CRA All Stars - Coughlin Clinches Rookie Of The Year With Big Finish In Winchester

WINCHESTER, Oct. 17, 2011: JEGS Chevrolet driver Cody Coughlin brought down the curtain on the 2011 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour season with a strong fifth-place finish Saturday in the W&M Manufacturing/Pier-Mac Plastics 100 presented by JEGS.com as part of the 40th annual Winchester 400 weekend at historic Winchester Speedway.

Coughlin, who clinched the Howie Lettow Rookie of the Year Award in the series, finished with four top-five and seven top-10 finishes on the 2011 season.

"It was a good way to end the year," Coughlin, 15, said. "I'm looking forward to next season, and I'm looking forward to going to Pensacola, Fla., for the Snowball Derby. I feel like we had a strong year. We got the rookie of the year and had a several top-fives and top-10s, so that was a pretty good season."

Coughlin started out the weekend at Winchester by posting the sixth-fastest speed in the first practice, going 108.768 mph. He then was fourth in Friday's second practice at 109.529 mph and second in Saturday's lone session at 110.872.

That work had Coughlin starting ninth in the 100-lap main event with a qualifying lap of 111.711 mph.

"There were some cautions in the beginning, so we felt like the start of the race took a long time," Coughlin said. "We were trying to stay out of trouble. There was one wreck that happened in front of me, and thankfully we avoided it. Everybody was courteous out there, everybody raced really well, except for a few people."

Crew chief Rich Lushes set up the JEGS Chevrolet to handle well throughout the race, Coughlin said, and he charged to the top five.

"It was a good run," Coughlin said. "Obviously we wanted to get the win, but we got held up by a couple of lapped cards in the middle of the race when we were faster than the leader at that point. If there would've been one more caution, we could have contended for the victory. But that stuff happens.

"It was a good performance by everybody. I want to thank the Lord, my team, my mom and dad, and everybody who supports me, especially my little sister Kennedi, who has been my biggest cheerleader all season. It was a pretty good weekend."