Jeg braces for race day, while Troy solves a big riddle

NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
NHRA SummitRacing Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, NV
April 16th

JEG’S Mail Order
Jeg Coughlin – Pro Stock
Troy Coughlin – Pro Mod
Saturday Summary

A pair of two-time Pro Stock champions will square off in Sunday’s opening round of sudden-death eliminations at the sixth annual NHRA
SummitRacing.com Nationals when Jeg’s Mail Order pro Jeg Coughlin lines his Dodge up against Jim Yates.

Coughlin successfully maintained the No. 4 qualifying position he earned in Friday evening’s time trial after a 6.854-second pass at 201.58 mph. He’ll start
his quest for a fourth Las Vegas trophy with a clear advantage over No. 13 qualifier Yates, who posted a best of 6.878 at 200.32 mph. Pro Stock eliminations should begin around noon.

Running under clear skies and increased temperatures, Coughlin posted a 6.907
and a 6.913 Saturday, numbers that stayed within range of the quickest cars. His
top speed is still the best of the race so far.

“We didn’t have the swiftest of days in the heat,” Coughlin said. “This is the
hottest it’s been all year so I think we were all breaking out our warm weather
tune-ups for the first time. Being a new team we don’t have any data to fall
back on with these Dodges so today’s runs were very important to us.

“Bob [Glidden, crew chief] said he learned a lot today and that’s always a good
thing. We did tax the car quite a bit down low in the second session but it
recovered nicely and we still ran a pretty decent number so that certainly
raises our confidence levels for tomorrow. We would love to race four times and
get another win here.”

The race ended for Jeg’s brother Troy Coughlin as the elder sibling bowed out in
the first round of Pro Mod eliminations Saturday evening. After qualifying 11th
with a much-improved 6.376 at 222.99 mph in his Jeg’s Mail Order Ford Mustang,
Coughlin fell to No. 6 qualifier Kirk Kuhns by a margin of 6.26 to 6.36. Despite
the early exit, Troy was all smiles after the race.

“For the last few weeks I’ve been beating myself up pretty good because I
thought I was ruining all of our runs by resting my foot on the clutch pedal,”
Troy said. “Last night we finally figured out that there was a leak in the
pneumatic shifter that was causing the transmission to jump out of high gear
after a second or too. It’s such a relief to have found that because I was sure
my foot wasn’t the culprit but all the indicators were telling us it was. With
the big, thick boots we wear in these cars I was willing to take the blame
because I thought that maybe I just couldn’t feel it. Now we know so we’re
excited because we now know we can run at the top of the charts. I literally
can’t wait until the next race.”

Troy picked a great time to get healthy as his next chance at Pro Mod glory will
come next weekend in Belle Rose, La., at the Jeg’s Cajun Sportsnationals.

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