The weather proved to be the major story during the opening day of qualifying at the NHRA Nationals in Charlotte, NC as the mercury at zMAX Dragway dropped nearly thirty degrees from the day before. This sent fans looking for their sweatshirts and Pro Stock crew chiefs searching their tuning notes, as they knew they would need to match the maximum horsepower they would be making to the quirky Carolina quarter-mile.
Coming off their runner-up performance at the U.S. Nationals two weeks ago, Jason Line and the Summit Racing team continued to be among the top performers in their division, posting the quickest elapsed time in each of the two sessions, highlighted by his opening 6.510-second, 212.56 mph, which placed him atop the 21-car field midway through qualifying. Even so, the Mooresville, NC resident felt there was still room left for improvement during one of his final two attempts on Saturday.
“All in all, any time we’re quicker than everyone else, it’s a pretty good day for the Summit Racing team,” said Line. “Although my car was pretty good on both runs, we were just a little too conservative, so there’s certainly more left in it, as well as a lot of racing left to go. Still, we were able to score six bonus points, which lets us pull a little closer to Greg (teammate and points leader Anderson), and it’s the best way to start a weekend, so I’m pretty happy.
“The starting line here at zMAX Dragway certainly has teeth this weekend, and we may have even underestimated it a bit today. The good news is that they’ve done a great job of prepping the surface, and, Mother Nature permitting, we’ll have two more shots at it tomorrow. Given the right conditions, you could see a new national e.t. record, and we’d certainly like it to be one of our Summit Racing Pontiacs.”
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