You'll excuse Jeg Coughlin, Jr., for thinking he'd made a wrong turn into the seedier side of Las Vegas. It seemed like every time he lined up for a run there was another red light.

Coughlin was the beneficiary each time during Sunday's eliminations as three of his four opponents red-lighted and one of those was on a rerun. The one guy he didn’t beat on a red-light, was points leader Jason Line, in the semis.

Despite the assistance from his opponents, this was not a easy day for Coughlin.

“We had a tough day,” Coughlin admitted. “We had to beat Kurt Johnson twice, although the first time didn’t count because the tree malfunctioned, but he had a close red-light. Then we beat the toughest guy in the class, the fastest guy who has run over 212 miles per hour in Mike Edwards, he had a rare, close red-light.”

The hits kept falling Coughlin’s way as he advanced to the final round by defeating Jason Line, 6.708, 204.60 to a 6.738, 205.79, before stopping an overanxious Greg Stanfield in the finals.

You'll excuse Jeg Coughlin, Jr., for thinking he'd made a wrong turn into the seedier side of Las Vegas. It seemed like every time he lined up for a run there was another red light.

Coughlin was the beneficiary each time during Sunday's eliminations as three of his four opponents red-lighted and one of those was on a rerun. The one guy he didn’t beat on a red-light, was points leader Jason Line, in the semis.

Despite the assistance from his opponents, this was not a easy day for Coughlin.

“We had a tough day,” Coughlin admitted. “We had to beat Kurt Johnson twice, although the first time didn’t count because the tree malfunctioned, but he had a close red-light. Then we beat the toughest guy in the class, the fastest guy who has run over 212 miles per hour in Mike Edwards, he had a rare, close red-light.”

The hits kept falling Coughlin’s way as he advanced to the final round by defeating Jason Line, 6.708, 204.60 to a 6.738, 205.79, before stopping an overanxious Greg Stanfield in the finals.

While his opponents battled the tree, Coughlin simply made his runs as cleanly as possible.

“This was the most consistent our car has ever been and that was our goal coming in here,” Coughlin admitted. “We changed a lot of stuff in the suspension in order to get a better race car.”

He had no other choice after last weekend’s Houston debacle where he strapped .09 on eventual winner Ron Krisher only to shake the tires at the mid-range and lose.

“That’s what’s been plaguing us all the way back to the tail-end of last year,” Coughlin explained. “We couldn’t see much at the altitude races and once we get to sea-level, we’ll see how our changes are working. That’s the name of the game; you better yourself and try not to make mistakes.”

All in all, he felt fortunate to have advanced to his second winner’s circle of the season.

“To see my win-light on by the time I pulled second-gear is not something I’m used to,” Coughlin said. “Pro Stock cars are on the edge and very difficult to pull a legitimate red-light. You look at Kurt Johnson’s .001 red and Mike Edwards’ .008 red and even Jason Line was within a few thousandths of those two and I think it proves everyone in the class is up on the wheel and driving their hearts out. They weren’t far off of it.

“We weren’t a threat off of the starting line, nothing to write home about, but when you’re having a cold one in the winner’s circle, I guess it’s alright.” 

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