COUGHLIN'S CHANGE OF PACE
On June 12-15, in between the NHRA POWERade Series events national in Joliet and Englishtown, Jeg Coughlin will be competing in the prestigious JEGS U.S. Open Bracket Championships at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The four-time world champion will step out of the seat of his 210-mph JEGS.com Pro Stock Cobalt and into his dragster and Chevy Nova bracket cars - as he competes for a share of the more than $200,000 in prize money that is posted for the event.
“Over the past few years, the JEGS U.S. Open has grown to become one of the sport’s premiere bracket races,” said Coughlin. “[Promoters] Mike Fuqua and Dave Szerlag have created a great event that not only features a huge payout, but is also a lot of fun. There’s so much money on the line this weekend that I’m sure this race will attract a who’s who of great bracket racers. I’d expect the competition to be extremely intense but I’m really looking forward to it.”
The JEGS U.S. Open features
four-separate days of high stakes E.T. bracket racing, including two
$20,000-to-win events on Friday and Saturday and two more races on Thursday and
Sunday that pay $10,000 to the champion. There are numerous other special
promotions including a race for a complete Steve Schmidt-built engine and a
dragster chassis from Racecraft. Nearly 400 of the nation’s best sportsman drag
racers are expected to participate in the event, which recently moved to its new
home in
With 24 national events and
various test sessions and media-related events filling his calendar, Coughlin
rarely gets a chance to compete in events such as the JEGS U.S. Open Bracket
Championships, but he doesn’t feel as though he’s at a disadvantage, even
against large and talent-laden fields. During his one-year hiatus from Pro Stock
in 2006, Coughlin raced primarily in large bracket racing events at dragstrips
across the
“I try to bracket race as much as possible because I really enjoy it,” said Coughlin. “In fact, I’d love to be able to run this race every year but in the past we’ve often had a scheduling conflict. Fortunately, that’s not the case this year. The fact that they moved this race to Indy is also a plus. It’s the most famous drag strip in the world and I’ve also had quite a bit of success here in my career.”