[coverattach=1]CHARLOTTE (Sept. 19) -- Pro Stock point leader Jeg Coughlin Jr. ended the NHRA's regular season with a big win at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, where he emerged from the No. 12 slot to score his NHRA-leading seventh victory of the year.
Two week's later Coughlin will once again try to find the winner's circle from the 12th position after qualifying for the Carolina NHRA Nationals with a 6.667 at 207.75 mph.
"We've had a magic horseshoe at times this year and I think we'll need to wave it over our JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt tonight to get this thing going," Coughlin said. "We hit on both sides of the tune-up in the first three rounds so we changed a bunch of components that we thought were hampering us going into Q4 and the car reacted really well. The only problem was we gave it a little too much and the track couldn't hold it.
"We're encouraged because we think we've got it figured out now. Everything we changed worked out exactly like we had hoped and that's exciting. We've had our best runs on race day all year so hopefully tomorrow is no exception."
A 48-time winner in the Pro Stock class, Coughlin will begin the Countdown to 1 against Jason Line, who finished the regular season just behind Coughlin in second place. The two men have raced nine times this year with Coughlin holding a 6-3 advantage. Line qualified for this event with a 6.659 at 207.94 mph.
"He's made a couple of good runs this weekend and I expect he'll be ready to get after it in the morning," Coughlin said. "We've had some big races this year against Jason. We know what to expect from one another. It should be one heck of a drag race.
"It's great to have everyone from (team owner) Victor Cagnazzi's race shop here with us this weekend. We've got a lot of hard-working folks helping us with the car and were happy to be here with them. It's kind of neat to see the guys that normally don't get to many races coming out here to see the end results of all their effort. Now we need to show them what it's like to do well on Sunday."
Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. with Pro Stock slated to start around noon.
Two week's later Coughlin will once again try to find the winner's circle from the 12th position after qualifying for the Carolina NHRA Nationals with a 6.667 at 207.75 mph.
"We've had a magic horseshoe at times this year and I think we'll need to wave it over our JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt tonight to get this thing going," Coughlin said. "We hit on both sides of the tune-up in the first three rounds so we changed a bunch of components that we thought were hampering us going into Q4 and the car reacted really well. The only problem was we gave it a little too much and the track couldn't hold it.
"We're encouraged because we think we've got it figured out now. Everything we changed worked out exactly like we had hoped and that's exciting. We've had our best runs on race day all year so hopefully tomorrow is no exception."
A 48-time winner in the Pro Stock class, Coughlin will begin the Countdown to 1 against Jason Line, who finished the regular season just behind Coughlin in second place. The two men have raced nine times this year with Coughlin holding a 6-3 advantage. Line qualified for this event with a 6.659 at 207.94 mph.
"He's made a couple of good runs this weekend and I expect he'll be ready to get after it in the morning," Coughlin said. "We've had some big races this year against Jason. We know what to expect from one another. It should be one heck of a drag race.
"It's great to have everyone from (team owner) Victor Cagnazzi's race shop here with us this weekend. We've got a lot of hard-working folks helping us with the car and were happy to be here with them. It's kind of neat to see the guys that normally don't get to many races coming out here to see the end results of all their effort. Now we need to show them what it's like to do well on Sunday."
Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. with Pro Stock slated to start around noon.
