Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Get To Know 6-Time NHRA Champion Jeg Coughlin Jr!

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Get To Know 6-Time NHRA Champion Jeg Coughlin Jr! · Kenny Wallace Media

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation brought to
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you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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parts. Remember to go to jags.com and
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they are telling me right now they have everything for jeeps
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and trucks. Go to jags.com and looky right
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there, there he is, one of the men that really helped the Jags
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get on the map. Jag Coughlin Junior Jaggy.
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How you doing man? I'm I'm doing great.
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I just feel like giving you jigs, jigs.
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That's about as good as I can give you.
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Now I'm sitting here in the thriving metropolis of just
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outside Orlando. My daughter Carly, nine years
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old competing in the world finals of cheer competition.
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So you know we slid right out of Vegas, home for a day and change
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and down to Orlando for for her event.
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So great to be on the show, man. It's I'm, I'm a follower, I've
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enjoyed and I know we've we go back a long ways and we've had a
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lot of good times together, so this ought to be a good one too.
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Well, thank you Jaggy. First of all, you're you're
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unique, you are incredibly talented.
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I've admired you for years for the ability to win at Indy, for
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the US Nationals and then the very next morning you were at
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Jags helping run the business and I just wanted to give you a
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compliment before we get going. You are an incredible athlete, a
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great businessman, obviously a good father.
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So let's start like this. You are a six time world
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champion, winning the NHRA Pro Stock Championship five times
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and Super Gas Championship. I think I could be one behind
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here. 66 Pro Stock wins, a total of 84 national event victories.
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Am I close? You're close.
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Yeah, we just we're hot off a good one in Vegas, hot off a
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heater there. And I guess the tally's up to 85
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now. So big win in pro stock after
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making my return. So feel it feels good to kind of
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renew my vows, so to speak. I'm happy I'm one behind.
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And by the way, that bird in the background is a beautiful
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setting that just calmed me down.
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Well, we know we need everything we could do to just keep you
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level. OK, so my opinion.
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OK, this is my opinion. I don't want nobody giving me
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stats. You you made one of the biggest
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comebacks in my opinion in NHRA history, especially pro Stock.
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You were off three years, exact. I mean, you.
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You did not run Pro Stock for three years.
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You come back last week in your fourth race, you win.
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Just unbelievable. How did you not lose anything?
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How did you come back, jump in the seat and win against the
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toughest competition NHRA has to offer?
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Well, you know, it's similar to you racing your dirt late model
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lot on Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights.
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I've been doing similar racing in the bracket race world the
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last three years, which is is cutthroat and as competitive as
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drag racing can get now it's a different style of racing.
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It's not the first one to the finish line is your guaranteed
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winner like Pro Stock, Top Fuel and Funny Car.
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But it's it has a breakout rule where you have to not go under
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your predicted time. So you have to be near perfect
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on the starting line and you need to be near perfect at the
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finish line to advance pasture competition.
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So I've been I've grown up doing a bracket racing.
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In fact, I won a big 50,000 to win race in Saint Louis just
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this past June, this last summer in my dragster, which was you
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know one of the highlights of last year next to watching my
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wife win a race and my little daughter Carly as well.
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So you know, it's I I've kind of stayed sharp doing that doing
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something I love. So coming back to pro Stock was
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not something I really had in my in my kind of scope, if you
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will, you know I stepped away at the end of 2020, Troy Junior,
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You know, just a great young kid and an ambassador of the sport.
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Somebody that just loves is just cut Pro stock through and
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through, hopped in behind the wheel of the elite
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motorsportsjigs.com machine that I'd driven basically my entire
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life and has done a fantastic job.
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So with that, I stepped away at the end of 2021, which was not
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in our scope at the end of 20. My brothers and I had a
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transition in the family business jigs.
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And you know, all of a sudden I found myself with with some,
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what do I call it, elective time after stepping away from
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Prostoc. And then a year and a half or so
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later, I found myself with a lot more elective time on my hands,
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which again, neither one of those were really so much in my
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scope. And you know, when Richard
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Freeman contacted me at the end of 2023, they had a brand new
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car, Rick Jones Camaro for Erica, who was in the heat of
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the battle to kind of secure her 6th World Championship.
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And she's a bad ass, let me tell you.
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So you know I Richard's approached me to drive some
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things in the past since I retired and I've just gracefully
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declined at this point in time. You know with those two
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transitions well behind me. I said yeah, I I would love to
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come out and shake down a new car in competition and and also
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to see if I can help block or or take out some main competitors
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for the you know that are in her way the Pro Stock Championship
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so long windedly That's kind of what's brought me back behind
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the wheel of a Pro Stock car. I was able to meet the folks
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from Skag Power Equipment, Randy Grady and and company and we hit
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it off extremely well. And next thing you know here we
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are 2024, we're in a Cat's Eye Gold Chevy Camaro Pro stock
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machine and it feels fantastic. OK.
