PHOTO : NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER |
seems like since about my second championship , which was 1977 , there ’ s been a lot of people trying to put me out , team up against me , do this , do that and there ’ s a lot of smack-talkers out there . But I just do my deal . I ’ m old-school , I don ’ t get on the Internet and run my jaw , and my plan has always been and always will be until I retire is let the scoreboard do my talking .
At what point in your career did you realize there was always going to be that target on your back ? Was there something that helped you learn to deal with that prospect ?
TC : It ’ s funny you say it , because a lot times when you ’ re racing guys , whether it ’ s a full-time guy on the tour or a guy that hits just a couple races , it ’ s kind of just the opposite . You ’ re trying to take them down with everything you ’ ve got because the class is so vulnerable to cars getting down all the time . It ’ s a lot of horsepower with a short wheelbase and it ’ s tough . It ’ s competitive and it ’ s tough to keep them consistent and fast , so really you treat everyone the same . Anybody who qualifies in the top 16 can definitely win the race and I treat everyone the same . You have to because they ’ re doing the same thing to you . You have to be on your game 100 percent of the time .
RS : I think playing football in school and wrestling was probably the best thing I ’ ve ever done to learn self-discipline . In wrestling , it ’ s one-on-one . There ’ s nobody else to help you and you ’ re doing it yourself . That ’ s probably the best thing that helped me to deal with life later on . You just have to believe in yourself that you ’ re good , that you ’ re as good as anybody out there . I feel like I ’ m as good as anybody out there and I don ’ t pay a lot of attention to them . I can smack talk . I ’ ve done it with Ronnie Sox and Warren Johnson and ( Bob ) Glidden . We ’ ve all had our times . That don ’ t bother me , but my deal is just keep my head down and have confidence in myself . I don ’ t care who you are , if you don ’ t believe in yourself and what you can do , you can get messed up bad by letting people talk junk to
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you . The whole thing in life and everything is believing in yourself .
When you have people coming after you , there ’ s always the potential for drama and stress . If it ’ s something like trash talk , calling
HOLD THE LINE Despite the KB Racing team ’ s near domination of the Pro Stock class in 2016 , Jason Line is humble about his success and realizes the competition is closing in fast as the class adjusts to electronic fuel injection .
you out or teams coming specifically after you , how do handle that ?
JL : Everybody handles stress differently , and honestly I stress out over a lot of things , but I don ’ t know if I stress out over ( drama ). That ’ s probably just my way of handling it , telling myself that ’ s how it is . We ’ re all wired a little bit different and that ’ s just the way I am .
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TC : How to deal with people that are coming up and trying to mess with you ? I think over the years of racing and bracket racing , you ’ re dealing with the best bull-shitters in the world . So when you get into the Pro Stock and Pro Mod ranks , and stuff like that , you just tune it out , like it ’ s just not there . You ’ re out there with the goal to win and a tuneup that ’ s damn near as fast as the thing will go . So it ’ s just balancing everything . I think over the years I ’ ve gotten used to it , and every now and then you smirk and piss somebody off , but that ’ s racing . The TV people have said to us numerous times , ‘ You guys need to continue to create drama ,’ so I ’ m like , ‘ That ’ s cool .’ That ’ s been more fun because I ’ ve always tried to stay out of the way and race our race , but it ’ s always fun to stir things up a little .
RS : I think what ’ s helped me more than anything is I ’ ve had major sponsors most of my career . When you ’ ve got major companies behind you , you can ’ t be a loudmouth out here . You can piss off a lot of people , then they start jawing and big sponsors worry about people taking the wrong attitude toward them and not buying their product or this or that . It ’ s been 85 percent of my career where I ’ ve had good sponsors , and you just can ’ t go out there and say what you want to say sometimes . You ’ ve got to bite your lip , turn your cheek and just go light up the scoreboard again . That ’ s the only way you can do it . It ’ s a known truth – I wouldn ’ t have what I have and be where I ’ m at today if I had gotten online and run my mouth sometimes when I wanted to . Trust me , I wanted to say a lot of stuff over the years , but I just had to bite my lip and go home , brush it off and go again .
As the perceived racer out in front , how do you feel when there are frequent rule changes with your particular class ?
JL : I always feel like it ’ s to knock you down , but I don ’ t know , maybe that ’ s not what it is for . In the past , I can ’ t say that I ’ ve embraced rule changes . After last year , I would like to lobby for some more . Right now at this point in my life – and
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January 2017 |
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