAT YESTERDAY’S EFFORTS WOULD STAND UP?
JASON LINE: “I looked at the weather and kind of felt like we could have went faster than we did, but the racetrack wasn’t really there for that. I felt pretty good about it, but you never know. Crazier things have happened.”
Q: THE K&N HORSEPOWER CHALLENGE IN LAS VEGAS IS THE NEXT RACE. HOW MUCH HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IT?
JASON LINE: “I love getting the green hat and I love getting the K&N trophy. I’d like to get the big trophy, but it’s so far eluded me. Maybe this year, but that’s a big honor to qualifying No. 1 for that, and hopefully we did and can parlay that into a win.”
Q: WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR THE WEATHER TOMORROW?
JASON LINE: “It doesn’t matter what I want. I talk to Mother Nature and she ignores me. I don’t know, sometimes I think if we get a really big swing in weather and a big change, sometimes it works to our advantage. All I really want is a good racetrack and if we have that and we have two really good lanes, then you’ll see some really good racing. Hopefully we will be able to put a Summit Racing Chevy Camaro in the winner’s circle.”

Top Fuel
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (qualified fourth): “We have had a great car all weekend and pretty consistent and overall it’s been a good weekend. We made a lot of changes to the race car coming in, so to go out there and go right down the racetrack was good news. That is what we wanted to do and we made it happen. We ended up No. 4 and we won here last year, so there is just so much going into this racetrack because we won here and we want to do it again. We want to reclaim our title tomorrow.”

Funny Car
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified second): “It was a great start for all three of our Funny Car teams, especially after the changes we made over the past few weeks. I am back in familiar territory over here with (crew chief) Jimmy Prock. He and I have won this race before and actually we have won a lot of races. This is the best weekend that this Auto Club Chevy has had in a long time. We are right up at the top and looking forward to race day more than I have in a long time. I cannot wait for 11 am to get here tomorrow morning.”

COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified fourth): “It’s great to be back here in Florida and here at Gainesville, it’s obviously been a great track for John Force Racing. My teammates, Robert Hight and my sister Brittany were able to win at this track last year. I definitely feel like I am pushing myself at this track because I would like to be in the winner’s circle here in Gainesville. This is one of those tracks where the atmosphere is so great, the fans are great, and it feels even better when you have a fast car running down the track. Really looking forward to the fact that we are qualified in the No. 4 spot and my teammates qualified one and two so I feel like it’s been a great start for JFR so far this weekend. To be able to lay down a 333 mph speed is pretty amazing for our Advance Auto Parts team because it is the track speed record here and it is the fastest that I have gone in my career. I am really excited about race day and kind of ironic because I will be running Jim Campbell in the first round and this is the third time in a row that I will have faced him in the first round and hopefully we will have a little more luck than we did in Phoenix.”

Pro Stock
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified second): “We had a great test session this past Wednesday and hit on some stuff and they spruced the motor up a little bit. We just need to stay consistent and drive good and we will all meet there at the end hopefully.”

ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, ELITE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified third): “We have a race car. For the first time in over a year I have a race car under me. I am pretty thrilled about that in being back in my Chevy Camaro that I have driven before and have had a lot of success with. We went and tested after Phoenix and we made some pretty big changes on the car and we got it to where we could hopefully get a handle on it. It’s going to start getting hot the next couple of months and we want to make sure we have a good handle on it. Coming here I think that gave us a little pep in our step and after qualifying third, which is our best of the year, I am excited. I am very optimistic about race day tomorrow.”

JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, ELITE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified fourth): “We did some testing prior to coming to Gainesville and we had some new things we were planning on employing here. Ran pretty well yesterday in the cooler conditions and today the heat kind of bit us a little bit and we overstepped our boundaries. We kind of missed the setup and we repositioned some things for the final qualifying session. We were maybe a little too conservative and I think we have a good window to work within tomorrow.”

GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified fifth): “Very proud of the other two cars (Line and Butner) and they are ready to race tomorrow, but we have a little more homework to do with mine. We have been struggling a little bit, especially those last three runs. It’s a little bit of engine tune-up, and it’s a little bit of car chassis tune-up. We can figure it out.”