“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

This line from the famous movie The Godfather was spoken by Michael Corleone, the fictional character played by Al Pacino.

It would surprise few if those words came out of Jeg Coughlin Jr.’s mouth. After all, he was enjoying a life of racing and retirement on his terms when last October at The Strip in Las Vegas, Elite Motorsports pulled him back into full-time Pro Stock competition. 

While Coughlin isn’t necessarily the Godfather of Pro Stock, he was undoubtedly a boss over the weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the 24th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.

Coughlin completed a weekend sweep as the five-time world champion followed up Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory with his first win in nearly four years, going 6.616 at 207.18 in his Scag Power Equipment car in the final quad. He had a stellar .013 reaction time against a foursome that included Erica Enders, Jerry Tucker, and Brandon Foster and never trailed en route to his 66th career victory, with his most recent coming in 2020. It was also his first career four-wide victory, winning the first quad and finishing second to Enders to advance to the final round.

Coughlin, who qualified No. 1 in Phoenix, was stellar on the tree all weekend, going .014 in the opening round and .007 in the second quad as things came together in a special way for the entire Elite Motorsports team on Sunday.

“This was epic, the whole weekend,” Coughlin said. “Our car was great from Q1, where we had low E.T., and we almost maintained that pace throughout the rest of the event. Fast forward to today, and we had three good quads to traverse our way through. In all seven runs, I was in a groove as far as driving and getting the clutch out. After three years away, it was fantastic to see that blinking [win] light in the final.
 
“I’ve been to some finals in the four-wide, but I’ve never been able to close the deal, so this feels really good to get it done.”

Sunday started on a good note for Coughlin and kept getting better. He won his first quad with a 6.603-second pass at 207.75 mph, advancing with David Cuadra, who had a 6.645 at 205.26 mph, beating out Deric Kramer and Kenny Delco.

“I mean, we had three really good quads that we had to traverse our way through,” Coughlin said. “And fortunately I had a really good car and felt in a groove yesterday. Really felt in a groove I would say all seven runs, from qualifying Friday to Saturday to Sunday. Was letting the clutch out well, was driving well navigating down through there. And there’s nothing finer I can attest after being away for three years, to see that in a 4-Wide, a blinking win light is fantastic.”

Even when Coughlin didn’t win, he still emerged as the winner. In the second round, he came in second with a 6.605 at 207.18 advancing to the finals with Erica Enders, who won the quad with a stout 6.600 at 207.46 ending the day for Greg Anderson and D. Cuadra.

“I’m really excited to be the champion of the 4-Wide,” Coughlin said. “It’s not been one of my better efforts since the 4-Wide came about. Not for any reason, just made some finals, just never able to close the deal. It feels really good to celebrate.”