The thud you thought you heard on Sunday, about 6:04 E.S.T., was Jeg Coughlin Jr. body-slamming the monkey off his back.

Coughlin extended his edge over good friend Kurt Johnson to 31 wins and 27 losses by capturing the Pro Stock title at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals at Phoenix, Az. The win represented the first of the 2009 season for Coughlin.

The thud you thought you heard on Sunday, about 6:04 E.S.T., was Jeg Coughlin Jr. body-slamming the monkey off his back.

Coughlin extended his edge over good friend Kurt Johnson to 31 wins and 27 losses by capturing the Pro Stock title at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals at Phoenix, Az. The win represented the first of the 2009 season for Coughlin.

If Coughlin holds a winning edge over Johnson, and this was only the second race of the season, where does the monkey on the back come into the equation?

Coughlin had never beaten Johnson in a final round. Seven times they had battled for the trophy and every time, until now, the ACDelco-sponsored driver had beaten the Jegs Mail Order driver.

"That's a crazy stat," Coughlin admitted. "Any time you race Kurt you know you're in for a battle and it definitely means a little more to beat a driver of his caliber. I'll have to make sure and give him a hard time about this."

Just as he had all day, Coughlin used expert driving to secure his victory against Johnson. He left ahead of his rival with a .030-second reaction time to Johnson's .049-second start, and led all the way down the track, winning with a 6.643 at 208.01 mph to a 6.647 at 208.46 mph.

"Sometimes you really have to fight your way through a race and that was certainly the case this weekend," said Coughlin, a 42-time winner in the Pro Stock class. "We're still trying to fine-tune this new Chevy and we're not at full speed just yet. My Dad and Roy (Simmons, crew chief) just kept at it every pass and the car was there for me. It's really cool to win for them and for my little man, Jeggie III, who came along this weekend. He's always good luck."

Starting from the No. 4 qualifying position, Coughlin beat Steve Spiess with a 6.619, Pomona winner Jason Line with a 6.653, and Ron Krisher with a 6.651 to reach his 69th final round. His average reaction time on the day was .032 seconds and he had the quickest reaction time of the last three rounds.

This win moved the back-to-back and four-time series champion to second place in the Full Throttle points and leaves him just two markers behind first-place Line and 14 ahead of third-place Greg Anderson.

"We're having some fun," Coughlin said. "I don't care how many of these things you win they're all special. This team that Victor Cagnazzi has put together is just so talented. It's a heckuva lot of fun to drive this racecar."  

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