zMax Dragway (Concord, NC) April 27-29

The JEGS Mail Order team will be well represented at this weekend’s NGK Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals with five entries in the field. Jeg Coughlin Jr. will be racing in Pro Stock as a member of the Elite Motorsports team. He will be joined by his nephew Troy Jr., in Top Alcohol Dragster and Super Comp, and niece, Paige, in Super Comp. Jeg’s wife, Samantha, will also be racing in Super Gas.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. will continue his pursuit of a sixth NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock title (and seventh overall) at this weekend’s event in Concord. Last weekend in Houston, Jeg Jr. qualified No. 2 and reached the semifinals.  

Jeg Coughlin Jr. is once again racing as a teammate to two-time world champ Erica Enders. The Elite team also includes Pro Stock racers Vincent Nobile and Alex Laughlin. Jeg Jr.’s crew chief is multi-talented Rickie Jones, who has extensive experience as a driver, chassis builder, and tuner. The Elite team also includes crew chiefs Rick Jones, Mark Ingersoll and Brian “Lump” Self, who regularly share data.

After the first five events of the season, Jeg Jr. enters this week’s event at the No. 11 ranked driver in the Pro Stock class.

While Jeg Jr. has yet to win the unique Four Wide Nationals, he did win the fall race in 2013. In that final, which is held under the conventional two-wide format, Jeg defeated Jason Line to help clinch the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock championship.

Jeg Jr. and then-teammate David Connolly helped christen zMax Dragway and were the first professional drivers to make a run on the drag strip when it opened in 2008.

Including zMax Dragway, Jeg Coughlin Jr. has won at least one NHRA national event at 24 different facilities making him the all-time leader in that category. The only current venues on the NHRA Mello Yello tour where he has not won are the tracks in Norwalk and Epping.

Jeg Jr. is a five-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock champion. He earned season titles in 2000, 2002, 2007-2008 and 2013. As a sportsman driver, Jeg Jr. also claimed the NHRA Super Gas championship in 1992.

Jeg Jr. is NHRA’s all-time leader in holeshot victories with 101.

During his Pro Stock career, Jeg Jr. has competed in 410 events and has a round-win record of 611-336. He has red-lighted just 22 times and failed to qualify just 16 times.

After successful stints in Top Fuel, Super Comp, and Super Gas, Troy Jr. make his second NHRA national event appearance in the Top Alcohol Dragster class this weekend. Troy Jr. will also pull double-duty in Super Comp behind the wheel of his JEGS.com dragster.

Troy Jr. is driving an injected nitro dragster owned and tuned by multi-time national event winner Rich McPhillips a two-time (2013-2016) Gatornationals winner.

Last weekend, Troy Jr. recorded a personal-best 5.252, 278.23 to qualify for the record eight-car field at the NHRA regional event in Richmond, Va.

Family patriarch Jeg Coughlin Sr. enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in the Top Alcohol Dragster class (then known as Pro Comp) in the 1970s including six divisional event wins and the 1976 Division 3 Pro Comp championship. He was also a finalist at the 1975 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

Troy Jr. is a five-time NHRA national event winner and the first third-generation Coughlin to win a major event. Troy Jr. won Super Comp titles at the 2009 Las Vegas race and the 2010 U.S. Nationals and the Gainesville event in 2013. He also won a pair of national events in 2014 at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals and the JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals.

Troy Jr. was the 2013 NHRA North Central Division Super Gas champion.

In addition to his success in NHRA events, Troy Jr. also is regarded as one of the sport's best E.T. bracket racers. He has accumulated several major victories including a $25,000 payday at the Atco Dragway Superbucks event and a $10,000 win the Spring Buck Blast at South Georgia Motorsports Park. Two weeks ago, he won a $20,000 race at the Powerball of Bracket Racing event in Darlington, S.C.

Troy’s younger sister, Paige, will make her national event debut in Concord behind the wheel of her JEGS.com Super Comp dragster. Paige, 17, competed in several divisional events last season.

Paige is the daughter of three-time NHRA Pro Mod series champion Troy Coughlin. She is a is a high school senior and will be a freshman at Miami [Ohio] University in the fall.

Samantha Coughlin, the wife of Jeg Jr., will be racing the team’s Corvette roadster in the Super Gas class.

Samantha is a former national event champion, who won the Super Comp title at the 2009 Norwalk event.

Samantha’s father, Al Kenny, and brother, Jason Kenny, are both veteran racers and national event champions.

The Coughlin family, including John, Troy, Mike, Jeg Jr. and Troy Jr. have combined for 116 NHRA national event victories since 1990. The Coughlin's have won in nine different eliminators including Pro Stock, Pro Stock Truck, Pro Mod, Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster.

TEAM JEGS - By the Numbers (NGK Four-Wide Nationals Edition)

5 - Team JEGS entries in competition this weekend at zMax Dragway

7 - Different classes where Jeg Coughlin Jr. has won at least one NHRA national event title (the only driver to do so)

10 - Number of classes where the Coughlin family has earned an NHRA national event victory

101 - Holeshot wins by Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the Pro Stock class (tops among NHRA pro drivers)

116 - Combined NHRA national event victories for the Coughlin family