LONG POND, PA – They don’t call it the “Tricky Triangle” for nothing. It’s a saying you hear a lot around the garage areas of Pocono Raceway. It’s a tough place to conquer for any veteran, let alone if you are a rookie in the ARCA Racing Series and have never competed at a superspeedway.
So, at the end of the day on Saturday afternoon in the Pocono mountains, Cody Coughlin and the No. 55 JEGS.com team walked away proud of a ninth-place finish in the ARCA Racing Series Pocono 200 at Pocono Raceway (PA).
Coughlin, of Delaware, Ohio, started tenth and was as high as sixth in the late portion of the 80-lap race before bringing his Venturini Motorsports prepared race car home for a top-ten finish. On the final restart, the 18 year-old was held up by another car dealing with transmission issues.
“I think we were probably better than ninth, but it’s certainly nothing to hang our head about,” said Coughlin. “I’m very pleased with the effort today. A top-ten finish my first time here is respectable, as we beat a lot of people who have raced here before. I thought we had a car that could content for a top-five there at the beginning, but the tires were just pretty random and that threw us off a little bit.”
Saturday’s race at the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” marked the first career start for the 18 year old Joe Gibbs Racing development driver on a superspeedway (track larger than a mile in length). Throughout the race, Coughlin became more comfortable making his way around the three-turn race track located in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. He turned his fastest lap of the day on lap 37 during a long green flag run.
“I was starting to get more comfortable and I think the car was really starting to come to us,” said Coughlin. “I was figuring out a few different lines and it all worked out where we were starting to pass cars during that long run. I’m looking forward to taking what I learned today and applying it to when we come back here in August.”
Cody Coughlin will now head to Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile oval in Brooklyn, Michigan, next Saturday, June 14 for his next ARCA Racing Series start.
“Every time you’re in the car it’s a very good learning experience,” Coughlin said. “It’s priceless to get more laps and that’s what we’re doing. Hopefully we can use what we learned this weekend and transfer some of that to a strong run at Michigan next weekend.
“I really have to thank God, as well as everyone involved with my racing career for making these types of opportunities possible. The entire Venturini Motorsports crew did a great job throughout the weekend by giving me a strong car. I also have to thank my family for their support of my racing career. My mom (Di), dad (John), and sister (Kennedi) are my biggest supporters and I can’t thank them enough and I look forward to doing this again in a week.”
A rebroadcast of Saturday’s race at Pocono Raceway can be seen on Fox Sports 2 at 7pm ET on Saturday evening or on Fox Sports 1 at 10:00am on Monday morning.
For more information on Cody Coughlin and Team JEGS, visit www.teamjegs.com and follow Cody on Twitter, @Cody_Coughlin. Follow team JEGS on Twitter, @TeamJEGS and “Like” JEGS Performance on Facebook.