COUGHLIN KEEPS SLIM CHAMPIONSHIP HOPES ALIVE WITH NO. 1 QUALIFIER AT NHRA FINALS
Jeg Coughlin knew that his championship hopes were slim coming into this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season finale at Auto Club Raceway.
But he also knew what he had to do to keep himself alive in the hunt for a seventh Pro Stock world championship.
And he did just that on Friday and Saturday.
Coughlin made up quite a bit of ground in qualifying during the first two days at Pomona, recording the quickest lap in three out of the four sessions leading to his JEG.com Chevrolet Camaro taking the top spot Saturday at the 55th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals.
“My mind set is to just try and make good quality runs Sunday, period,” Coughlin said. “We aren’t rooting against Erica (Enders) for sure, she has had a good season, a great Countdown, and if the door opens we will do our best to take advantage of it. But I don’t foresee that coming.”
Coughlin drove his Elite Motorsports-backed machine to his third pole position of the season and second in the last three races with a 6.533-second pass at 210.70 mph surviving from Q1 on Friday.
Enders, Coughlin’s teammate and current Countdown to the Championship points leader, was second with a 6.538 at 210.93 mph, followed by Jason Line in third with a 6.544 at 210.01 mph.
Bo Butner (6.557) and Alex Laughlin (6.565) rounded out the top five.
While Enders and Coughlin sit one and two in points, a trio of KB Racing drivers trail the duo and that led to a few - what Coughlin referred to as “shenanigans” - on Saturday, as the KB Racing teammates tried to position themselves advantageously on the ladder.
Namely, KB Racing patriarch and perennial front-runner Greg Anderson creatively placed himself 15th on the ladder, matching him up with the points leader in round one.
“If that is the way they want to play it, that is OK,” Coughlin said. “There is nothing in the rules that say you can’t do it. They figured they would probably hit one of the two of us which could help their cause either in the top couple or have a shot at the championship. And it worked out that way.
“(Anderson) made two runs yesterday with a 64 and 65 which put him 12th and later 15th. And then with the heat coming in today a couple cars improved and a couple thousandths of a second changes the whole scheme, but it didn’t in this case for what they were trying to accomplish.
“We’ve all made hundreds of test runs and the KB group has probably made thousands of test runs, so they’ve got a pretty good idea what does what and when in a run. If you want to kill six or seven hundredths it is tough to do, but obviously it was accomplished here in their case.”
Still, despite the showdown of two great racers in round one on Saturday, Coughlin still knows where he is putting his bet.
“Greg is a good racer, but I know where my money is at,” Coughlin said.
While Coughlin seeks his seventh title in the Pro Stock class and Enders looks for her third, Coughlin was reflective of all that he has managed to learn from his younger teammate in the few years they have been paired on the race track.
“I’ve learned a lot of things (from her) that I exemplified throughout my career, although maybe not as much as I’d like as of late,” Coughlin said. “That discipline that it takes to run your own race and also change it up and be ready to be aggressive, but never lose site of what is ahead of you.
“I have been really fortunate to accomplish quite a bit here in the Countdown, I’ve just had some poor luck. I’m not crying about it, but a couple of close red lights have hurt me points wise. But I have felt great behind the wheel as of late. Rickie Jones has been extremely aggressive and we are working hard to get every point we can to see if we can’t parlay this into something exceptional which would be a Pro Stock championship or at least stay one and two in points.
“That is going to be a tough feat without question. There is a lot of racing left and Pomona is a fun place to be. I like where I am sitting.”
Coughlin will face Joey Grose in round one on Sunday.