Hometown heartbreaker for Jeg Coughlin (NHRA/JEG'S)

NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
NHRA Pontiac Performance  Nationals
National Trail Raceway
Columbus, Ohio  
May  22nd

JEG'S Mail Order
Jeg Coughlin Jr. - Pro Stock
Race Day  Summary
 
Hometown heartbreaker for Jeg  Coughlin
 
If NHRA drag races were won with fan support, than Jeg's Mail Order Dodge  
Stratus R/T driver Jeg Coughlin of nearby Delaware, Ohio, would have taken home  
the trophy at driver introductions. Unfortunately, Coughlin ran into red-hot  
reigning champ Greg Anderson in Sunday's opening round of the 41st annual  
Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals and just couldn't match-up to Anderson's best 
 quarter-mile pass of the race.
 
With hundreds of family members, friends, and Jeg's Mail Order employees  
urging him on, Coughlin was beaten in the opening round when Anderson uncorked a  
6.744 at 204.17 mph against Coughlin's 6.792 at 204.05 mph. 
 
"There's not much to say other than Greg had the better car today and we  got 
beat," Coughlin said. "It's disappointing in the fact that we're at home and  
so many people wanted us to do well. We wanted to show them all a good time 
and  maybe even a winner's circle celebration but obviously that's going to 
have to  wait.
 
"I continue to be impressed by the hard work of our two-car race team. My  
teammate Richie Stevens and I have identical racecars now and the results we've  
both been posting are more and more encouraging each week. Eight races into 
this  arrangement with [team owner] Don Schumacher it's impossible to be 
anything but  pleased. Of course, that's hard to say when we just lost a race."
 
Coughlin, a 45-time winner on the NHRA tour with three world titles to his  
credit, will now shift his attention to next weekend's Summer Nationals at  
Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas. Coughlin won that race in 2000, the same year  
he won his first of two Pro Stock championships. 
 
Resources are available for your use at _www.teamjegs.com_ 
(http://www.teamjegs.com)