NHRA Pro Stock racer Jason Line and NHRA top end announcer Alan Reinhart have quite the friendship these days.
Or, do they?
If you happened across Reinhart during the recently-completed NHRA U.S.
Nationals in Indianapolis, you might have noticed a decal on his
golf-cart that read, “Jason Line is my best friend.”
NHRA Pro Stock racer Jason Line and NHRA top end announcer Alan Reinhart have quite the friendship these days.
Or, do they?
If you happened across Reinhart during the recently-completed NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, you might have noticed a decal on his golf-cart that read, “Jason Line is my best friend.”
In case you were wondering, this decal was inspired on Friday during the event.
“I was back in the pits and heard Leo [Taugher] announcing that the Hemi Shootout cars were coming up, and I know Jason’s a car guy, and so is [crew chief] Rob Downing,” Reinhart explained. “So I went by and said ‘Hey, let’s go check out the Hemi cars.”
Line and Downing hopped on the golf-cart with Reinhart.
“It’s 8:30 AM and the pits are pretty empty, nothing is going on, and Jason made the comment ‘I hope nobody sees me riding with you.” Reinhart said. “And I told him, ‘I think we should hold hands, because you’re going to be my new best friend.”
That line prompted Reinhart to have the golf-cart lettered announcing his friendship with Line. Reinhart also had one made for Jason that proclaimed he was the driver’s best friend.
“I put my decal on, we put his decal on, by the time he came around the corner at the end of the racetrack he had changed his to say ‘Alan Reinhart is not my friend’ … which wounded me badly because I’m such a sensitive individual.”
Reinhart admitted that he toughed out the day.
Moments before the fuel classes were to begin qualifying, Reinhart and the television crews were in place when out of the blue; a brand-new Rolls Royce with tinted window passed by him and parked in the middle of an obviously restricted area.
Reinhart and those at the top end looked at one another in amazement, uttering a few unprintable adjectives.
The Rolls Royce was a work of art. It was black, brand new, shiny and spectacular. This was the kind of car that obviously Reinhart wouldn’t drive, nor anyone in the vicinity.
After sitting for a moment, the Rolls Royce rolled over to Reinhart and the crew.
Reinhart explained, “It pulls up and stops, as the window comes down, Jason Line, sitting in the passenger’s seat, points at the guy driving and says ‘Hey Reinhart, this guy is my best friend.”
A stunned Reinhart stood there as the window went back up and the sweet ride rode off.
In the interest of full disclosure, the Rolls Royce was driven by Scott Revell of Revell models fame.