Story By: SARA SLAUGHTER / ELITE MOTORSPORTS – NORWALK, OH – Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his nephew Troy Coughlin Jr., who are both Central Ohio natives, will battle it out this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park as they each chase their first Pro Stock victory at the facility.
Jeg Jr., a six time-world champion with five in Pro Stock, has won at all but two tracks on the current Mission Foods NHRA schedule, Summit Motorsports Park and New England Dragway. While he hasn’t gotten the job done on race day, Jeg Jr. has been No. 1 qualifier at the Summit NHRA Nationals back in 2018. Entering the weekend sitting fourth in points with the SCAG Power Equipment / Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer team, he’ll be looking for his 68th career Pro Stock victory, third this season.
“Here we are in the Buckeye State racing at what we consider our hometown racetrack, Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, just an hour and a half away. The fun part about that is we have a lot of family and friends coming out and associates from JEGS will be attending the event. It adds a fun element to the weekend,” Jeg Jr. said. “We haven’t had that first national event win in Norwlak yet. We did win the K&N Horsepower Challenge a while back, which might be worth two national events now a-days. At any rate, I’d love to win on Sunday race day. It’s going to be a fun weekend, the weather looks like it should cooperate for most of the weekend with upper70s to low 80s. It’ll be a great weekend.
Troy Coughlin Jr. in the JEGS.com / White Castle car, who already has one win this season at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H., is coming into his hometown race weekend already with accolades to his name. On Wednesday, Tory Jr. was inducted into the White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame in a ceremony at their Columbus, Ohio headquarters. While he’s looking for his first Pro Stock national event win at the facility just under two hours away from his hometown, Troy Jr. did pick up an Alcohol Dragster victory at the facility in 2019.
“Norwalk, Ohio, it’s a great place to race. Obviously drag racing, motorsports in general and hot rodding is big in Ohio. JEGS headquarter is just over a hour and a half south of the track and Summit Racing Equipment is just down the street. I’ll have my wife and my daughter out with me and my mom is going to be up here too. We have a lot of wonderful people who work at JEGS and some of them will be at the track as well. I’m excited to see have them come out and support,” Troy Jr. said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’m excited, I’ve always loved my home race. Winning here would mean the world. Not sure I’d have words, it would just be a lot of emotions. I’d be extremely humbled to win. If I could just get Uncle Jeg cornered in the final, that would be great.”
If one of the Coughlins do pick up the victory this weekend, it will extend to four the number of consecutive races the Elite Motorsports Team has had a Pro Stock car win the race. The streak started with Troy Jr.’s win at the new England Nationals, then Jeg Jr.’s win at the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee and finally last weekend Aaron Stanfield and the Johnson’s Horsepower Garage / Melling Performance / Janac Brother team won their first race of the season at the Virginia Nationals.
“We’d love nothing more than to continue the momentum that Elite has been freight training the last several events with Troy’s win, my win and then Aaron’s,” Jeg Jr. said. “That all feels like it’s headed in the right direction. So, I’m excited and I know my teammates are excited to get back behind the wheel and drop the hammer here in Norwalk.”
Six-time world champion Erica Enders is also looking to extend the Elite Motorsports win streak as she chases her 50th career national event victory, 49th in Pro Stock. It would be her second win of the season, fourth at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. She’ll be competing in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge as an alternate for Bo Butner made it to the semifinals last weekend but is not competing in Pro Stock at this event.
Coming off a victory at the Virginia Nationals, Aaron Stanfield is now fifth in the points standings, only one points behind Jeg. Jr. in fourth. Stanfield will be looking for his first win at Summit Motorsports Park. Stanfield will also be competing with Enders in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge.
Jerry Tucker in his Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer / SCAG car would love nothing more than to be the next Elite Motorsports hot rod in the winners circle. Just in his sophomore season, he’s chasing his first Pro Stock win. With a runner-up finish and two semifinal appearances, Tucker is sitting seventh in points.
The Cuadra Boys will return to competition this weekend after taking the Virginia Nationals off for business. Fernando Jr., Cristian, and David took over the family business in April after their father, Fernando Sr., turned 65 and retired from not only boss duties but driving duties as well. Cristina is eight in points with a runner-up finish to start the season at the Gatornationals. David is sitting 10th and Fernando Jr. is looking to improve from 17th. They are all in a battle to be the first Cuadra to visit a winners circle.
Competition at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals begins with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eliminations will be Sunday at 11 a.m. with Pro Stock first round at noon. Television coverage of the event will begin on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with a qualifying show Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET followed by the first round of eliminations at 4:00 p.m. ET. The rest of eliminations will air on FOX Broadcasting Network (FOX) at 5:00 p.m. ET.