Line Reaches Another Final, Nabs the Points Lead

Team Summit Racing’s Jason Line raced his way to a second straight final round appearance during the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix. Even more important, Line nabbed the Pro Stock points lead.

Line scored an easy victory in the first round of eliminations when Vincent Nobile was unable to keep the engine lit. In Round Two, Line’s .011-second reaction time and 6.548 second/210.37 MPH pass was enough to edge out teammate Greg Anderson. In the semifinals, Deric Kramer’s red-light catapulted Line straight into the money round against Chris McGaha. In what turned out to be a very close final round matchup, Line came up short against the eventual race winner.

“We didn’t come out of here with what we wanted, but we still had a decent weekend,” said Line, who earned his fifth Phoenix final round and the 96th final of his career. “I've said it before, but the next win will be my 50th, and this is Summit Racing’s 50th anniversary year. That will be really special, and I’m super motivated to make that happen. When I finally get it, it’s going to feel good.”

Greg Anderson was the fastest in terms of speed with multiple 211 mph passes. Anderson clocked a 6.552/211.46 in Round One to defeat Kenny Delco. The reward was that fateful second-round meeting with teammate Jason Line. Anderson clocked a quicker and faster 6.541/211 run but his slower .042-second RT was the decider.

“Jason and I ended up on the same side of the ladder, which meant that we had to run each other second round”, Anderson said. “That’s not the goal—you always want to be on opposite sides of the ladder and meet in the final round. We both made decent runs, he just did a better job on the light, and I lost.”

Tim Wilkerson qualified his Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny car in the Number 15 spot before he learned of his car’s bent chassis. A quick change of cars and Wilk was on his way to a first-round meeting with Ron Capps. Wilk left the start stripe first but Capps soon surged ahead to take the win, 3.908/325.30 to 4.091/256.89.

“I really thought we had a good chance of doing something good today. But the car left the starting line, hit the bumps about 80-100 feet out, and went bump, bump, bump and put a hole out,” said Wilkerson, explaining the reason for losing a cylinder. “We still went 4.09, and there were only two other cars in the whole session that would have beat us.”

Final Round Results
Top Fuel—Steve Torrence (3.729/330.72) defeated Scott Palmer (6.449/102.70)

Funny Car— Courtney Force (3.834/337.16) defeated Tommy Johnson Jr. (6.814/101.57)

Pro Stock—Chris McGaha (6.529/211.58) defeated Jason Line (6.538/210.14)

What’s Next
The next event on the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour is the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida, March 15-18.

For more information and complete race results visit DragRaceCentral.com.