Jason Line in the Thick of the Championship Points Chase

Team Summit closed out a productive weekend at Houston Raceway Park with a semifinals finish for Greg Anderson and continued hope for a 2020 NHRA Camping World Series championship for Jason Line.

Anderson carried the banner for Summit Racing during eliminations. He had the second-quickest run of Round One as he defeated Mason McGaha, 6.542/210.44 to 6.576/209.88. Anderson ran a 6.550/209.82 in Round Two to defeat Mason's dad, Chris McGaha. Then it was on to the semifinals for a meeting with Jeg Coughlin Jr.

The veteran racers were well-matched coming into the round in terms of statistics, with Anderson holding an 11-10 advantage in previous semifinal rounds. The two put on a heck of a race, launching nearly in unison and glued together down the quarter-mile. As they crossed the finish line, the win light illuminated in Coughlin's lane. The margin of victory was a tiny .002 of a second.

"These races are decided by thousandths of a second, and any one little thing on the track can decide whether you win or lose," said Anderson. "My Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro was a great race car and I struggled last week as a driver, and this week I got better as a driver and had a great car until that last run. We spun the tires real bad. We have to get the car and driver together again, and when we do, were going to win a lot of races."

The four-time Pro Stock champion moved up to fourth place in the Pro Stock points standings.

Jason Line’s day in Houston ended in the first round of eliminations when he was delayed leaving the starting line and forfeited the match to Chris McGaha on a holeshot. He leaves Houston tied for second with Jeg Coughlin Jr. and is just 55 marks behind points leader Erica Enders.

"There's a chance, but we'll need a little good fortune–and we didn't help ourselves today," said Line. "I want to win the championship; I want to win it for Ken Black and for Summit Racing. It would be a nice going away present for sure."

Wilkerson and Team LRS Optimistic after Houston
Tim Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang Nitro Funny Car team had a challenging weekend at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals. But with the final race of the 2020 season coming up fast, they are optimistic about turning the ship around and finishing strong.

After suffering engine issues in two rounds of qualifying, Wilkerson came into Sunday without making a single full pass down the race track, which erased all chances of knowing what the surface really had to offer. With the help of co-crew chief Richard Hartman, Wilkerson did his best to decipher what was waiting for them downtrack, but it was a bit of a shot in the dark when he came up next to Alexis DeJoria in Round One.

Wilkerson left the starting line first with a .085-second reaction time, but the racing surface dealt him a blow from which he could not recover. DeJoria surged ahead for the win, 3.874/330.39 to Wilkerson’s 5.426/132.70.

"Getting behind the eight ball really mucks up your whole weekend," said Wilkerson. "Hartman does a really good job, but we don't have all of those gadgets like some of the teams with track specialists. We just didn't have enough information to make good decisions because we didn't make it down either lane here. I didn't realize how stinkin' bumpy it was, and that turned out to be a pretty sizable problem for us today."

Wilkerson is eager to get to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and take a turn for the better. He is seventh in the Nitro Funny Car standings and looking to score a win before the curtain drops.

"It's been such a weird year for all of us, but for Dick Levi, all the folks at LRS, and all of the great people who support us, we really want to finish strong," said Wilkerson. "It would be nice to turn it around before we get into the off-season."

The season-closing Dodge NHRA Finals will take place at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, October 30-November 1, 2020.