BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 17) – JEGS.com Pro Mod driver Troy Coughlin only needs to look outside his lounge in his team’s transporter if he needs any cheering up following a holeshot loss Sunday in round two of eliminations at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.
Sitting on a counter in the JEGS hauler are two Father’s Day cards and a large cookie with “Happy Father’s Day” written in icing. The gifts are from Coughlin’s son T.J. and daughter Meghan.
So if Coughlin was down from losing on a holeshot to Mike Janis, two of his four kids were there to cheer him up at the track.
“They’re pretty cool about it,” Coughlin said. “They can relate, they can understand. It sucks when you lose – there’s no other way of putting it. But it is what it is. On a positive note, the car’s running great. If we could ever put the whole package together from driver and ET standpoint, it would be pretty awesome. That’s what we’re working toward. We just missed it.”
Coughlin and his turbocharged Camaro performed well in Bristol, the second consecutive race the JEGS.com car has been one of the fastest Pro Mods on the property. At Englishtown, Coughlin reached the final round. He qualified second in Bristol and won his first-round matchup with Kenny Lang Saturday night.
Against Janis, though, Coughlin left with a .030-second reaction time to Coughlin’s .094 light. Coughlin’s lap of 5.893 seconds at 250.97 mph was the low elapsed time of the second round, but he ran out of room trying to chase down Janis, who went 5.935 at 242.45 mph.
“He had a fantastic run,” Coughlin said. “We tried to run him down. It was pretty tight, but we just ran out of track.”
Coughlin took the blame for his sluggish light.
“It was business as usual,” Coughlin said. “I was just late letting go of the button, period. The car ran fantastic. It performed perfect. I couldn’t ask for a better car. I just need to go back home and get back in the simulator and get back at it.”
Meanwhile, Coughlin will enjoy the rest of the weekend at the race track with his family.
“It’s a pride thing, it’s an exciting thing, it’s a family affair, it’s a love thing, a passion thing that all of us have,” Coughlin said. “It’s awesome. I wish the kids could be there all the time, but I know T.J.’s got races around the country that he’s going to at different venues. Meghan’s been with me at just about all of them. I like it. It’s great having them around. It’s a change of pace, and you can occupy your time hanging out with those guys and causing trouble rather of being all serious all the time.”
–30–
Media Note: Additional information is available at the following locations:
< http://www.facebook.com/TeamJegs >
< http://www.facebook.com/Jegsperformance >
< http://twitter.com/#!/teamJEGS >
< http://twitter.com/#!/JEGSPerformance >
Media Contact:
Scott “Woody” Woodruff
JEGS, Director of Media & Motorsports
Office: 800-345-4545 (#3, ext. 412)
Mobile: 614-595-1820
Fax: 740-362-5507
Email: jegspr@aol.com or scott.woodruff@jegs.com