Delighting in what he called “close to Disneyland conditions” at Gateway Motorsports Park, near St. Louis, Saturday, Jeg Coughlin Jr. kept command of the Pro Stock field as qualifying closed for the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals.

And he warned that his Jegs.com Chevy Camaro crew chief Rickie Jones would have “his aggressive-tuning pants on” when Sunday’s eliminations roll around.

The Elite Motorsports driver said the 6.496-second, 211.76-mph pass he clocked early Saturday on the Madison, Ill., quarter-mile gave him “great momentum and confidence” after he secured the 26th No. 1 start of his decorated drag-racing career.

He was especially pleased with the 6.4-second performance: “It felt great to run in the .40s. I think we’re one of the first to run in the .40s this season. To get the No. 1 spot, it feels great.”

Coughlin said the Pro Stock class experienced “impeccable conditions” Friday night but that based on the weather forecast, he wasn’t surprised to register even better numbers Saturday.

“The track was really cool, had no sun on it basically the entire day. Adhesion was killer. So the crew chiefs could really throw a lot at it,” he said. “Today we wake up with a higher barometer, which is more pressure for the engine and lower vapor pressure, which is less moisture content in the air. With those two things alone, we knew we were going to make more power and likely improve. Fortunately we did.

“That .49 in Q3 was quite a shot heard around the pits, for sure,” Coughlin said. “We felt really good about it from inside the cockpit. I let the clutch out, the front wheels were up, pulling it into second gear, dropping the front end – third, fourth, and fifth [gears] – about that quick. And it was just screamin’ the whole way. When Rickie Jones, my crew chief, came on the radio and we said we ran a [6.]49, it made us all pretty proud.”   

Coughlin won at Chicago, Bristol, and Sonoma and was runner-up at the recent Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. He’ll start his quest for a 62nd Pro Stock victory Sunday against No. 16 Mark Hogan, whose 2010 Pontiac GXP is the oldest in the field.

“This is the Countdown. All stops have been pulled. And we’re really being aggressive in qualifying, much more than we have been all season long,” he said. “Sunday is Game Day. That is what we are here for. Qualifying is fantastic, a great show, and [it] positions us for Sunday’s race. And there’s no better spot to start than the first. We’ll be on our best behavior and ready to drive aggressive, and I’m sure Rickie’s got his aggressive-tuning pants on.”  

Coughlin lowered his elapsed time from Friday night’s leading 6.516 seconds to 6.496 in the third overall session. And he found more speed, improving from 210.54 mph to 211.76. But no one could catch him, although several competitors posted better numbers early Saturday in the cooler weather.

Erica Enders (who improved from 6.521 to 6.508), Jason Line (6.530 to 6.513), Bo Butner (6.536 to 6.515), and Drew Skillman (6.566 to 6.515) fell in line behind Coughlin, shoving Vincent Nobile farther down the ladder. He was in first place after the opening qualifying session but dropped to second place overnight, then to sixth with one final chance to improve later Saturday. He remained sixth.

Tanner Gray and Greg Anderson filled out the top half of the ladder in which racers were separated by mere thousandths of a second. Anderson, last year’s Pro Stock winner here, still owns the class’ Gateway Motorsports Park elapsed-time record. His 6.492-second performance was safe by just four-thousandths of a second. No. 3 starter Line had the fastest run in qualifying at 212.79 mph, but he couldn’t surpass his own track speed record of 213.47 mph that he set six years ago, in 2012.

Alan Pruisensky, who had been the odd man out in the 17-entry class throughout three sessions of qualifying, jumped into the field at No. 13 and will meet reigning series champion Butner in Sunday’s first round of eliminations.

“So far we’ve done well in qualifying points,” Coughlin said, alluding to his 59 total this year and 10 here. “The important part is to shine out on Sunday. We’d love nothing more than to go the distance Sunday.”