By Wes Holtsclaw (wholtsclaw@starhq.com)
The fastest driver in Pro Stock is off to a great start in 2008.
Jason Line, driver of KB Racing’s Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GXP, currently leads a tight points race in the Pro Stock division where four drivers are separated by 22 points.
Line has reached the final round four times with one victory this season.
“It’s definitely the best season I’ve had personally to this date,” Line said Wednesday. “Team-wise, it’s been okay. We haven’t ran as good as we would’ve liked to. But I guess there’s a lot of reasons for that.
“We’re working on it and hopefully we’re going to do things a little differently than last year. Last year, we came on really strong and got worse as the season went on. This year, we want to peak at the end especially with the new points format.”
After claiming the POWERade Series world title in 2006 under the old format, Line finished last year’s inaugural Countdown to the Championship with a top five finish.
Line said the new format has changed his team’s mentality somewhat, but the main goal, obviously, is to win races.
“The goal is to go out and win every race,” Line said. “Obviously it’s a pretty tough task. But it’s a goal. Really the format has changed the way we approach the season a little bit.
“The goal is to get better each week no matter what happens and, whether you win or not, we can gauge enough about the performance of the car itself. It still comes down to winning every week. At the same time, we feel like our performance needs to get better.”
After serving three years and nine months in the United States Air Force from 1987-1991, Line began racing in NHRA’s Stock Eliminator division in 1992.
He won the Stock Eliminator world title in 1993 and had success through the mid-nineties before joining Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR team in 1998 as the Chief Dynamometer Engine Specialist, also serving as the at-track engine tuner for Bobby Labonte during his 2000 Winston Cup championship season.
After that, he rejoined drag racing at KB Racing as Greg Anderson’s Chief Dynamometer Engine Specialist and Tuner for his three consecutive NHRA titles from 2003-2005 while also driving his own Pro Stock ride.
In 2004, Line earned Rookie of the Year honors and ended teammate Anderson’s streak of titles in 2006 with the POWERade Series Pro Stock title.
Last year, Line established the national record for speed in the division at 211.69 mph.
This year, the Minnesota-native achieved a new feat becoming one of four drivers in NHRA history to qualify in each of his first 100 attempts.
“I wasn’t aware of it actually. They came up to me, and at the time they thought I was the first person in Pro Stock to do that,” Line said. “They later figured out that Bruce Allen had done it also. Either way, I’m not a big stat keeper but it certainly a neat accomplishment and it says a lot about the quality people we have here behind the drivers. It takes everybody to do it.”
Line hopes to maintain his points lead this weekend at Bristol Dragway, where he’s reached the finals twice since 2004 including a win in 2006.
“It’s one of our favorite tracks to go to,” he added. “We really look forward to it.”
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