When Jeg Coughlin crossed the stripe first last month at Route 66 Raceway, it marked the first time the hall of fame racer had won an NHRA national event in Pro Stock in more than four years.

Since then, the floodgates have opened and the five-time champion has found himself back at the top of his game.

On Sunday, Coughlin continued that renaissance with his third win in the last seven races over Pro Stock upstart Deric Kramer at the 31st annual Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.

“We’ve weathered a pretty good storm the last couple of years. We showed a little bit of brilliance throughout last year, but nothing really stuck the way we wanted it to. We made some transitions under the awning this year and I have really been a threat ever since,” Coughlin said. “It is a testament to Richard Freeman our team owner, Rick and Rickie Jones our head crew chiefs on the two cars and of course Mark Ingersoll and Brian Self round out the crew chief arsenal at Elite Motorsports. This Elite team has been a lot of fun the last couple of years and we keep pinching ourselves that things are going to turn for us.”

Sunday’s final saw Coughlin eliminate the newest member of the KB Racing stable as the 61-time national event winner got away cleanly and never trailed in picking up his third win of 2018. Coughlin had a 6.532-second pass at 212.16 mph in the JEGS Chevrolet Camaro to eliminate Kramer. Kramer had a 6.534 at 210.54 mph in his third final of the year.

“He has always been very tough and this year with KB horsepower under the hood his team, coupled with Rob Downing and that group, they have had a very fast race car,” Coughlin said. “I felt like I needed a couple hundredths to stay in front of him and I only had a couple thousandths head start, so I was pleasantly surprised. We made a great run and went right down that right lane which we hadn’t been in all day. You can’t argue with the results.

“There is a delay. I know when I cross the finish line and the clutch is going in and the parachutes are hitting, you are like, ‘man that feels good.’ I knew it against Deric just like I knew it before with Greg (Anderson). I could hear it, I could feel it, I could see it. We are not supposed to look and that is why we wear these blinders on our helmet, but I am a bracket racer at heart. I just had to check things out and crack the whip on that yellow and black JEGS machine and we were able to cross first.”

Coughlin added wins over Greg Anderson, Alex Laughlin and Fernando Cuadra to reach his 105th career final round. The semifinal matchup was of particular interest as Coughlin and Anderson met up in what has become one of the greatest rivalries in NHRA, with the two meeting more times than any other drivers in the history of the Pro Stock class.

In the matchup, Anderson got a slight jump at the tree, but Coughlin chased him down by half-track and pulled ahead in a close win, winning by just a few inches at the line. Coughlin had a 6.548 at 211.13 mph in the winning effort, while Anderson - Pro Stock’s most recent race winner and No. 1 qualifier for the weekend - settled for a semifinal finish with a 6.554 at 212.43 mph.

“The Greg and Jeg rivalry. We have run each other for 15, 16, 17 years and it feels good to see the win light turn on,” Coughlin said. “And it is even nicer with even footing. There were a lot of years where they had four or five hundredths on us and we still seemed to slip a few in here and there. Today in Pro Stock you have to be on your best behavior. Today wasn’t my best reaction time, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.

“It was the toughest race at the time, it felt like a final round without question. Then you fast forward 65 minutes and here I am next to Deric in the final. I let the clutch go, it felt pretty good and seeing the win light come on was proof we got it done.”

Kramer reached the final with wins over Jason Line, Tanner Gray and Alan Prusiensky.

With the win Coughlin, who spent the first half of the season mostly outside of the Countdown to the Championship, climbed into the top five with three races remaining before the playoffs.

“We’ve got a lot of racing left to do in this 2018 season and just a couple of races left in the regular season,” Coughlin said. “This win certainly helps our case seeding ourselves further in the Countdown. The first six or seven races we found ourselves outside of that top 10 and we just stuck together and decided we were going to give this a run and we certainly have. Things have turned out well for us. On the (western) swing so far we have had a win today, semifinal last week, and now we hope to keep that momentum going heading into Washington.”