Pro Stock driver Jason Line had said again and again in recent months that he wouldn’t trade the silver Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro with anybody as he rode a wave of success that brought him all the way up to the #3 position, just 50 points back from the very top spot in the standings. The two-time series champion certainly never suspected that the car would be taken from him by a nasty crash during a test session with just two races to go in the 2013 Countdown to the Championship.
Now, however, with the 13th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway just days away, Line appears to be right back on track in the white Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro that teammate Greg Anderson had been piloting for the better part of the season. Anderson has resumed control of the red Camaro that the team has had on standby.
“Rumor had it that they were going to sell the car, so I basically just made sure no one else was going to get it,” joked Line, who was uninjured during the rollover crash at a North Carolina racetrack two weeks ago. “Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself, then you have no business laughing at anyone else.
“But in all seriousness, we aren’t discouraged by what happened. The white Summit Racing Camaro certainly has the potential to be better than the silver one was, but the big question is if it will be good right away. The trick will be to get it to where it needs to be ASAP. There is certainly a sense of urgency because we have to win this week if we want to win the championship. The car performed well during testing, and we have every reason to be optimistic.”
Indeed, there is no facility more appealing to the KB Racing team, whose collective success there has included a win in 2008 for Line at the spring race and seven wins for Anderson. The Summit Racing Pro Stock team has made the final round 11 times in Las Vegas, and twice they have proudly participated in an all-Summit Racing final with Line and Anderson going head-to-head for the trophy in front of Las Vegas-based team owners Ken and Judy Black.
“Sometimes adversity forces you out of your box and you have to do something a little bit different,” said Line. “I think that’s exciting, and I’m looking forward to this weekend. I feel like we have the ability to go out there and beat everybody else, and we need to. This is a big weekend. It’s do or die in terms of the championship – by Sunday afternoon, we’re going to have a pretty good idea of who is going to win.”
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