NHRA: Coughlin Wins Columbus PST in S10
14 June 1999
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES PONTIAC EXCITEMENT NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES NATIONAL TRAIL RACEWAY COLUMBUS, OHIO PRO STOCK TRUCK -- FINAL ELIMINATIONS JOHN COUGHLIN WINS ONE IN HIS HOMETOWN JOHN COUGHLIN, JEG'S MAIL ORDER CHEVY S-10, matched his brother Mike's achievement by claiming HIS first professional victory in NHRA Drag Racing, by winning the Pro Stock Truck title today against BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10. Coughlin, of Columbus, defeated Jeter with his 7.707-second pass at 175.05 mph to Jeter's 7.751/175.32. Jeter had the edge after taking off with a reaction time of .457 to Coughlin's .470, but his S-10 shook its tires at half track. Jeter, dominating every other round this weekend, lost to John's 7.707/175.05 with a 7.751/175.32. COUGHLIN: "It feels great, especially here at home with all the friends and family and the people we work with at Jeg's." ON DEFEATING JETER: "He's a great competitor. If I can't win, or Mike can't win, I'd like to see him win. He's a good friend of ours and helped us with our Chevy S-10. We knew we had to run good to beat him. My dad (Jeg Coughlin Sr.) said we had something we could win with. I tried to be on time and it worked out, and everybody smiled. When I got to the finish line the crew got on the radio and they were screaming yay, yay. I almost didn't stop, I almost went off the road." DID YOU SEE JETER? "He was doing the hippy, hippy shake. We just try not to really worry about what's going on, we focus on leaving on time and shifting on time, that's so important. That's the only job I've got. My job is the easiest. The crew are the ones who make this whole thing work, without them it's not possible." DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM MIKE AFTER HE WON AT E'TOWN? "Mainly it was confidence. When Mike won it gave the team a little more confidence to make you feel you can do this. We translated that into a win." ON THAT RUN: "It was a great run. We ran the right lane, which was not the lane of choice, but we did't have lane choice. Hats off to the whole crew for making this thing work." ON WINNING: "My goal this year was to win two races and to finish in the top 10. I got one of them. I'm pretty far out of the top 10, but after this weekend --Jerry Haas is the guy in 10th (he went out in the first round) -- I moved up a little closer. With a couple of good races maybe we can finish in the top 10 and win another race." JETER: The left lane beat us in the final. We should have won the race, we had low e.t. in every round, and it didn't help us. There wasn't enough race track, it shook the tires all the way down; we're lucky that we didn't crash. I should have lifted, but I'd hit the wall before I'd lift in the final. I had him on the (Christmas) tree, the race track cost us a race, that's all I know. We had lane choice, but once I was in the water box, I couldn't change lanes. I saw it was slick and it wasn't prepped properly, in my opinion. The race is over, we got beat, that's the bottom line. There are no excuses. This was an opportunity to take over the points lead, and it just kills me. I do feel better that Graham Light agreed that they made a mistake (in how they prepped the lane)."