Jeg Coughlin Jr. has been racing long enough to know Mother Nature is the biggest factor in drag racing. Sunday, the No. 1 Pro Stock qualifier at the NHRA Summit Nationals, figures she is going to have a hand in Sunday’s eliminations.

“Weather could really play a role in this race tomorrow,” Coughlin said. “We ran that 6.59 Friday night in what is usually the hero session, but this morning when we had that cloud cover we saw plenty of cars running good numbers. If we get that again tomorrow morning it could be really interesting.”

Jeg Coughlin Jr. has been racing long enough to know Mother Nature is the biggest factor in drag racing. Sunday, the No. 1 Pro Stock qualifier at the NHRA Summit Nationals, figures she is going to have a hand in Sunday’s eliminations.

“Weather could really play a role in this race tomorrow,” Coughlin said. “We ran that 6.59 Friday night in what is usually the hero session, but this morning when we had that cloud cover we saw plenty of cars running good numbers. If we get that again tomorrow morning it could be really interesting.”

In addition to this weekend's national event, Coughlin took part in the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge where he raced to a semifinal finish, worth $3,000. Coughlin was the defending champion of the event, a race he's won three times in the past.

“As soon as I let the clutch out against Mike (Edwards, semifinal opponent) the car immediately decelerated so we thought we had an engine problem,” Coughlin said. “We swapped out motors before Q4 and it did the exact same thing again, so obviously the problem lies elsewhere.

“I'm a little shocked. Typically when you have a problem like this you can diagnose it right away with the RacePak data we collect and fix it. We weren't able to do that this time so we'll go over this thing from front to back and triple-check everything to make absolutely sure we're ready for tomorrow.”

When eliminations begin, Coughlin will take on No. 16 qualifier Justin Humphreys for the first time in 2010.