Jeg Coughlin is keeping up the good fight to try and win his sixth career NHRA Pro Stock world championship.

Coughlin piloted his Jegs.com/Elite Performance Chevy Camaro to the top of the qualifying sheet with his 6.628-second lap at 206.73 mph Saturday at the NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“It (the No. 1 qualifier) is certainly coming at a great time,” Coughlin said. “Without question, as the Countdown narrows to (Sunday) and two weeks in Pomona (Calif.), every point counts and every round counts. Right now, we are sitting second in the points and we have a long way to go to try and climb up to that top spot. We need a lot of help from some of our competitors here. Tanner Gray has a very sizeable lead, but to sit on the pole here going into Sunday in Vegas at the Toyota Nationals feels great. I’m really excited for our team.”

Coughlin came to Vegas second in the points standings – 130 behind leader Tanner Gray. Gray qualified No. 5.

Coughlin meets Steve Graham in round one and Gray will face off with Alan Prusiensky.

This was Coughlin’s fifth No. 1 qualifying position this season, a career-high. He had four No. 1 qualifiers in the 2000 and 2007 seasons, respectively.

“We have missed a few little opportunities in the Countdown that have put us in this position, but I’m certainly not complaining. I’m looking forward to having a great day (Sunday) and what better weather could we ask for and we have one heck of a track and great fan base so (Sunday) is going t o be a great game day.”

Coughlin made his quickest run of the weekend in Q3 Saturday, and all the qualifying sessions – Friday and Saturday - were early in the day, similar to race day

“It definitely builds your confidence just organically let’s say, but it also does the same for the other 15 qualified teams,” Coughlin said. “Everybody will be very competitive (Sunday) because the conditions have been consistent Q1 through Q4 and going into Sunday it looks like it will be the same. I think the crew chiefs will all be on their best behavior. They have four good runs to go off of, the multi-car teams can multiply that by the number of cars on each team, so we have a lot of data and we should be fast and from behind the wheel I’m really excited and ready to fire.”

Coughlin has won three races this year and been runner-up twice, but he knows nothing will come easy for him at Vegas Sunday.

“We lost some close races,” he said. “Last week, Jason Line and I were the same off the starting line and he ran low ET of the round and we were a couple thousandths behind him and that’s the parity of Pro Stock right now. There’s no room for error, whether it is in the pits, on track with last-second calls or behind the wheel. We have had really consistent conditions through four (qualifying) runs and I would say that will carry into Sunday. I feel good about our chances from the pit area coming up and I look forward to getting behind the wheel and doing what I love to do.”