NHRA - Troy Coughlin And Son Looking For Double Win In Home State Of Ohio

NORWALK, June 22, 2011: This weekend's NHRA drag race in northeast Ohio will be a special one for JEGS.com drivers Troy Coughlin, his son Troy Jr., and daughters Meghan and Paige. That's because the site of the race is just 80 miles from JEGS headquarters in Delaware, Ohio, the Coughlin's longtime hometown.

"Norwalk is a great racetrack," Coughlin said. "I'm excited to get there. We've got more than 300 JEGS associates who are going to come up, hang out, and watch the races. We've got to do well there in front of all them.

"And we'll have a lot of family along for the ride as well. The Coughlin family's pretty big, and my wife's family also is coming out. It should be a slew of people, but it'll be a good time. Talk about a support group – it'll be pretty awesome.

"The No. 1 thing, above and beyond racing, is that Meghan and Paige are both celebrating their birthdays over the weekend, so we are going to have a party no matter what happens on the strip."

Coughlin's turbocharged Pontiac had a solid performance at Bristol Dragway last weekend, and he is hoping to carry that momentum a little further in Norwalk. Coughlin qualified 13th and knocked off Ed Hoover in the first round in Thunder Valley before a rare red-light ended his race in the quarterfinals.

"If we can go up there and repeat a little bit more and keep tuning and make this car a little bit better, we'll be in good shape," Coughlin said. "We all can't wait to get there. We'll get everything cleaned up, service everything, and we should be a threat there."

Coughlin is 11th in the Pro Mod standings, just 13 points out of 10th place.

While dad vies for Pro Mod glory, Coughlin Jr. will be racing his JEGS.com in the Super Comp class. Coughlin Jr. has two national events to his credit and finished 2010 ranked eighth in the world.

"I'm going for my third national event win on Meghan and Paige's birthday, that's pretty neat," Coughlin Jr. said. "I talked to dad about it and we decided the best-case scenario would be for us to pull off a father/son double win. I think we both have racecars that are capable of winning.

"We tested this week and the cars are running strong. We'll have a chance."

Sportsman qualifying begins at 9 a.m. ET Thursday and continues throughout the day. Sportsman eliminations start at 8:30 a.m. Friday. The first round of qualifying for the Pro Mod series is slated for 3:30 p.m. on Friday, with a second at 6 p.m. One more qualifying session follows at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning, with the first round of eliminations slated for 1:40 p.m. Saturday afternoon.