By Wes Holtsclaw (wholtsclaw@starhq.com)
BRISTOL — Jeg Coughlin Jr. has seen drag racing evolve in many ways from a young age
“I’ve grown up around the sport since diapers, so to see all the different segments the sport has evolved has been awesome,” Coughlin said last Wednesday. “It’s a professional sport and it’s grown by leaps and bounds.”
The youngest of Jeg Coughlin’s four racing sons, Jeg Jr. grew up watching his father pilot Top Fuel dragsters while working within the family company — the ever-popular JEGS High Performance mail order service.
Now as a three-time NHRA POWERade Series world champion in his own right, the driver of the JEGS.com Cobalt has a closer look and involvement in where the sport of drag racing is headed.
As the popularity of motorsports has grown across the globe, the demand for improvements across the board have led to larger budgets from NASCAR to the NHRA.
Better facilities, better cars and better technology have improved racing in many ways, particularly the NHRA.
“The motorsports budgets in the world are huge now — not even close to what they were years ago,” Coughlin said. “NHRA teams are no different. They’re not as large as the cup teams or F1 teams by any stretch, but we can feed off of those informations and we’ve done that.
“You can start at the track level. No doubt the tracks are better, the facilities are better. The cars themselves, we’ve got better pieces. They’ve done a better job in the last ten years of bringing in better engine technologies, better metals so that cars are staying together and making more horsepower.
“The chassis themselves — we’ve got computer aided designs, we’ve got wind tunnels got chassis dynos,” he said. “Really we could talk on the technology side for days and days and days.”
Then there’s the demand of broadcast and presentation to the viewers at home. Coughlin has played a big role in advancing in-car coverage for ESPN2 with his team’s bumper and rear cams, but even he admits that the sport’s evolution will continue.
“The way they’re bringing the show to the viewers with on-board cameras, that’s no secret in motorsports,” Coughlin said. “We at Jegs enjoy bringing the viewers into our cockpit with our famous bumper cams or rear cams. The sport’s just evolved so much and it’s not done.”
The evolution of the sport isn’t just limited to the shops and tracks. The racing and champion-crowning process itself has evolved thanks to the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship playoff format.
Instead of a driver running away with the title, the new format, which debuted last season and has been tweaked for the current schedule, sees ten drivers getting an opportunity to contend for the crown in the final six races.
Coughlin delivered at the track when it mattered most at the end of the 2007 season, battling through the Countdown format en route to his third career title.
According to Coughlin, it was more gratifying winning in a pressure-filled format than running away with the crown earlier in the season.
“It’s funny. If you look at the history of Pro Stock and the world champions, there’s typically a runaway winner,” Coughlin said. “We did it in 2000 where we started off and won a ton of races. In 2002 when we won, we had a mid-season slam where we closed it pretty early. Greg (Anderson’s) done it a couple of times. Jason (Line’s) done it. Warren (Johnson’s) done it several times. The climactic ending in Pro Stock has been lacking and I think Countdown to the Championship format has brought that back in. I found much more gratification winning the championship last year under the pressure.”
And although he came out on top last year, there were still things to learn about the format in preparation for future seasons.
“Our championship certainly was not the best season out of all the teams, but we all signed up for the same program at the first of the year,” said Coughlin. “I think after the first of the year, they made a nice refinement to the program. The teams now definitely understand the importance of the format and the consequences you could have. We’re already preparing for Charlotte ten races away from it. The fans are going to have one heck of a show.”
Coughlin returns to Bristol Dragway as the favorite for next weekend’s O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals.
After all, the defending series champion is also the defending Pro Stock champ at the event.
A year ago, Coughlin qualified in the number one spot and battled through eliminations to top Ken Koretsky in the final round.
Last year’s win was gratifying for Coughlin, who notes that he’s been a fan of Bristol from a young age.
“I love coming here. I’ve been coming here to Bristol, Thunder Valley, since I was a kid,” he said. “That’s one thing I can remember. When the Top Fuelers crack the throttle, it echoes it’s awesome. The smell, the nitro — and here I am a stock guy talking about the fuel guys — I love it.
“The surface is always fantastic. The facilities are second to none. It’s a treat for the teams to come to such a great facility period. I know the fans come from all over the Midwest and east coast to Bristol. They know the sounds and everything is pretty special. We’ve started coming here for the Winston Showdown years ago and have enjoyed it ever since.”
Coughlin currently sits in second place in the 2008 NHRA POWERade points standings, trailing leader Jason Line by seven points following a round two finish at last week’s O’Reilly Midwest Nationals in Madison, Illinois.
Jeg is one of four NHRA pros who have on at least one round of competition at each of the season’s first seven events.
“This year’s been going fantastic,” Coughlin added. “We’ve been going in and out of the points lead, but we’ve got our work cut out for us. There’s four of us within a round of each other. There’s some excitement from week to week. It’s been exciting for the fans to follow and for us to be a part of. It’s intense and it almost feels like the Countdown. That’s how we’re running right now and we need to continue this pace all year and keep lady luck on our side.”
