Jason Line clinches NHRA Pro Stock season title

Jason Line clinched this year's Pro Stock season championship Sunday, so there will be one less celebration in two weeks when the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season ends in Pomona, Calif.

It was appropriate that the 42-year-old Line collected the big trophy and $250,000 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is in the hometown of his KB Racing team owner Ken Black.

With one championship decided in the NHRA Big O Tires Nationals, racing produced lead changes in Top Fuel and Funny Car on a near-perfect day.

After 21 events and 84 rounds of racing this year, in which racers could earn more than 3,000 points, only one point separates the top two in Funny Car, and two points separate the leaders in Top Fuel.

Calculators needed a shot of nitromethane the past three days to determine what Line needed to do to wrap up the Pro Stock title at Las Vegas.

But it will take a double shot of nitro when the series moves to Pomona for the NHRA Finals.

The "what ifs" could fill the pages of a Las Vegas phonebook listing escort services after a wild day of eliminations provided enough storylines to keep 23,000 spectators in the grandstands throughout the afternoon.

The final rounds of Top Fuel and Funny Car looked like a Don Schumacher Racing test session, which is exactly what it was at the dragstrip two weeks ago, when drivers Spencer Massey and Ron Capps actually spent the day testing, trying to determine why neither qualified for the Phoenix NHRA event on Oct. 16.

They must have learned well, because Massey advanced to the Top Fuel finals, where he lost to Del Worsham of Al-Anabi Racing but regained the points lead.

Capps went a step further by winning his second Funny Car title of the year and 33rd of his career by beating Schumacher teammate Johnny Gray for his record fourth Las Vegas title.

The performance rekindled Capps' hope of winning his first national championship in a 16-year NHRA career, something he thought was ended when he couldn't qualify at Firebird International Raceway two weeks ago.

"We're fighting to get back into it," Capps said. "As soon as you start celebrating the win at the top end, you also think, 'Gosh, if it weren't for that DNQ, we'd be right in the middle of it.' "

While Capps improved to sixth, he trails new points leader Matt Hagan, another teammate, by 72 points. Another driver in Schumacher's stable, Jack Beckman, is one point behind Hagan.

Massey missed by one-thousandth of a second from matching Capps' rebounding feat after not qualifying at Firebird.

Although Massey lost in the finals by the scant margin to Worsham, Massey took the points lead from Antron Brown, also a Schumacher driver.

The narrow win by Worsham was his seventh in 21 races this season. He trails Massey by two points.

"I knew he was lurking," Worsham said of the close win. "He never saw me either. When my win light came on down there, I was proud."

And ecstatic. After leading for most of the season, he again is close to winning a first national championship.

"This is 21 years building here," the 41-year-old Worsham said. "My whole career here, as far as drag racing goes, has come down, basically, to one race right now, and I'm looking forward to it. I've got some confidence built up now. I've had a lot of success through the years, but I've never personally been at this point.

"Coming off a win and going (to Pomona) with momentum is probably the biggest advantage I have right now."

Other winners in pro categories Sunday were: Mike Edwards of Coweta, Okla., in Pro Stock; Eddie Krawiec of Brownsburg, Ind., in Pro Stock Motorcycle; and Leah Pruett of Cherry Valley, Calif., in Pro Mod.

Jeff Wolf is a freelance reporter. He can be reached at 702-406-8165 or nitrorodeo@gmail.com.