Bristol: Jason Line Saturday notes

Jason Line goes after second consecutive title at Bristol Dragway
Finished qualifying at No. 4

BRISTOL, Tenn. (July 7, 2007) -- After holding the provisional top spot at the end of Friday's two qualifying runs, three outstanding and unexpected passes in Saturday's first session and third overall dropped Jason Line to the No. 4 position on the final qualifying ladder for the NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals.

Line's best of the four qualifying session in his KB Racing LLC Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GTO was an elapsed time of 6.789 seconds run under the lights in the cooler air of Friday evening.

Jeg Coughlin (6.765/204.05) is No. 1 and Line's KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson is second (6.782/204.35). Coughlin's teammate Dave Connolly (6.782/203.58) holds down third.

Line begins his quest for his second consecutive win here at Bristol Dragway when he faces Justin Humphreys in the opening round of eliminations tomorrow.

This season Line has been to three final rounds (Phoenix, Houston, and Chicago), winning one (Houston). Line ran the table (No. 1 qualifier, won the race, ran low elapsed time and top speed of the event) here last year. He holds the Bristol Dragway track record E.T. at 6.708 seconds and track record top speed at 205.35 mph, both set in 2006. Line was runner up to Anderson here in 2004.

ELIMINATIONS: Note the later start: Final eliminations for the NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals begin for all teams at 12 noon on Sunday, July 8. All qualifying and eliminations times are local Bristol time (ET) and subject to change.

-credit: kbr