Jason Line’s victory over Shane Gray in the April 28 Houston final was a signal to the drag-racing world that the previously dominant KB/Summit team was not missing in National Hot Rod Association action.
 
Line and teammate Greg Anderson had been shut out of the finals all season long. That has been terribly uncharacteristic for two-time champion Line, who’s on the verge of winning his 360th round-win and just earned that 30th victory . . . and for Anderson, who has a Hall of Fame list of accomplishments that include four series crowns and 568 elimination-round victories against just 223 defeats.

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

They have been off the radar a bit this season, although fifth-place Line had an 11-6 record this season heading into the Topeka race and eighth-place Anderson was no worse than .500 on race day. But being .500 on race day is neither something the fans expect from Anderson nor what Anderson expects from himself.
 
Adding to the aggravation was the NHRA’s announcement late Tuesday that it has fined Anderson $5,000 and penalized him 10 crucial Mello Yello Drag Racing Series championship points for removal of safety equipment (lifting his helmet shield too early).
 
Citing the 2013 NHRA Rulebook, Section 2, Page 1, removing safety equipment is prohibited from the time the vehicle leaves the starting line until the vehicle is on the return road. Glen Gray, NHRA vice-president of technical operations, told Competition Plus magazine the sanctioning body had warned Anderson several times and this was his fourth violation.
 
“Actually, this was the fourth violation that I’m aware of.,” Gray said. “He has been sent three letters regarding this over the past several years.”.

Whether the penalty fits the crime or the rule is applied evenly is up for debate. Nevertheless, Anderson chose to speak this week about the positives.
 
“We’re on an upswing with both of our Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaros this year,” he said.
 
“The win that my teammate, Jason Line, got a couple of weeks ago in Houston really helped this team. We’ve been working very hard ever since then, and it gave the guys a little more drive,” he said.
 
Despite statistics that indicate Anderson had a far better performance record last year after seven races than he had this season, he said he feels more comfortable where he was entering the Topeka event. That’s almost hard to believe, considering in 2012, he headed to Kansas with three victories in five final-round appearances.

 
“To be honest with you, I have a lot more confidence in my car right now, especially after Atlanta and the test sessions we’ve had,” Anderson said. “I really think we’ve turned a corner. My car is going to be good, and it keeps getting better each weekend.
 
“At this time last year, I didn’t feel like we had a complete handle on our race car, but this Summit Racing Chevy Camaro is adapting to the different conditions that we have to race in, and we’re closer now than we have been in a long time to making good, consistent runs, time after time,” he said. “We’re feeling a whole lot better, and we’re not over-confident, but we’ve got more confidence than we’ve probably had all year.”

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

The KB / Summit Racing team, Anderson said, made 26 passes in two days of testing back in North Carolina between the Atlanta rainout and the rescheduled completion of the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals.
 
“We haven’t been spectacular yet,” Line said even after his victory at Royal Purple Raceway at Baytown, Texas. “But . . . we definitely feel like we have something that we can build upon.

“Historically, KB Racing has done pretty well at the beginning and the end of the season, but this year surprised us because we started off a little slow,” he said. “But I do feel good about where we are right now. We’ve figured out a few things, particularly on Greg’s Summit Racing Chevy Camaro, that had us a little perplexed before.”
 
Both drivers have qualified in the top half of the field at every race this season but one (Las Vegas, where Anderson was ninth in the order). So it’s not as if they have fallen off the face of the Earth or have had a dismal showing. Moreover, it isn’t as if one driver has dominated the class. Four of the first five races saw different Pro Stock winners — Vincent Nobile, Erica Enders-Stevens, Allen Johnson, and Mike Edwards. By the start of race No. 8, at Topeka, Johnson and Edwards had won twice each and Enders-Stevens, Jeg Coughlin, and Shane Gray all had scored two runner-up finishes.
 
But the KB / Summit duo who have combined for four straight series titles from 2003-2006 and have claimed two of the past three aren’t terribly excited about class parity. They want to be blowing the competition’s doors off at every race.
 
“These Summit Racing Chevy Camaros are capable of winning, and that is always the expectation,” Line said.
 
And Anderson, the NHRA’s No. 4 racer in victories — among racers in all pro classes — with 74, is eager to get that first victory of the season and first since last June at Englishtown, N.J., when he debuted his Camaro and beat Line in the final round.

 
“I’m really, really hungry for a win,” Anderson said on the eve of the Topeka race.  “It’s time that I find my way back to victory lane. I believe I still know how to do it, but I need to prove it to myself. I’m overdue, but nobody is going to hand you one of these things. You need to go out and earn it, and that’s what I plan to do.”

Line said the Mooresville, N.C.-based operation “has been working really hard both at the KB Racing shop, in testing, and at each race we go to.” He still contends, perhaps too modestly, that “we may not be as fast as we were last year, but we will be able to make a decent showing.”
 
What was supposed to be a string of three races — at Charlotte, Houston, and Atlanta — with a break before the trek to Topeka turned into five consecutive weeks on the road. Thanks also to rain, the class (along with others, of course) lost several qualifying sessions that provide valuable data.
 
Line called that “both good and bad,” saying, “We miss having the time at the shop to work on things, because that time is definitely valuable, but the way things have worked out certainly allows you to get into a groove, so to speak. Hopefully, that will work to our advantage.”
 
Another move that the team hopes will give them an advantage is adding Tim Freeman to the organization. Freeman has raced in several classes, builds Comp Eliminator engines, has worked fulltime for sportsman standout Bo Butner, and has worked for a number of Pro Stock teams, most recently Rodger Brogdon Racing.
 
Posted on his Facebook page is the remark: “When he decided to take a break from Pro Stock last year, he decided that the only way he would go back is if he could be a part of a front-running team who had the possibilities to win races week in and week out.”
 
Anderson said of the second-generation racer from Tennessee, “We’ve observed him for many, many years out here, and he has a lot of experience. We just felt that we need a little bit of a different counterpoint on how we race. Maybe it’s time for a set of eyes from the outside world to take a look at what we’re doing. Sometimes when you look from the inside, you don’t see the forest through the trees, so we’re hoping that Tim can help us with that.

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

“He’s very positive, and he’s a hardcore, old-school racer, and he’s a welcome addition,” Anderson said. “This should be fun. We’re looking forward to the challenge, and so is he.”
 
Line constantly keeps himself on his toes, continually looks at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action as a challenge, always mindful that “you can go from champ to chump real quick out here.”
 
These champs never have been chumps, but from the way they’re talking and feeling these days, their numbers soon will back them up.