COUGHLIN POSTS STRONG EARLY NUMBERS TO LEAD PRO STOCK QUALIFYING AT SEATTLE

Written by Tracy Renck, photo by Burghardt Photography    Sat, 2019-08-03 18:00

 

Friday night was good enough for Jeg Coughlin Jr. to be the best Saturday after qualifying was complete at the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle.

Coughlin clocked a 6.539-second elapsed time at 210.57 mph to capture the No. 1 qualifying spot in his JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro at Pacific Raceways.

This was Coughlin’s first No. 1 qualifying position of the season and the 30th of his Pro Stock career. The five-time Pro Stock world champ has one win this season in Phoenix. Coughlin faces Alan Prusiensky in round one Sunday.

“This is very cool,” Coughlin said. “I never really thought about No. 1 qualifying efforts. Early on in my career we never really seemed to find ourselves at the top of the pack. Warren (Johnson) was always one of the quicker cars early on and fortunately we were able to find ourselves to the winner’s circle, which was the most important thing and something I will stress here right now. We’ve run really well in qualifying here. Our team cars (Alex Laughlin and Erica Enders) qualified one, two and three and obviously we want to run well (Sunday).”

This season the KB Racing team and now Elite Motorsports have five No. 1 qualifying spots each.

“We have a nice rivalry without question,” Coughlin said. “I think when you look at the sheer numbers in Pro Stock right now with the number cars KB is fielding and Elite is fielding certainly our opportunities are greater in not only qualifying No. 1, but winning races as well. They are tops in winning races Sunday and we would certainly love to reverse that fortune for our betterment and get a win (Sunday).”

Coughlin acknowledged Saturday’s qualifying sessions were more about getting ready for Sunday than trying to improve in qualifying.

“Friday, we had a lot of cloud cover most of the day, the sun really didn’t come out until just before Q2, but it was so late in the day the track was very, very tight and we were very aggressive,” Coughlin said. “(Saturday) the air was better, but the sun had been out since the crack of dawn, so the track was a little trickier. The stronger cars ran well. My teammate Alex Laughlin went 6.540 in Q3 and probably had a tick more in that one. We were fortunate to hold on to the top and again look to take it to the distance (Sunday).”

 

 
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