Team Summit Drivers Vie for Pro Stock Championship at Auto Club NHRA Finals

It comes down to the last race of the season.

Summit Racing Pro Stock drivers Greg Anderson and Jason Line, and KB Racing driver Bo Butner, hold the top three spots in the 2017 Countdown to the Championship points standings. Anderson is first with 2,597 points. Butner is 40 points behind with 2,557, and Line is third with 2,521 points. Tanner Gray is the closest non-KB Racing driver in fourth with 2,413 points, well out of championship contention.

Anderson has been to the final round at every race during the Countdown to the Championship. He has four Pro Stock world titles on his scorecard; just missing getting a fifth big trophy by just three points, in 2016, when teammate Jason Line earned his third championship. Anderson is also hot at Pomona Raceway; he and Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden each have 12 Pro Stock event wins at the track.

"It's great to have that 40-point lead, but each round will be worth 30 points in Pomona,” Anderson said. “We’ll have to win in Pomona to be world champ. That's the way it should be, though. You have to earn every inch of it. I expect a complete knock-down, drag-out brawl, just like we had in Las Vegas."

"I guess it just comes down to the fact that we do the best we can to beat ourselves – but that's what's so neat about KB Racing,” Anderson continued. “We can't predict what's going to happen. Jason and I raced door handle-to-door handle on Sunday in Las Vegas in the semis, and I won by just .006 of a second. It's not a good feeling if one car isn't up to speed with the other. You want them all to be even and let the drivers and crew chiefs settle it. I can't say enough about this race team. It's wonderful to be a part of it."

Line, the driver of the blue Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro, is in the hunt for his fourth Pro Stock championship fifth overall (his first championship was in Stock Eliminator in 1993). With each point in Pomona valued at 1 1/2 times its normal worth, Line has a realistic shot at defending his championship title. While he hasn’t won an NHRA Final in his career, he has reached the final round four times. Three of those times it was teammate Greg Anderson in the other lane.

"You never know – I could break Greg's leg before first round and maybe I'll win the race,” Line said jokingly. “But I don't want to win that way. When it comes down to the championship, crazy things have happened for us and against us. That's why you go there and race instead of working it all out on paper. A lot of the time it looks like one thing, but in reality, it's another. We'll see what happens, but right now, I'm happy. I'm proud to be part of this team."

With four Pro Stock event wins on his scorecard, Bo Butner was the Pro Stock points leader for much of the season, and entered the Countdown to the Championship in first place. An accomplished NHRA sportsman racer, Butner won the Comp Eliminator title in 2006 and has four Division 3 championships. He has won twice in Pomona, both as a sportsman racer.

"I feel like the KB Racing team raced smarter,” Butner said. “We said all year long that we wanted to be 1-2-3 at the end, and now we're almost there and it's looking like that could very well happen. I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far. We've got the best guys, and I know we'll have my car figured out for Pomona. I've had some pretty good luck there. We're going to do our same routine, and if it's meant to be, it'll happen."

Wilkerson Looks to Finish the Season on a High Note with a Pomona Victory
Nitro Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson is currently eighth in the Countdown points standings. While a championship is out of reach, this will be his 13th Top 10 finish in a career that spans two decades. This season’s NHRA Finals will be Wilkerson's 469th career Nitro Funny Car race, and a victory would be a great way to end the year and get a jump on 2018.

"It would be so bitchin’ to win Pomona. Earning points and a half there, maybe I can catch one of the guys ahead of me,” Wilkerson said. “I would sure like to keep the other guys behind me, and it would really be a feather in my hat after J.R. Todd beat me twice at races I should have won. I've been to the finals in Pomona once, and it would be so exciting to get there again. I just need to focus, and my guys need to keep their chins up. They've never lost faith in me, and so far, that's kept us going."

You can follow the Pro Stock nail-biter and the rest of the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Drag Race Central.

53rd Annual Auto Club NHRA Finals Schedule (All Times Pacific)
Friday, November 10
• Sportsman eliminations starting at 8:15 am
• Pro qualifying sessions at 12 pm and 2:45 pm

Saturday, November 11
• Sportsman eliminations starting at 8:15 am
• Pro qualifying sessions at 12 pm and 2:45 pm

Sunday, November 12
• Eliminations begin at 11 am

Television Schedule on Fox Sports 1 (All Times Eastern)
Friday, November 10: one hour of live qualifying coverage at 6:30 pm
Saturday, November 11: one hour of live qualifying coverage at 6 pm
Sunday, November 12: three hours of live finals coverage starting at 4 pm