Nitro Dogs Racing

Coughlin has proven that to be the man, you have to master the system

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a driver in the middle of a championship points race? Do you think you could you handle the pressure? Is your team up to the challenge?  

JEGS.com racer Jeg Coughlin Jr. has reached drag racing’s Promised Land on five different occasions, once as a Sportsman racer and four times as a Professional, and each journey was decidedly different from the others. In this candid and exclusive interview with NHRA.com, Coughlin takes readers through each title ride from his perspective behind the wheel. He may seem unflappable on the surface, but it turns out Coughlin is human after all, which he makes clear when recalling the battles.

Super Gas, 1992

Coughlin was a 22-year-old college student when he captured his first world title, taking the Federal-Mogul championship in Super Gas in 1992. Racers in the class can run up to six national and eight divisional races from which they use their best three national and best five divisional outings to count towards their point position. 

Staring the year with a Division 3 win in Indy, Coughlin went on to capture a total of five trophies on the season, four at the divisional and one at the national level.

“This one is still very, very special to me,” Coughlin said. “In Pro Stock, you start a season knowing there are 10-15 teams that can win the championship. In Super Gas, there’s close to 1,000 racers that are capable of winning it all. It’s brutal. 

“I remember starting off by winning Indy and that was a great headstart because it was an eight-round race so we effectively got a bonus round right away. We later won the U.S. Nationals, which was the only other eight-round race that year.

“Racers always watch points but it’s tough to do in the Sportsman ranks because there are so many racers all over the country doing their thing. You always read National DRAGSTER (because NHRA.com was not even a thought back then) to see what everyone did, but it’s hard to follow. I know Tom Seemann got on a roll early that year and seemed impossible to catch at one point, and Kyle Seipel got hot during the summer months out on the West Coast.

“To be honest, the championship wasn’t on my mind at all until real late. I was having issues with my motor shutting off during runs and at one point, Mike (brother) and I were driving from

Montreal and he was having some of the same issues. George Rupert built fuel systems for us at the time and his shop was on the way home. So we just pulled off the freeway and dropped in. Ol’ George figured out what was wrong and I came out and won four of my next five events. It turned the whole season around.

“As mentioned, I ended up going on one of the most dominant runs of my career, winning six races in seven weeks (two were non-sanctioned and didn’t count toward the points), and taking the championship. I never thought I was in it until really late in the year so I didn’t really sweat it out much.”

Pro Stock, 2000

Coughlin immediately smiles when the conversation turns to his first Pro Stock title run in 2000. However, he also knows his dominating wire-to-wire job will likely never be duplicated in the age of NHRA’s playoff system.

“That was under the old points system and back then it didn’t matter when you got your points,” Coughlin said. “We got ours early that year and just cruised. It was the epitome of a dream season.”

Starting the year on a hot streak, Coughlin won six of the first seven races to set the tone for his easiest title run to date. In the end, he won 10 national events in 14 final-round showings and posted an impressive 62-13 race day mark.

“We never aborted a run the entire year, even in testing,” Coughlin said. “It was just phenomenal. You talk about a driver feeling confidence; that was just unbelievable. Every time the win light came on I’d just chuckle in disbelief. It was like, ‘hey we won again.’ I sure haven’t had that feeling many times in my career.”

Pro Stock, 2002

Unlike his Y2K romp, Coughlin’s had a fight on his hands in 2002. The JEGS team had taken their engine program in-house midway through the 2001 season and they were still working out the bugs when their ‘02 campaign started. Fortunately for Coughlin, none of his rivals managed to get too far ahead and the parity in the class ended up playing into his hands.

“We had nine different winners to start the year and 11 different winners in the first 12 races so it was wide open,” Coughlin said. “I really wanted to win that year because it was the first season with POWERade as the series sponsor and I knew that was special. If you think about it, ‘02 ended up being a lot like it is now with the playoffs because it all came down to that stretch run. There were so many teams in it.

“I had two wins coming out of the Western Swing and that was the first time I started thinking we had a chance. Greg (

Anderson) had the quickest car but ours was repeating a little better. The gap started closing and when we managed to win Brainerd and Indy it really tightened up.

“As a driver, I didn’t want to make a mistake. I knew we didn’t have much room for error because it was so close. We finally had the car working right and I just went into this mode where I wanted to be perfect in the seat. We ended up winning four in a row down the stretch and that catapulted us to the top for good. It was an incredible effort by the team.”

Pro Stock, 2007

For the first time in his career, Coughlin had to change his strategy in 2007, the first year of NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoff format. Racers always want to win every event, and in the pre-Countdown days, as Coughlin himself proved, you could win the title with early or late runs. Not any more. Now racers needed a consistent ride early, and a dominating one late to get the job done.

“The new format really is a lot of fun,” Coughlin said. “I compare it to the 1000’s of runs I’ve made in the Sportsman ranks where every round is so cutthroat. Without question, the last two years have been the most trying of my career. I’ve never felt comfortable at any time.

“The strategy sessions actually began in January. I had a new teammate in Dave Connolly and a complete new team at Cagnazzi. I recall talking things over with my Dad (Jeg Coughlin Sr.), crew chief Roy Simmons, and Victor, and we sat down and said, ‘How do we make sure we’re in the top eight before that first cutoff?’ That was all we focused on the first several races of the year.

