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.”

A familiar face returns as popular Top Fuel shoe Baca gears up for 2009

With details such as a major sponsor and schedule yet to be disclosed, popular Top Fuel driver David Baca is readying for his return to the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Baca, whose only action since the 2006 season was a two-race stint in the Matco Tools dragster at the final two races of 2007, will begin the 2009 season with his own team.

“I’m pretty close to announcing a sponsor that could have us attending half the races or a little better, but we have to keep it under wraps at the moment,” said Baca. “We’re going to test in Phoenix and come out with a vengeance in

Pomona.”

The timing is right for Baca to return to the sport. After a two-year layoff, Baca’s racing equipment is fresh, and his business, Allstate Contract Floors, is squared away so that he can be a player in NHRA’s fastest category once again. Baca has always been a threat to make competitive laps, having run as quick as 4.485 seconds and as fast as 331.69 mph in quarter-mile racing.

“It gets in your blood,” said Baca. “I was able to keep my license current when I drove the Matco car in 2007. It’s pretty cool anytime you can have a chance to drive for one of the best tuners in the world in Lee Beard.

“We’ve been known to run fairly well. We’re going to go out there full steam ahead. I think we can run right there with them. If you look at some of our time slips when we ran at 1,320 feet, we made a lot of runs that were .80 to .82 at the 1,000-foot mark. We’re pretty optimistic.”

Baca’s reorganized team will be headed by crew chief Rick Henkelman, who often challenged him on the Top Alcohol Funny Car circuit in Northern California in the 1980s, and car chief Jon Schaffer. Schaffer began wrenching for Baca at 15 years old and most recently was a part of Doug Herbert’s team.

Baca, a longtime driver in the alcohol categories, jumped to the fuel ranks as a co-owner with Henkelman in 2002. The pair had a successful debut season with Cory McClenathan wheeling their entry to a fifth-place finish in the points standings and a win at the season-closing event in

Pomona. Baca took over the driving chores the following season and finished seventh while posting a final-round finish and two No. 1 qualifying positions. Baca is hunting for his first win after three losses in the money round.

“I don’t feel like we’ve missed a step,” Baca added. “We plan on coming out and being a factor right out of the gate. Hopefully, those guys will be going, ‘Uh-oh, that guy’s back again.’

“We’ve always had such a loyal fan base. It’s been great to have my own little sector of Baca-maniacs. I want them to know we’re coming back out, and I can’t wait to see them all at the track.”

Hartley family will run all 24 events on 2009 Full Throttle Top Fuel schedule

Allen Hartley

Joe Hartley

The popular father-son Top Fuel team of Allen and Joe Hartley plan to run the entire 24-event NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule in 2009.The team, with father Allen tuning and son Joe driving, consistently had run seven to 10 races each year since a career-high 17th-place finish in 2000 when they ran 12 events in Joe’s rookie Pro season and showed its capabilities in 2007 during a strong 11-race schedule that was highlighted by a runner-up in Houston and a No. 1 qualifying berth in

Topeka. Despite running only half of that season’s events, the Hartleys finished a career-high-matching 17th in the standings. The team only ran three events last season — Topeka, Dallas, and the second Las Vegas event – but qualified at all three and won its first-round battle in Topeka.

“We know that when we run a lot of races we have more success, like we did in 2007, unlike last year where we only ran a few times, which makes it very difficult to stay consistent,” said Joe. ”By only running a few times last year, we were able to save some money that makes this season more doable.

“We ran as many as 27 races one year when we had the A/Fuel car, so the travel will be nothing new to us, but this obviously will be the most we’ve run in Top Fuel, but it’s all about fulfilling a dream for us.”

Hartley says that the team’s decision to run the entire schedule was made long before a series of sponsor and owner developments that will sideline a few of the tour’s regulars.

“We talked about it toward the end of last season and just decided we were going to go for it back then,” he said. “It’s definitely playing into our hands – running all 24 will definitely make it more feasible to make the Countdown [playoffs] field — but it’s not the reason we’re doing this.  Plus, we know that a lot of the big hitters will be out there and running hard, and although qualifying is never definite, having that money coming in will help keep the car running.”

The team initially will field the car out of its own pocket, supplemented by associate parts sponsorships from Red Line Oil, Clevite, and Mechanix Wear.

“We’re looking for sponsors and talking to people, of course, but don’t really have anything online yet, but that’s not going to keep us from going out and doing it,” he said. “We’re going to make it happen.

“We’ll cut expenses where we can – we won’t have a spare car, for example – but we’re still going to run it the way we ran it before. We’re going to run all of the qualifying sessions and run it hard.

“The other good thing for us is because we do have some of our own personal funding to back this up, we can offer a full sponsorship for a lot cheaper than some of the other teams, which is one thing we’re pursuing. We understand with the economy that it’s difficult to get funding, but we’re hopeful that it all plays out for us.”

Kalitta Motorsports restructures for 2009 NHRA season

Kalitta Motorsports, a legendary Professional drag racing team founded and owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta, will compete in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series with one full-time entry, the DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car driven by Jeff Arend. Also in 2009, Kalitta Motorsports will celebrate 50 years of drag racing by Kalitta as he commemorates the golden landmark as a driver, tuner, and owner.

