Troy Coughlin Looking To Strike In Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN, May 1, 2009: Veteran racer Troy Coughlin brings his JEGS.com Pontiac GXP to historic Beech Bend Raceway this weekend for the eighth annual NMCA Muscle Car Nationals presented by NOS.

Coughlin is looking to build on his current fourth-place ranking in the Pro Street class after one event in the NMCA Edelbrock Drag Racing Series. He knows the first step is to qualify strong, something he had no problem doing at the season opener in west Florida.

"Our car was so consistent in Florida it really got us excited," said Coughlin, who returned to the NMCA tour this season after a two-year absence. "Hopefully, that will continue here because when you have a car that you know will go down the track every time then you can really start to get after it and win some rounds.

"It not only helps me, because I can just worry about driving the car, but it helps the crew because they can concentrate on other things with the tune-up. It's a classic win-win situation when the car is working well. Jerry Haas really put together a beautiful ride for us and we couldn't be happier.

"We need to just concentrate on the first session and build from there. You can never get too far ahead of what you're trying to do. That's hard to do some times because we haven't always had this good of a car under us, but we'll try to contain ourselves."

Gates open at 10 a.m. Friday with a test and tune slated to begin at noon. The first round of qualifying begins at 3:15 p.m.

Information and results can be found at FastestStreetCar.com.