After placing fifth on Friday at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J., Pro Stock standout Jason Line expressed disappointment at his opening-day performance, feeling his Summit Racing Pontiac was more than capable of pacing the 20-car field.
He quickly rectified this situation during Saturday’s early qualifying session, with his 6.508-second, 212.16 mph pass resetting the track record, claiming the No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s final eliminations at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park and setting the stage for a first-round encounter with No. 16 qualifier Bob Benza.
It was Line’s second No.1 qualifying performance of the season, 19th of his career and first at the historic New Jersey quarter-mile.
“Both of our runs today were decent, although there was still room for improvement” said Line. “In fact, our final run was a little better than the one that got us the pole, but we were trying something that the car obviously didn’t like. Still, we were able to get our second pole of the year, and first one here in New Jersey, which feels really good. Most importantly, we made progress have a good direction for race day.
“If you look at the final ladder, you can see how tough Pro Stock is right now, with the top seven racers separated by nine thousandths of a second. If you want to have a chance at winning tomorrow, you have to be mistake-free. Fortunately, I believe this Summit Racing team is capable of doing just that, as long as we all do our jobs.
“We’ll enjoy this No. 1 qualifier for what it is, but our focus is definitely on tomorrow. We have a really good hot rod, and we need to finish the job. Today was just the first step.”
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