The word in NHRA’s Pro Stock circles in the offseason was teams were going to be on even ground with Summit Racing teammates Jason Line, Greg Anderson and Bo Butner when the 2017 season started. That hasn’t happened.

Line, qualified No. 1 and beat Anderson in the finals of the season-opening Winternationals, and then Friday Line grabbed the provisional No. 1 spot in qualifying with a 6.509-second lap at 212.19 mph at the NHRA Arizona Nationals.

For good measure, Anderson is second on the qualifying ladder with a 6.522-second run. Butner is fifth at 6.542 seconds.

Line’s run was the quickest since NHRA adopted wholesale EFI changes in the Pro Stock class.

“This offseason was much different than last offseason,” Line said. “We had to come up with a whole package. This offseason was more about refining the recipe and just chiseling it, and we did, and obviously, it’s paying dividends for us right now. That’s good. That’s what we are paid to do and fortunate that it worked out. I think the other two cars have still some left, but that was a really nice run (6.509).”

Line said his team didn’t do any testing before the end of the Winternationals Feb. 12 in Pomona, Calif., and arriving in Phoenix.

“I knew we could make it worse, but I wasn’t sure we could make it better, so there was no sense on working on it,” Line said. “We will work on it next week.”

On his 6.509-second lap, Line said his team was eyeing a lightning quick lap. “They kind of had it loaded up and we were trying to go 949 (to the 60-foot timer), just because nobody has ever been that fast, but it was a nice run and I’m pretty darn happy,” Line said. “These Summit Chevy Camaros are super-fast right now and no matter what (Saturday) brings, I’m going to have fun driving it.”