The 2016 season of NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series was a dream year for KB Racing drivers Jason Line and Greg Anderson. The duo wheeled their swift Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaros deftly through a year of dominance, winning 16 of 24 events and keeping hold of the points lead all year long. Ultimately, Line won his third Pro Stock championship with Summit Racing teammate Anderson missing the title by just three points.

The Summit Racing team won the first 13 races of 2016 to establish themselves as an unstoppable force, and 10 times over the course of the year it was a battle between Line and Anderson for the trophy. Overall last season there were 14 all-KB Racing final rounds split between Line, Anderson, and Bo Butner, who gets the power for his Jim Butner Auto Chevrolet Camaro from the team. Between the three drivers, KB Racing had a Chevy Camaro in the final 19 times.

It was a season to remember, but the team is not one to look back. At this weekend’s season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Line and Anderson expect to have their work cut out for them.

“I’m not thinking about the target on our backs,” said Line, who has 45 NHRA Pro Stock victories in 92 final rounds entering the 2017 season. “We’re approaching this season the same as any other – you go to win. It’s inevitable that the competition will catch up to us, and there is no way around that. But everyone at KB Racing worked very hard to prepare our Summit Racing Chevy Camaros for this year. This off-season was about refining the recipe. We worked on a lot of things over the winter, but I think that everyone is going to be pretty even this year. As time goes on, everyone will be bunched closer together. It will make our jobs tougher, that’s for sure.”

Last year, Anderson left Pomona with the points lead after beating Line in the Winternationals final round. The all-Summit Racing final set the tone for the year.

“I can’t predict that it’s going to be as lopsided as it was last year,” said Anderson, a four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion and No. 6 on the all-time NHRA win list across all categories with 86 victories.  “The other teams have had a whole year under their belt now, and we saw towards the end of the year last year that they were closing the gap on us. We’re not going to have a big gap, no question about that, if we have any. It’s going to come down to more importance to the crew chief and to the driver this year, and we’re fine with that.

“We’re happy about what happened last year, but we’re not under the grand illusion that it’s going to be like that every year. People are sharp in this class. There are a lot of sharp cookies, and they learn. They rectify the problems they have. I will not expect the gap that we had last year.”

Including last season’s victory, Anderson has six Winternationals wins and six more Auto Club Raceway victories at the season-closing NHRA Finals held there each November.

“Pomona is great, and I couldn’t think of a better place to start or end the year,” said Anderson. “I love it there. It’s magical; it’s just everything a drag race should be. It’s showed in our program that we really like that racetrack and all that it stands for.”

Line has four Winternationals wins in five final rounds, and he has reached the final round at the NHRA Finals there four times.

“I like Pomona, and I’ve always said it’s one of my favorite places,” said Line. “And I’m eager to get back to racing. It’s time.”