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Line welcomes return to venerable Gainesville Raceway
The 32-time national event winner hopes to strengthen the friendship and expand on an already pleasantly surprising season.
Edited: Mar 13, 2014, 10:24 AM
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Jason Line and Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville are on friendly terms, and this weekend at the 45th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, the 32-time national event winner hopes to strengthen the friendship and expand on an already pleasantly surprising season.
Line, of Mooresville, N.C., blasted into the 2014 season of NHRA's Mello Yello Drag Racing Series with a win at the season-opening Winternationals in his Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro and immediately took over the points lead. At the second race of the season, just two weeks ago in Phoenix, the 2006 and 2011 Pro Stock world champ qualified a stout 3rd and raced to the semifinals. He is currently second in the series standings.
Jason Line
Photo by: Anne Proffit
"The Summit Racing team likes that racetrack, that's for sure," said Line, who has four wins in five final rounds in Gainesville – including three in a row from 2009-2011 and a 2005 triumph. His collection of trophies earned at the Gatornationals is the most of any currently competing full-time Pro Stock competitor. KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson brings two Gainesville wins to Team Summit with victories collected in 2004 and 2007.
With Anderson still recovering from heart surgery to repair a bicuspid aortic valve, European Pro Stock champion Jimmy Alund will again be behind the wheel of the second Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro. Alund has twice before raced in Gainesville.
"We spent some time earlier this week in Bradenton, and that's not too far from Gainesville. Hopefully the conditions will be similar and what we learned in that test session will help us. We'll see, but I know that the Summit Racing guys always go to Gainesville looking for more of what we've had there before, that's for sure," said Line.
At last season's race in Florida, Line qualified his Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro in the No. 3 position and expertly wheeled his way to the semifinals. This year, Line will arrive in Gainesville with his familiar blue racecar but with a few upgrades. After the race in Phoenix, the Camaro was converted to a 2014 model with a noticeably sleeker front end.
"It's been an interesting year for this team so far," said Line. "I'm not generally surprised when we win a race, but I think we were all a little surprised to go out there and win Pomona with all that had gone on before the season even started. No one was distracted or discouraged, though, and I think that was a big factor. Now we need to do it again this weekend in Gainesville."
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