Indianapolis: Jason Line final summary

Line turned back in second round Holds point lead, margin narrowed

CLERMONT, Ind. (September 4, 2006) -- Jason Line, who leads the Pro Stock point standings, came up three thousandths (.003) of a second short as his KB Racing LLC-owned, Summit Racing Equipment-backed Pontiac GTO was nipped at the finish line during second round eliminations today at the 52nd annual NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park (ORP) in Indianapolis.

In the opening round against Warren Johnson, it was over at the starting lights. Johnson left too early (-.117) and red lighted. Line recorded the second quickest elapsed time of the round, a 6.671-second pass.

Moving to the second, Dave Connolly, who is third in the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock point standings, gained a starting line advantage of 28 hundredth (.028) of a second over Line. Line crossed the ORP finish line stripe in 6.682 seconds. Connolly recording a 6.707 second run and took the win light due to the better reaction time.

"All in all it was a good weekend," said Line. "I was a little disappointed in myself but (teammate) Greg (Anderson) won the race and that's what we're about: one team with two cars. Anytime you can win it's a good weekend. The Summit Racing Pontiac ran great and the entire team did their part. We have a great team behind us and know that they give both Greg and me a car that can win every time we run."

With five events remaining, the top three in the POWERade Pro Stock point standings stack up as follows: Line leads with 1,301 points; teammate Greg Anderson is second, 59 points back; Connolly in third is 135 behind Line and 76 behind Anderson. Rounding out the top five are Kurt Johnson in fourth, 296 back, and Allen Johnson, who moved into the fifth spot with a semifinal finish this weekend, 314 behind the leader.

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series now moves to Maple Grove Raceway Park, just outside Reading, Penn., for the 19th event on the 23-race schedule, the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals which runs September 14-17. Professional qualifying begins on Fri., Sept. 15 and concludes on Sat., Sept. 16. Final eliminations for all classes get underway on Sun., Sept. 17.

-credit: kb racing