Finally.

After 12 previous attempts to collect a Wally at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, Jason Line finally broke through with his first career win at the 28th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals, going wire-to-wire in picking up his fifth victory of the season as he improved to a perfect 8-for-8 in final rounds in 2016.

“It was the perfect weekend,” Line said. “I was joking that Topeka is my new favorite place. I have never done anything good here until now. Now I have done two good things here. It was an exciting weekend for sure, and the fact that we didn’t mess it up and actually put our Chevy Camaro in the winner’s circle is awesome.”

Line earned his 42nd career Pro Stock victory in a showdown with his KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson. In the fifth final round of the year between the two drivers, it was actually Anderson who got the jump with an .019 reaction time to Line’s .033, but Line had the horsepower to chase him down and collect the win with a solid 6.664-second run at 207.85 mph. Anderson, in his fifth final of the year, crossed the stripe with a 6.687 at 207.02 mph.

“When I left I didn’t think I nailed it and I didn’t. I wasn’t late by any means, normally for me that is really good, but I didn’t feel like I got it as good as I should have and I was like, ‘oh boy, here it goes again,’” Line said. “I will have to take a little heat for losing another holeshot, but when my light came on I was pretty excited.

“He is tough to beat. He is probably the toughest out there. He has got more wins than anybody else and you don’t look forward to racing against him in the final round, especially since I know what kind of equipment he has. But we were excited to get the win.”

While Line was certainly excited to extend his near-perfect start to the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, he was even more excited to finally have something go his way at a track that has historically proven a menace.

“This is a big deal to me. It is nice to win at some place you have never done well at, so it feels really good, I can’t stop smiling,” Line said. “I don’t know whether it was bad luck, I have just done a bad job. There were times I had good cars, I just didn’t drive well. And today, I managed to do enough to make sure my win lights came on.”

Line had relatively smooth sailing on his way to his eighth final of the season, collecting wins over Mark Hogan, Erica Enders and Shane Gray. In the semifinal, a relatively inconspicuous run proved more than a handful in the cockpit for Line in what was by far his biggest scare of the weekend.

“In the semifinals I got down there and put it in fourth gear and it started to do a powerslide, so I had to revert back to my Minnesota driving on the snow days,” Line said. “The track was very slippery out there, but we managed to get to the finish line without hitting anything, so I was thankful for that.”

Even with the hiccup, Line still managed to run a 6.670 in the semifinal run, adding passes of 6.647 and 6.661 to his winning stat line. Anderson added wins over V. Gaines, Vincent Nobile and Allen Johnson en route to the runner-up finish.

While it was yet another 1-2 for the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaros, the gap between the KB Racing teammates and the rest of the field continued to shrink as the rest of the teams continue to make significant gains in figuring out the new cars.

“They have been working and it shows. I hate it, but I am happy for them,” Line said. “Obviously you hate being beat up all the time and that is what brings good competition. They did what they needed to do. They went out and worked hard and absolutely made gains. Unfortunately, now we are going to have to go back and work harder yet.

“That is the great thing about NHRA drag racing, it breeds good competition. They are not quitters and they are not going anywhere. And neither are we.”

With his fifth win of the season, Line extends his points lead to an impressive 126 points over Anderson and 328 points clear of third place Bo Butner. Line will look to keep his streak alive in two weeks when the series returns to the track for the NHRA New England Nationals June 3-5 at New England Dragway.
       

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