Anderson Narrowly Misses 100th Team Victory; KB Racing Prepares to Unveil New NHRA Camaros

KB Racing’s pursuit of its 100th Wally continues. Perhaps in two weeks when the team plans to unveil its brand-new Chevy Camaros.

KB Racing’s pursuit of its 100th Wally will last at least another two weeks as it prepares to unveil new Chevy Camaros in Englishtown, NJ.

Victories haven’t been particularly elusive for Greg Anderson and Jason Line in 2012, but the KB Racing team watched its 100^th victory slip away in the final round of the NHRA Dollar General Summernationals at Heartland Park in Topeka, KS Sunday when Anderson’s car got loose on his final pass against rival Allen Johnson.

Greg Anderson

“My Summit Racing Pontiac made seven of the best runs it’s made this season, but we needed eight,” Anderson said. “From the moment we rolled it off the trailer, it ran great, and we never lost the tune-up, giving me the best hot rod I’ve had all year. Unfortunately, we made a minor mistake in the final round, missing on the starting line and it shook the tires almost immediately. Naturally, we’re kicking ourselves for giving one away like that, but it was still a great weekend, and we’re very proud of everything that happened. We just picked the wrong time to make a bad run.”

As they plan to switch to a new Chevrolet Camaro for the next NHRA national event in Englishtown, NJ May 31-June 3, Anderson and the KB Racing crew had hoped to give their venerable Pontiac GXP a proper sendoff with a victory in Topeka. After being among the best of the “factory hot rods” in qualifying, Anderson was equally strong on race day, using the second-quickest elapsed time of the opening round at 6.568-seconds to defeat Richard Freeman.

“I am absolutely looking forward to getting our Summit Camaros on the racetrack,” Anderson said. “Although it would have been really cool to retire this Pontiac in the winner’s circle, whether we won today or not was not going to change our decision to switch to the Camaro. The good news is that this GXP went out in style and now it’s time to move on to the next chapter, which we are all really excited about. I can’t wait to get back home so we can start testing the new car, getting ready to roll her into the staging lanes in Englishtown.”

Jason Line

Line was driving fast all weekend as well. And this set the stage for a semifinal encounter with Anderson. Although Line posted his best reaction time of the day at .028 and made another strong 6.580-second, 210.57 mph run, it fell 13 thousandths of a second shy of his stable mate’s 6.575-second, 210.93 mph effort, putting a premature end to the 2011 champion’s day.

“The Summit Racing team had a good day today, and I had one of my best in Topeka,” Line said. “It stings to not come out of here with a win, but we leave knowing Greg had the best car he’s had all year, and mine was good enough to run low E.T. of the weekend and be quickest in four of the seven rounds we ran. I also made some strides, doing a better job of driving overall. The bottom line, however, is that we didn’t win, and we’ll have to wait two weeks for our next chance.

“With two new Chevy Camaros to get ready, we’re going to have our hands full between now and Englishtown, but I’m looking forward to finally driving a real muscle car in Pro Stock. I’ll have to wait a year for my next shot at a Topeka win, but all in all it wasn’t a bad weekend. It just wasn’t a great weekend, which is what we’ll be aiming for in New Jersey.”