All Jeg Coughlin Jr. needs to do to secure his fourth POWERade championship is qualify for this weekend's 44th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals. He took a big step in that direction Thursday by running a safe 6.678 at 206.95 mph in his JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt to earn the eighth spot in the provisional field. All Jeg Coughlin Jr. needs to do to secure his fourth POWERade championship is qualify for this weekend's 44th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals. He took a big step in that direction Thursday by running a safe 6.678 at 206.95 mph in his JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt to earn the eighth spot in the provisional field.

"We didn't want to do anything silly and get behind," Coughlin said, "especially this weekend. We've got a great car here, obviously, with us coming off a win in Las Vegas, and we all know what needs to be done. That was a good, but not great, start.

"Our goal was actually to be in the top five but it was extremely violent down low. I almost aborted the run. Then I grabbed second gear and it smoothed out enough to continue. When they told me we had a 6.67 on the radio I actually chuckled. It probably shouldn't have been that good. I guess this car runs good even when things aren't perfect.”