Jason Line Still Number One After Two Countdown Races

Jason Line advanced to the final round at the rain-delayed Pep Boys NHRA Carolina Nationals on Saturday at Texas Motorplex and made it to the second round of eliminations at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals. Those performances were enough to keep the Summit Racing Pro Stock driver first in the Countdown to the Championship points standings.

Carolina Nationals
Before rain postponed the Carolina Nationals, Line made a 6.533 second, 210.93 MPH pass in the first round of eliminations. He picked up right where he left off when racing resumed in Texas, running a 6.601/210.50 to defeat Dave Connolly. Line continued his winning ways in the semi-finals, defeating Vincent Nobile 6.599/209.95 to 6.606/210.34.

Line met up with Jonathan Gray in the final round, Line’s seventh final round appearance this year and his fourth consecutive Carolina Nationals final. Line left the starting line just .017 second behind Gray, but that was enough for Gray to take the win, 6.589/209.10 to 6.605/209.62.

FallNationals
Line, who won the FallNationals in 2013, qualified fourth with a 6.582/210.24 pass. He defeated Chris McGaha in Round One of eliminations, 6.574/210.80 to 6.617/208.71. In Round Two, got a .003 second jump on opponent Vincent Nobile, but experienced tire shake and slowed to a 12.243/69.72, handing the win to Nobile.

“Yesterday was a pretty good day for us getting to the final round in the Charlotte race, but today didn’t go quite as planned,” said Line. “The championship is not won or lost in one race, so we would consider this a minor setback. Some races you go and everything works in your favor, but sometimes they don’t. We had a good weekend overall, and we’ll go to St. Louis next weekend and be better.”

Anderson Fast at FallNationals
Greg Anderson uncovered a good amount of speed in Dallas. He recorded Top Speed of Event in Round One of eliminations, running 6.595/210.97 to defeat Jeg Coughlin. Anderson’s day ended in Round Two when he reacted at the tree too soon with a .008 second redlight. It was just the 22nd redlight in 352 races and 859 rounds of competition.

“That (first) round meant something to us. Anytime you can put that yellow car on the trailer, Team Summit is happy,” said Anderson. “We showed that we do have good speed, but we just have to work on the car a little bit. The trucks are going straight from Dallas to St. Louis, so we won’t be able to do any car testing but we’ll continue to test our engines to make them better. We have four races to go, and we’re going to try our darndest to help our teammate Jason Line win this championship for Summit Racing.”

Team Summit Results: Top Fuel
Doug Kalitta qualified second (3.765/326.71) but lost to Troy Buff in Round One of eliminations. He is currently third in the points standings.
J.R. Todd qualified Number One (3.761/317.87). He defeated Morgan Lucas, Spencer Massey, and Shawn Langdon in the first three rounds, but lost to Tony Schumacher in the final. Todd is currently fifth in the points standings.

Team Summit Results: Funny Car
Tim Wilkerson qualified 14th (4.269/293.09). He defeated Ron Capps and Matt Hagan in the first two rounds, but lost to Del Worsham in the semifinal. Wilkerson is currently ninth in the points standings.
Del Worsham qualified 10th (4.088/307.79). He defeated Chad Head, Alexis DeJoria, and Tim Wilkerson in the first three rounds, but lost to Courtney Force in the final. Worsham is currently eighth in the points standings.
Alexis DeJoria qualified second (4.041/305.42). She defeated Jeff Diehl in Round one but lost to Del Worsham in Round Two. DeJoria is tied with Ron Capps for fifth place in the points standings.

Final Round Results
Top Fuel: Tony Schumacher defeated J.R. Todd, 3.891/318.62 to 4.134/251.49.
Funny Car: Courtney Force defeated Del Worsham, 4.227/301.07 to 4.309/285.65.
Pro Stock: Dave Connolly defeated Shane Gray, 6.616/210.05 to 6.617/210.73.
Pro Stock Motorcycle: Andrew Hines ran a solo 7.571/186.54 when Steve Johnson had to change engines and could not make the round.

Next Race
The next event is the AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals, September 26-28 in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit Drag Race Central for more news and in-depth results from the AAA Texas FallNationals.