Jeg Coughlin, Jr. might not have had the quickest car in qualifying at the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals. But, he really didn’t need to be.

Coughlin, a 44-time time winner, was the quickest on the starting line and that’s all he needed to secure his third win of the season. In the first three of his four rounds Coughlin was the quicker on the starting line and in the final round it didn’t matter because opponent Jason Line red-lighted.

Coughlin credited his team with the success in St. Louis, his second victory at Gateway International Raceway since 2002.

Jeg Coughlin, Jr. might not have had the quickest car in qualifying at the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals. But, he really didn’t need to be.

Coughlin, a 44-time time winner, was the quickest on the starting line and that’s all he needed to secure his third win of the season. In the first three of his four rounds Coughlin was the quicker on the starting line and in the final round it didn’t matter because opponent Jason Line red-lighted.

Coughlin credited his team with the success in St. Louis, his second victory at Gateway International Raceway since 2002.

“The team has really gelled together well,” Coughlin said, during the post-race press conference. “We came in this year with the goal of winning more events in the regular season and we have done just that.

“We’ve been racing hard and I’ve been racing smart. I say that and we’ve lost two finals by shaking the car hard. But we are on the good end of it now.”

Coughlin has reached five final rounds in the first seven events and padded his points lead with this victory.

“It’s a great season so far and there’s a lot more to go,” Coughlin added. “We have a lot of our favorite tracks coming down the pipe. It’s not always easy keeping this roll going.”

Coughlin entered this season as the only car in the Pro Stock ranks out of the Victor Cagnazzi operation. The group has since added Rodger Brogdon to the fold.

“The Cagnazzi group has been working extremely hard,” Coughlin said. “We came in here with some items that were new that we wanted to run on the car and we were going to run on Friday but we got rained out.

“We had a brand new engine sitting under the bench that is the best one to ever come out of the Cagnazzi shop. We didn’t have it on the frame rails Saturday because we couldn’t take that chance. We have to qualify first because these Full Throttle points are extremely valuable.

“I didn’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

The new engine came out on Sunday.

"We haven't had the quickest car yet but we're only a hundredth or two behind. I was looking at the data today and we had just about the slowest 60-foot and 330-foot times every round but at the top-end of the track we're the fastest. That tells me we're making plenty of horsepower; we just need to figure out the proper set-up. When we get it all together we should be flying."

Strap in, this could be one heck of a flight.  

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