Jon Oberhofer and Nick Boninfante will serve as co-crew chiefs on the nitro-fueled DHL Funny Car in 2009, replacing Glenn Mikres, who was relieved of his duties as crew chief of the DHL car after the conclusion of last season. Arend joined Kalitta Motorsports last season to assume the driving duties of the DHL entry after the tragic death of Scott Kalitta as the result of injuries he suffered in a high-speed racing accident in June in

New Jersey.

Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta, Connie’s nephew, will compete in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in the Top Fuel class on a part-time, race-by-race basis as the team searches for a full-time primary sponsor. The team is expected to compete at the season’s first two events, the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals in Pomona and the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix, then will evaluate its status on a race-by-race basis.

The Top Fuel entry will be helmed by crew chief Jim Oberhofer and assistant crew chief Troy Fasching. Doug, a two-time Top Fuel championship runner-up and 30-time NHRA national event winner, and Kalitta Motorsports were notified in December that longtime backer Mac Tools would not return as the dragster’s primary sponsor in 2009 but would remain with Kalitta Motorsports as an associate sponsor.

“Despite the challenges, we are very excited about the 2009 season,” said Jim Oberhofer, Kalitta Motorsports general manager. “Connie has done so much for our sport, and we want to celebrate that at every event. Over the past 50 years, Connie has dedicated so much of his time and resources to building one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing. We want to make sure everyone knows how important he is to us and to drag racing throughout 2009 and beyond.

“We’re also very thankful to DHL for their commitment to our team and to NHRA Drag Racing. They have been wonderful partners since joining our organization in 2007. We’re looking forward to continuing to build upon our great partnership and great friendship with them in 2009.”

Kalitta Motorsports has won five world championships and more than 50 national event titles in five drag racing sanctioning bodies since Connie established it in 1959.

Associate sponsors on Kalitta Motorsports’ race cars include Red Line Oil, Summit Racing Equipment, Technicoat Cos., K2M,

Toyota, and Mac Tools.

John Force

Ashley Force

Castrol has committed to maintain one of the longest-running global sponsorship partnerships in motorsports history as it has announced it will continue primary sponsorship on both John and Ashley Force’s fuel Funny Cars in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The sponsorship of JFR will enter its 24th year in 2009.  Last June, Castrol Global Lubricants announced an exciting new partnership signed with FIFA to be a Primary sponsor for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup soccer championships. As part of that program, Castrol also announced its renewed commitment to its global motorsports activities, the cornerstone of its technological leadership strategy in global lubricants.

This global motorsports strategy, activated in multiple racing venues around the world with many of Castrol’s key strategic business partners, will continue to be showcased in

North America through the company’s relationship with John Force Racing Inc. 

In addition to primary support to John and Ashley, Castrol will continue to provide secondary/associate sponsorship support to Robert Hight, Mike Neff, Britney Force and Courtney Force. In addition, Castrol will be realigning its activation support of John Force Racing in programs to be announced prior to the 2009 season. That realignment, however, will result in the curtailing of Castrol’s NHRA contingency program sponsorship and the elimination of Castrol’s at-track interactive Midway program. 

“We’re very excited about beginning our 24th season in the Full Throttle NHRA series while remaining the major sponsor of John Force Racing,” said Lori Anne Gola, Assistant Sponsorship Manager for Castrol. “We’ll have some exciting new announcements about our JFR sponsorship in the next few weeks.” 

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series 2009 Schedule
February 5-8	Kragen OReilly NHRA Winternationals	Pomona, Calif.
February 20-22	Arizona NHRA Nationals	Phoenix, Ariz.
March 12-15	ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals	Gainesville, Fla.
March 27-29	OReilly NHRA Spring Nationals	Houston, Texas
April 2-5	SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals	Las Vegas, Nev.
April 16-19	Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals	Atlanta, Ga.
May 1-3	OReilly NHRA Midwest Nationals	Madison, Ill.
May 15-17	NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals	Bristol, Tenn.
May 29-31	OReilly NHRA Summer Nationals	Topeka, Kan.
June 4-7	NHRA Route 66 Nationals	Chicago, Ill.
June 11-14	NHRA SuperNationals	Englishtown, N.J.
June 25-28	Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals	Norwalk, Ohio
July 10-12	Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals	Denver, Colo.
July 17-19	NHRA Nationals	Seattle, Wash.
July 24-26	Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals	Sonoma, Calif.
August 13-16	Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals	Brainerd, Minn.
August 20-23	Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals	Reading, Pa.
September 2-7	Mac Tools U.S. Nationals	Indianapolis, Ind.
September 17-20	NHRA Nationals	Concord, N.C.
September 24-27	OReilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals	Dallas, Texas
October 2-4	OReilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals	Memphis, Tenn.
October 9-11	Virginia NHRA Nationals	Richmond, Va.
October 29-November 1	Las Vegas NHRA Nationals	Las Vegas, Nev.
November 12-15	Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals	Pomona, Calif.