Jason Line Puts Pontiac on Top after Pro Stock Qualifying at Norwalk
Source: GM
Jun 29, 2008 - 2:59:08 PM
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NORWALK, Ohio, June 28, 2008 – After water seepage through the track surface of Summit Motorsports Park forced cancellation of both rounds of Friday qualifying for this weekend’s second annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Jason Line made the most of today’s two rounds of qualifying for Sunday eliminations by placing his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP on the pole of his car sponsor’s race. Line had an elapsed time of 6.716 seconds at 205.51 mph for his second No. 1 qualifier of the season (St. Louis) and 15th of his career. Line’s teammate, Greg Anderson, finished runner-up to Allen Johnson in the final round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a non-points bonus Pro Stock event featuring the top eight Pro Stock drivers who have accumulated the most points in qualifying during the past year.
“We’re happy we got some racing in and even happier to put the Summit Racing Pontiac on the pole at the Summit race,” Line said. “At this particular race, I think it’s huge to get the pole, especially considering who was on the provisional pole (Jeg Coughlin in the JEGS.com Chevy) after first round. Any time we can knock the yellow car off is good for us.
“We made a decent run in the first round today, but we didn’t think there was three hundredths left in it, that’s for sure. But nobody really seemed to slow down that much, and a lot of the Pro Stock cars that qualified made their best effort on the second run. That was a good run and I’m happy we’re on the pole. I was a little disappointed my teammate got beat in the finals of the Pro Stock challenge, but that happens. So far it’s been a good weekend for us.”
After a win and three runner-up finishes through this year’s first six races, Line has tapered off a bit and currently sits fourth in the Pro Stock standings. A win at his team sponsor’s race would be just the impetus his car could use to gain momentum heading into the Western Swing.
“I haven’t had a lot of racing luck lately, or I’ll call it luck, but if there’s been a break to be had it hasn’t been in my direction,” Line said. “Hopefully tomorrow we can turn that around. I’ve been driving decent and the car’s been running decent, just not enough to turn into wins. Maybe tomorrow’s the day.”
Jeg Coughlin Jr. qualified his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt second on the grid with a 6.726 elapsed time at 205.04 mph, and ironically he defeated Line in the first round of today’s K&N Horsepower Challenge before losing to Anderson.
“The car’s definitely running well,” Coughlin said. “We had high hopes for the K&N Horsepower Challenge today. Getting by Jason in the first round we knew was going to be a big step. And then going up against Greg, I personally just didn’t make a good run. The car was there but he beat us on a holeshot so that hurts. To hold on to No. 2, that’s probably our best qualifying run in the last several races, so I feel real good about that. Maybe sometime between now and tomorrow I’ll figure out how to get my act together.”
Greg Anderson uncharacteristically qualified his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP ninth for tomorrow’s eliminations but did advance to the final round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge before losing to Allen Johnson. He faces fellow Pontiac driver Mike Edwards in the first round.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit with the performance of the car today and ended up only qualifying ninth” Anderson said. “We don’t have lane choice tomorrow and I’m a little disappointed in that, but we did recover there in the final round of the K&N Challenge which gave us another shot at learning what was wrong with the car. We picked up three hundredths on the car, so obviously we learned a ton on that run. Hopefully that will propel us into better things for tomorrow.
“It looks like we’ve got a decent car; the bad luck is we ended up on the wrong side of the ladder because if we do get by the first round then we have to run Jason (teammate Line) second round, so that’s not good, but we’re not complaining. It was very nice to see Jason take the No. 1 spot for Summit, and it was nice to beat Jeg in the second round of the Challenge for Summit. The only thing better would have been to win the Challenge. But we gave it all we had, and the only way we can make a better weekend out of this is going ahead and putting a Summit car in the winner’s circle tomorrow.”
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