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NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 7, 2016

Jason Line

Glendora, California

SCOTT SMITH: We have joining us Jason Line. He is the driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro. He enters the Countdown to the Championship with a strong start.

Thank you, Jason, for joining us today.

ANDREW HINES: Barely made it in time. Story of my life.

SCOTT SMITH: He raced eight consecutive final rounds, and won five times. He has seven victories this year, six number one qualifiers, only one first-round loss this season. He's a two-time world champion. This is the second time he enters the Playoffs as the number one seed.

Jason, talk about your season to date. You started the season very strong, even with all the changes to the category. How satisfying was it to get off to that hot start?

JASON LINE: Well, it was great, obviously. That's the way you dream of starting. But with the playoff format, it becomes very unimportant suddenly. It's what have you done for me lately, what are you going to do now. That's where we're at.

It was a great start to the year. I'll always remember it. It was a great thing. Now we have to finish the job.

SCOTT SMITH: You talked about everybody was going to catch up to you. Is that what we've seen or have you been trying different things for the Countdown? You haven't been as strong in the past handful of races as when you started the season.

JASON LINE: Yeah, thanks for noticing (laughter).

Yeah, of course they've caught up to us. There's no question about that. We have tested a lot of stuff, trying a lot of things. I've been using the last few races as test sessions. Maybe that's smart, maybe that's not smart. We'll see here after the Countdown starts.

But they're going to gain on us. That's just the way it works. For whatever reason, we chose to work on, I guess, things that were probably more important than what they did. It worked out well for us.

But with the rules package the way it is, we're all eventually going to be tied together just like we were when we had carburetors. So that's where we're headed.

SCOTT SMITH: These six races are all very, very important. Each one has its own different characteristics. Is there one race that stands out more than another that you really want to have good success at, or do you treat them all as equal going into it?

JASON LINE: Well, I think we treat them all as equal. But obviously the first race, the Charlotte race, is huge. To get momentum on your side, that's a huge advantage. That's what we need to do. We need to go to Charlotte and win.

In the past the Countdown has been both good and bad for me. When we've gotten off to good starts, we can be tough to beat. Obviously winning at Charlotte is very, very, very important.

SCOTT SMITH: Talk about that Redding event. We always see there such incredible speeds and times. It's usually cooler, a little bit closer to sea level. Is that one where you can let the motor kind of run a lot?

JASON LINE: Well, I think right now, NHRA has done a great job with the racetracks. The tracks, they haven't deteriorated much. They've stayed in great shape. All of the races that we're going to, the racetracks are great. You can give it whatever it's got.

Charlotte is going to be no exception. It could be fairly cool there as well. Of course, it's a downhill track, so it's pretty fast. St. Louis also, great racetrack. Good barometer. The Pro Stock car, anything that is naturally aspirated benefits from that. That place can be extremely fast, as well.

SCOTT SMITH: I hate to bring it up, but you did start off with a hot start in Chicago. Do you think you can recapture that magic and get going again?

JASON LINE: Well, I hope so. I mean, it's hard to say. That's the one thing about racing. No matter how it looks on paper, you still got to go up there and do it. It can be unpredictable. It is unpredictable. There's no telling.

We've done it before. Again, the Countdown has been both good to us and a curse in the past. It comes down to getting that great start at Charlotte and trying to get momentum on your side.

I'm crossing my fingers. Again, I don't believe in luck. So we're working hard to try to make sure we've got our act together, both of our Summit Camaros and Bo Butner with his KV Racing prepared car, that we're all good and ready to go when Charlotte starts.

SCOTT SMITH: We'll take questions for Jason.

Q. Now that the Playoffs are about to begin, I'm not sure how this worked during the regular season, but during the Playoffs, is there such a thing as information sharing among you, Greg and Bo, or do you kind of button down to what you're doing to keep it to yourself?
JASON LINE: No, it doesn't work that way with us. We've always shared things. Of course, I do the engine tuning on all three of those cars. They're going to notice if I hide something from them, that's for sure. We don't do that.

I feel like for us to win the championship, it's going to take all three cars to run well, not just one. I think that's the advantage of having a multi-car team. We will certainly use that to our advantage.

Q. Would it surprise you if Bo wins a round in this thing, being a rookie?
JASON LINE: At this point, I'm not sure anything would surprise me. No, I mean, Bo has been a champion before. He can drive. He's certainly capable. Obviously if Greg or myself don't win, he's next in line. He's been a great customer and a great friend and a joy to be around.

If he wins, I'd be very happy for the man.

Q. I have to ask you a question from Kurt Busch. He said, How come you weren't over at the drag strip today?
JASON LINE: I got stuff going on. We got some dyno'ing to do, things to test. Tell Kurt that I'm busy. We'll be there tomorrow. How is that?

Q. The other thing that he wanted to know, and I want to know, are you having some late-season issues with your clutches that you're working on desperately?
JASON LINE: No, not that I'm aware of anyway. The only clutch problem is me letting it out on time. That's the only problem we have with the clutch, as far as I know.

Q. How confident do you feel with just having to hold on for six races, that the competition won't make it almost impossible?
JASON LINE: Well, nothing's impossible, I guess. I mean, I don't know. I'm not willing to trade places with anybody else, other than maybe Greg or Bo. Actually, I'd like to trade places with Bo. His car is really good right now.

Again, we've got a great team, great folks behind us here. I'm not going to trade places with anybody.

SCOTT SMITH: Jason, thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. We'll let you get back to work. We'll see you, a hometown race for you, when we pull into Charlotte next week.

JASON LINE: Very good. Thanks for having me on.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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