Jeg Coughlin Jr. leads Team JEGS to Brainerd final round in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – JEGS.com/Mopar Dodge Pro Stock driver Jeg Coughlin Jr. will race for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Wally after winning in the rain-delayed semifinals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals was postponed at Brainerd Int’l Raceway two weeks ago, with Pro Stock running its semifinals and final during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals.

Coughlin knocked off Vincent Nobile in the Brainerd semifinal/third Indy qualifying session with a pass of 6.638 seconds at 207.88 mph. Both were stellar on the Christmas Tree, .012 seconds for Coughlin and .018 for Nobile, but Nobile trailed the defending Pro Stock champion the whole way with a 6.715 at 207.85 mph.

“How about that?” Coughlin said. “We haven’t quite got our momentum going. Honestly, going into the round we made some changes to the car before Q3 and/or the semi’s for Brainerd. I was very confident things would rebound for us. We were thrilled to see the win light come on. We’ll take it.”

Coughlin will face Pro Stock points leader Jason Line in the Brainerd final, scheduled for the final Indy qualifying session, Q5. Coughlin and his J&J Racing team will use Q4 on Sunday to improve their car for the final round.

“We’ve got Q4 in the morning to make a run and see if we can’t better our qualifying position for the U.S. Nationals and at the same time give us a big step in the right direction for our tune-up for Q5 and the final of Brainerd.”

Teammate Allen Johnson was a tick quicker, 6.614 seconds at 208.65 mph, and Coughlin’s team will try to tune their Dodge Dart from Johnson’s tune-up.

“We learned quite a bit off Allen’s car,” Coughlin said. “He did take it to a .61, which is a lot closer to the front of the pack than where we were with a .63. We’ve worked extremely hard, and sometimes you’ve got to run it out and outlast them.”

Older brother Troy Coughlin held the No. 2 position in the NHRA Pro Mod presented by JEGS.com race. His JEGS.com Corvette made one pass Saturday, 5.866 seconds at 248.52 mph, and that came up .003-second short of the provisional No. 1 spot.

Troy has one more shot to grab the Pro Mod pole for the U.S. Nationals in Q3 Sunday. Pro Mod eliminations begin Sunday afternoon.

T.J. Coughlin advanced to the fourth round of Super Gas but was bounced in the third round of Super Comp.

In Super Gas, T.J. beat Diana Anderson in the second round with a brilliant .002-second package. His reaction time was .001-second and his 9.901 pass at 164.71 mph was .001 over his 9.90 index. Anderson’s light was .042 and her pass was 9.826 seconds at 159.57 mph.

T.J. then had a .024 light and a 9.974-second pass at 160.35 mph that beat Steven Collier in the third round. Collier’s light was .084, with his run of 9.941 seconds at 158.43 mph coming up short.

T.J. bowed out in the third round of Super Comp despite a better reaction time than opponent Ty Davis, .019 to .029, but Davis’ run of 8.906 seconds at 162.51 mph ran down Coughlin’s 8.935 at 178.19 mph.