SEATTLE (Aug. 2) — NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. and the JEGS.com/Mopar Dodge team will go back to the drawing board for the O'Reilly NHRA Northwest Nationals on Sunday at Pacific Raceways.
Luckily for Coughlin, that drawing board includes the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Stock, J&J Racing teammate Allen Johnson.
Coughlin qualified No. 4 here, but he knows there is speed to be found in his Dodge Dart.
"Allen's car has run really well; it's been glued to the track," Coughlin said. "We'll certainly migrate in that direction, and that's the advantage of having a two-car team."
Coughlin's best pass of the weekend was 6.553 seconds at 210.97 mph, as crew chiefs Mark Ingersoll and Adam Hornberger worked through some issues with the car from the race last weekend in Sonoma, Calif.
"We've had more consistent qualifying sessions," Coughlin said. "We came into the race wanting to fix a few things from what we experienced in E3 in Sonoma. We approached it just slightly different, trying to find a happy spot."
Coughlin's passes on Friday were within .002-second and .16 mph, as the team tried to get the car to settle and accelerate better through low gear.
"It looked very promising the first couple runs," Coughlin said. "This morning, we tried something a little different and it didn't like that at all. We ended up putting a fresh motor in for the last run, and it hooked real hard and drove out left. Looked like I was on a Sunday drive."
Coughlin had to push the clutch in early in Saturday's Q3, and in his final pass he ran 6.590 seconds at 210.24 mph.
He will line up against fellow Ohio native Larry Morgan in the first round of eliminations. Morgan qualified No. 13 with a top lap of 6.695 seconds at 207.56 mph.
"I feel good about going into tomorrow," Coughlin said. "Larry is always tough. Running a good friend like Larry, he can bite you. We'll have to be on our best behavior.
"I feel confident we'll get our hot rod tuned-up and go A to B real efficiently."