JEG COUGHLIN JR.
He’s no longer the up-and-coming Pro Stock
hotshot who won his first race in 1997 and his
first title in 2000, but Coughlin continues to drive
with the same laser-focused approach that’s made
him one of the top drivers in NHRA history. Now
racing for Elite Motorsports, much has changed
in the class and in his life, but Coughlin’s passion
remains unchanged as a sixth world champion-
ship looms on the horizon.
In a wide-ranging interview with D rag I llus -
trateD , Coughlin touched on his incredible career,
including why he remains passionate about Pro
Stock and why he never felt the urge to race in
another class. Coughlin also discussed the status
of Pro Stock in 2019, including its new 18-race
schedule, taking a glass half-full approach, as
well as his championship aspirations and how
he’s successfully managed to mix business with
pleasure – and do it on an extremely high level –
for nearly three decades.
You’ve accomplished so much in this sport
and done everything there is to do in drag rac-
ing. At this point in your career, what keeps
you going?
I would say what keeps me going is definitely
just the competition. I really enjoy competing,
the challenge of perfection, the challenge of
winning, without question. I would say that is
right up there at the top when we’re speaking
Pro Stock in particular. I enjoy the fan side of
it and having the interaction with the fans. Our
sport is very accessible unlike the majority of the
professional sports.
It’s always nice to have relationships that in
some cases I’ve established with fans for well over
20 years. I’ve seen them have kids and now, in a
lot of cases, their kids are cheering us on. So, I’d
say between the competition and the fan side of
it, that keeps me going on – but with an asterisk.
Driving a Pro Stock car is just fun. There’s so
much going on behind the wheel of a Pro Stock
car from the time you hit the ignition button to
crank the thing up to the time you turn to get off
the track. So that part of it I think is also a lot of
fun for me. The runs that are letter-perfect and
you’re straight down the track and you run a little
better than you think you should, those runs are
always fantastic.
Those are great, but the ones I’ve always en-
joyed are the ones that you don’t know what’s
going to happen. These cars are on the edge at
all times, so the runs that aren’t perfect, those
are the ones I enjoy the most because of trying
to be efficient in correcting the imperfection to
lose as little elapsed time as possible and be as
fast as you can.
If it’s merely about the competition and
there’s no set number of wins or champion-
ships you have to get to feel satisfied, does that
remove some of the pressure? Does that make
the sport still have some of that same innocence
and joy from when you started?
THE THRILL OF MAKING A PERFECT
RUN IN A COMPETITIVE PRO STOCK
CLASS STILL DRIVES JEG COUGHLIN
JR. MORE THAN 20 YEARS LATER.