“Once we secured a top eight spot it shifted to those four races we had to make the top four. It was a very uneasy time because we’re all bunched up in the standings and you really start to rely on your planning of parts inventory and your motors to get it done. We even were mentally prepared for a rainout, which would have made that stretch even tighter.

“Dave got on a roll and won five in a row. Meanwhile, we were fighting our car. It went straight to the centerline in Round 1 in

Dallas and I pushed in the clutch and thought, ‘oh well, there goes the championship.’ We struggled some more in

Richmond, but so did a lot of guys, and we somehow managed to make the final cutoff in third place.

“Fortunately, the points reset again and despite all of our troubles we knew we were back in it. We went to

Tucson and tested but still struggled the first few days in Vegas. In Round 1 the car went to the wall and I had that horrible feeling again, but I gathered it in and managed to get by A.J. (Allen Johnson) on a close run.

Coughlin’s second-round defeat of teammate Dave Connolly in round two in Las Vegas helped propel him to the 2007 championship.

“The season really came down to the second round in Vegas. I had Dave, the hottest guy on tour, and he had lane choice. Fortunately, all the testing in Tucson and the late-night thrashing at Vegas paid off because the car was finally coming around and responding to what Dad and Roy were wanting and it finally went straight that round. I knew I needed to be perfect to have a chance and we won the round on a very slight holeshot. Talk about a feeling of accomplishment!”Coughlin still left Vegas almost two rounds behind

Anderson after finishing runner-up to his friendly foe, but he didn’t have much time to worry about the situation.

“The Finals started Thursday and between the SEMA show and all the media work we had, there wasn’t much time to think about it,” he said. “Frankly, after the stretch we’d had, I was just happy to have a chance.

“

Pomona was the single most exciting race of my career. The feeling in the pits was incredible. The pressure was on. On race day, I remember this feeling in my body that I’d never felt before. I was buzzing. You can’t see much when you’re in the car but there was a TV monitor and I thought I saw Dave win but he actually had red-lighted. Then I saw (Justin) Humphrey’s team celebrate, which meant Greg was out. I thought it was down to me and Dave and when I fired the car I had this incredible surge in my body.

“I had a great light and beat Larry Morgan and when I got to the top-end they told me Dave had red-lit so I suddenly realize Round 2 was a winner-take-all deal. Wow! The next 75 minutes were very intense. The team was real quiet and I had no doubt in my mind that my car could beat any other car. I just had to do my job.

“I had Richie (Stevens) and I knew I hit the tree again. I got to fifth gear and held it so tight all the way through, then I see the win light come on and I got so excited I actually became lightheaded. Here we had this brand new team and now we were the champs. It was beyond anything I could have hoped for.”

Pro Stock, 2008

NHRA tweaked the playoff format before 2008 and allowed in two more teams, while axing the second cutoff. Now there would be 10 drivers fighting it out over the final six races.

“Making the playoff was again the top priority and we had a pretty smooth run to Indy,” Coughlin said. “I don’t think we ever went below fourth in the points. Greg was phenomenal early but we came around and held the point lead for a couple races before cooling off a touch. That let Greg by and he went on a terror and got so far ahead of everyone that by the Western Swing we pretty much knew he’d be the top qualifier in the Countdown. That actually allowed us to prepare everything for

Charlotte and the start of the Countdown. We wanted to be at full sprint right from the get-go.

“The guys had new motors ready for us at Charlotte and it almost felt like

Pomona the year before because the feeling in the pits was that the real race was on. We were third in the points again and the new engines were stout, although we had a little issue that the guys discovered after our semifinal finish. They fixed it and we got to

Dallas and qualified No. 1 and the car was a rocket. We were runner-up there and that put us in the points lead but it was a long way from over.

“We get to

Memphis and the No. 1 motor broke in Q1. We struggled from there on out, qualifying ninth and barely winning Round 1. Then the motor breaks again on the burnout in Round 2 and I went ahead and staged just to see if A.J. might red light.

Roy was on the radio saying the motor was eating itself up but I felt we had to take the chance or the championship might slip away. Well, Allen’s guys saw we were having problems and he had a real safe light and won the round. The only thing that saved us was the other guys around us in the points lost early also. It was a lucky break.

“The thing we fear most is beating ourselves and we were glad to have a week off to fix things. We got back to racing in

Richmond and I felt like I was walking on eggshells in the car because I didn’t want the motor to break again. Still, there was something wrong and the team decided to change everything but the driver and the paint job on Friday night. It was a massive move but it paid off because we made it to the finals again and ran our career best run of 6.55.

“After another quick trip to

Tucson we had renewed hope heading into Vegas. A racer’s worst nightmare is not knowing what’s wrong when their car is a little off but we didn’t have that feeling. We knew what was wrong and we knew we almost had it fixed.

As in 2007, a solid outing in Las Vegas helped Coughlin clinch in ‘08, too.

“We got to Vegas and it all fell into place. We qualified No. 1, won the race with four really good runs, and left there only needing to qualify for

Pomona to clinch. We actually fought a leaking cylinder all race day. It was just barely leaking and the guys decided to leave that motor in there, so we just held our breath. It’s never as easy as it looks.“The drama wasn’t over because we went into Saturday at

Pomona not being a part of the top 12 but we managed to qualify and that sealed the deal. We got it done with a little air to spare, but not much. It was another incredible accomplishment for the team.

“Every run, every season, every championship is its own journey. I can tell you it’s never easy. The drivers in the NHRA are all world-class and that’s what makes it so special.”