ASHER'S INDY NOTEBOOK - JEG COUGHLIN, JR. ON HIS RETURN TO PRO STOCK COMPETITION
Far from being dormant on the sidelines, Coughlin has been
actively campaigning this season in a variety of cars, and did double duty at
the U.S. Nationals with another appearance in the Hemi Challenge while also
racing in Competition Eliminator.
More than just a marketing partnership
between Coughlin and Cagnazzi, the Jeg’s Mail Order operation is going to handle
the complete line of Slammers products because of their almost limitless shelf
life, meaning that everyone involved will be able to effectively track product
sales, something few sponsorship programs are really able to do.
Coughlin
explained his reasoning for coming back to Pro Stock, and a lot more, to Torco's
Competitionplus.com
COMPPLUS: What made you decide
to come back to Pro Stock?
COUGHLIN: I’ve always felt like Pro
Stock’s been a good home for
me. I really enjoy the cars, enjoy drivin’
‘em, enjoy getting in and
out of them every day, so I found that home in
the late 90s and never
had any interest in going further. The Top Fuel and
Funny Cars are
awesome, but they’re not for me. We’ve had a great run of
success in
Pro Stock. When we transitioned from our own team to
Schumacher’s
team in 2004 I really thought that it would be a home for me
for some
time, and a secondary home for Jeg’s as well, because we did
bring
some sponsorship dollars with us. However, it was apparent to me
early one that that probably wasn’t going to pan out long
term.
COMPPLUS: Was it a problem of what you guys wanted
to do with the
car as opposed to what crew chief Bob Glidden wanted to
do?
COUGHLIN: No, there were no problems like that anywhere,
the problem
was the car just didn’t perform the way they wanted it to
perform, and as they “advertised,” so it wasn’t a case of Bob-this, or Don-that,
it just wasn’t right for me.
My dad came in to a test session and fixed
things on both cars, and in an hour-and-a-half I was driving both cars, and then
he came to one race and I made it to the final where I lost by a couple of
thousandths, but that had nothing to do with it either,
even though was all
over the chat rooms and stuff. I thought my dad showed a lot of courage to come
in and work in that environment and work on that car and then stick around to
work on them during a race. That was about the time that I decided that with
everything that was happening that it wasn’t the place for me. Don was very
well aware of how I felt, and so was Bob. It wasn’t any one thing in
particular.
COMPPLUS: Let’s talk about the Slammers
program a little. How did this all come about?
COUGHLIN: I
talked to Victor Cagnazzi and a couple of his guys late last year. They
approached me because they’d heard all the rumors about the situation at
Schumacher’s and they asked me if I’d be interested in driving the car, and
transition what I had over at Schumcher’s to their program. I told them I
wasn’t really up for
another change at that point, that if I couldn’t make
it work where I was I’d sit out for a while. Part of our discussion that day
was that it would be a fully funded team, but our plan at that point was not to
bring any money to the team. But, there is some Jeg’s
involvement now.
That’s the way it’s worked out.
COMPPLUS: So this team
is going to be under Victor’s umbrella?
COUGHLIN: Yes, this is
100 percent Victor’s team with full backing
from Slammers Ultimate
Milk.
COMPLUS: Tell us about your marketing plan for
Slammers.
COUGHLIN: We met with the Slammers folks earlier in
the year just to
get to know them and all of the people at Bravo Foods.
They’re very
personable people. One of the guys on Victor’s team said to
them,
Hey maybe we could get Jeg’s to sell this stuff, and we hadn’t even
thought about that at that point. When we got to talking we found
out
it’s a shelf-stable milk which doesn’t need to be stored in a
refrigerated
environment, and its good for about six months. Well,
we got to talking a
little more, and that was like icing on the cake
for the deal. We’re
really excited to be the first real direct
suppliers of Slammers Ultimate
Milk and offer the great flavors they
have.
COMPPLUS: How much product do you think you
can move for them?
COUGHLIN: That’s yet to be seen. You know,
for the last few years
Jeg’s has prided itself on having something to offer
for everyone,
and this is truly a something for everyone product. It’s a
disposable product, so we’re optimistic that we can sell a lot of
it.
With our delivery you can reach anywhere in the country in two
days or
less, so that’s another great deal.
COMPPLUS: How soon
will you start marketing Slammers in your catalog
and on the
web?
COUGHLIN: If it’s not on there tonight I’d be
surprised!
COMPPLUS: Who’s going to be your crew chief
on the car.
COUGHLIN: At this point I really don’t know.
There’s two Slammers
cars going to be run, so they’ll probably need some
new talent there.
COMPPLUS: Is Tom Lee going to stay in
the other car?
COUGHLIN: I haven’t heard any differently, so I
would have to say yes.
COMPPLUS: What about your
brother, Troy? Does he have any interest
in Pro Stock, or is he happy with
what he’s doing?
COUGHLIN: He’s really happy doing that Pro
Street deal, and he’s
also really interested in this Pro Mod car he’s
built. It’s
something we have to pass through the organizations, so
hopefully, he
can run it legally in NHRA and IHRA. I think he’s excited
about that
whole program. The motors are making good power, and it looks
awesome.
COMPPLUS: Because of your close ties to
National Trail Raceway, how
do you feel about the race moving to Norwalk
Raceway Park?
COUGHLIN: National Trail’s always been our home
track, so that has a
slight sting to it, but we’ve actually raced more at
Norwalk than we
have at National Trail because the track seemed to be a
little more
consistent for us in Pro Stock. Bader’s always done one heck
of a
good job in preparing the track, so we would test there three or four
times a year, so it’s become a second home to us. I’m sure NHRA has
done their due diligence on the demographics and on the facility
itself, so it’s probably a good move, and we’re behind that.