Making History – Cody Coughlin the First to Win Dual CRA Championships
WINCHESTER, IN – Cody Coughlin has made history. The Joe Gibbs Racing Development driver is the first to win both Champion Racing Associations Late Model touring series championships in a single season.
With a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Winchester 400 in Indiana, Coughlin clinched the 2016 ARCA/CRA Super Series championship. Friday he dominated the JEGS / CRA All-Stars Tour event until mechanical woes end the night early. He has built up a sufficient cushion in the standings that the minor bump in the road has no outcome in the final results and his second Tour title in that particular series.
Sunday’s race was the most difficult of Coughlin’s season. The already challenging Winchester 400 event became even more challenging after Coughlin slapped the turn four wall near the halfway mark of the marathon race. His JEGS.com Toyota Camry suffered enough damage to make the car hard to drive, but Coughlin never gave up.
The 20-year-old driver ran a conservative race from that point forward to ensure that the championship would be his.
Coughlin dropped as low as 13th, but his crew kept encouraging him all race long. Eventually, the cars ahead of him started to have trouble and Coughlin rebounded to another top-five finish to close out the season.
“This feels awesome,” Coughlin said. “We had a bit of a sloppy race today, but we kept digging and got the job done. We worked so hard all year long, so to get this championship just feels amazing.”
The Delaware, Ohio native finished the 2016 ARCA/CRA Super Series season with four wins, nine top-five finishes, and 10 top-10 finishes. Add in the two triumphs from the JEGS / CRA All-Stars Tour and Coughlin racked up six Late Models victories this season.
“It is so cool to say that we are the first team to win both the Super Series and JEGS Tour championships in one season,” said Coughlin. “This team just worked so hard all season long. Jack (Smith, crew chief), Kevin (Hamlin, team manager), Scott (Wimmer, spotter), Dave (Holt, crew member) Jon (Ziti, crew member) and everybody that helped us at any point this season worked so hard each and every race. I am so thankful for everybody that helped us get to this point, including my parents (Di and John) for how much love and support they give me each and every day. I also am so thankful for my sister, Kennedi for coming to almost every race. She’s awesome, and I am so blessed by our Lord to have all of them as my family.”
For more information on Cody Coughlin and Team JEGS, visit www.teamjegs.com and follow Cody on Twitter, @Cody_Coughlin. Follow Team JEGS on Twitter, @TeamJEGS, and “Like” JEGS Performance on Facebook. Also be sure to check out Cody’s new website, www.codycoughlin.com. Any other inquiries for Cody Coughlin can be sent to Bob Dillner via email at bd51sports@gmail.com.
Sources: Bob Dillner/Cody Coughlin Racing PR