NHRA: Jeg and Troy are ready to come out swinging on day two
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 26, 2001
NHRA's most competitive professional class began the first day of their qualifying for the Advanced Auto Parts Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka today. A total of 29 factory hot rods started their battle to be part of the show on raceday and be among the sixteen available positions.
Troy Coughlin and his Chevrolet Cavalier was the first of the Team Jeg's cars to pull out from underneath the tower. He pulled into the left lane for the first session. Troy blasted off of the starting line and headed straight down the center of the groove. The car hooked up from start to finish. He ran a 6.938 at 199.37 mph and landed in the No. 14 spot.
"It felt good to make a strong first. We can fine tune from this point and improve our qualifying position in the Jeg's Chevy S-10," said Troy.
Jeg Coughlin took on the left lane during the first of the four scheduled qualifying sessions in his yellow and black Jeg's machine. He ran a disappointing 7.091 at 196.19 mph during the first session and landed in the No. 27 slot.
"That was not the way that we wanted to start the weekend in the Jeg's Chevy Cavalier. We will focus on improving from here," commented Jeg.
Jeg began the second qualifying session on the outside looking in. The yellow and black Jeg's Chevy Cavalier blasted off of the line and headed to the big end. Jeg made a big improvement and ran a 6.885 at 199.88 mph. He moved up to the No. 5 spot.
"We needed to make a good run in the second session and we did. We left a little on the table and we could have been a little more aggressive with the Jeg's machine. I think that we are back on track and we expect big things out of the yellow and black this weekend," said Jeg.
Troy did not improve over his previous time. He launched from the starting line and the engine bogged down and then took off. Troy ran a 6.94 at 199.20 mph and slipped to the No. 20 spot.
"We have been fitting this same problem off of the starting line for a couple of races. The important things is that we made a solid run during the first session and we can use that data to help us improve our qualifying position tomorrow," explained Troy.
Text provided by Scott Woodruff
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