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Wow. Capital.
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What's going on there? Well, yeah, And.
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And there's so much. So I'm going to use one of my
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mama's phrase, not to you, but to the fans.
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The fans are, the fans are saying right now, don't insult
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my intelligence. Tell me more and I want to get
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back to Vegas in in a minute. You won with a 6.628 over your
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nephew Troy. You win the full wide at Vegas.
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It was one of the biggest comebacks in the NHRA pro stock
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history because you took three years off.
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However you brought it up you just told me a lot and and
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everybody knows it. It was it was worldwide news.
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So your father Jeg senior your Hey, I want to talk about your
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your name just for a minute here and I want to continue with the
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question. Your dad is, is JEG you're Jack
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Junior. But yet to this day you're
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you're 53 years old and everybody calls you Jaggy.
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I I like that. You know my brother Rusty, his
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real name's Russell, but my mom and dad called him Rusty.
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So they call him Rusty. Do you like being called such a
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young name? Hey, Jaggy.
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Good win. Hey, I feel young at heart, so
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bring it on. So now it feels pretty good.
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You know, in in all honesty, my father's Edward James Coughlin.
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At birth he was given a nickname, Jag from his parents,
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James J from James his name, E from Edward his father's name
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and G his mother's name, Genevieve.
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And so his nickname at birth a redhead, Fire fire redhead and
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ready to go. They wanted to give him a
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nickname to try and deter that through life for him which was
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pretty for thinking on his parents thought part.
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So they nicknamed him JIG from that acronym and it pretty much
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it did stick one and two. I think everybody in the whole
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world knows him as Jig without question.
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And I think other than Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam knows him I think
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as Edward James and Jig. I think he knows him as both.
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But you know it it's been a very unique name and it's so I'm
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actually Jag Anthony Coughlin, which would be technically the
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first. But when when we had our son
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Jaggy Jag, we we named him while we're sitting right in Riverside
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Hospital in Columbus, OH, in honor of my father, we named him
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Jag the 3rd. And because, you know, it just
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seemed like that was the natural thing to do.
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Now, you know, historians and whatnot will look back the
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family tree someday and say, you know, what were these guys on or
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what were they doing? But, you know, it was, that was
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our decision and we stuck with it.
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So it's a really, really cool name.
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Obviously the business jigs was named after my dad's nickname,
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you know, 65 plus years ago now. And you know what?
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We're carrying it on very proudly.
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And as Paul Harvey would say, and that's the rest of the
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story, and I just learned a lot. I'm so happy that you told me
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that. That has been driving me nuts
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like a family in my here for years.
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I knew Jag wasn't a real name and now you just explained it to
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me. All right, so Jags made
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worldwide news a handful of years ago.
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Your dad decided. Now I want to remind everybody,
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it's a family business. Your dad had owned it.
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You boys worked there. You're an A very big part of
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Jags. You work extremely hard.
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I witnessed it with my own eyes. So you you decided to sell a
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little bit of it to the Greenbrier Group now was was
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that one of the reasons that you took this three-year break in
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NHRA? No, we honestly didn't didn't
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have that in in our future. We had considered this about you
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know maybe 6810 years ago my brothers and I, but did a
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quality of earnings on the business and just elected to
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steer away from it. You know in the family
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succession side of things. I mean my father Jake was a
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mastermind, you know in the late 80s he transitioned the business
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to my three brothers and I. We, we took ownership, I was a
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senior in high school taking taking a 25% ownership in and at
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that time a a very big performance aftermarket
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wholesaler and retailer. And we were just on the brink of
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which my father was a huge part of for for years thereafter of
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going direct to consumer with a catalog.
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And and we did that in the late 80s, printed our first catalog
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and kind of the that's where the the retail side of the business
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really took off. And then you Fast forward you
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know through the Internet phase of the early 2000s, 2010 and
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when we decided to make a transition and the Greenbrier
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Capital Group came in and you know that was an interesting
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process for my brothers and I. We we were you know excited to
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to see again what, what is the value of this company.
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We had some valuations done and went through a process you know
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with the banking group to to get along the market and we had some
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really, really neat opportunities through that whole
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process to look at different companies to come in and kind of
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help take over the reins of jigs.
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I mean we'd grown up to nearly a $400 million brand at the time.
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And you know our goal and vision with partnering with such a
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great Capital Group was to see it get to you know a half a
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billion, 3/4 of a billion and even that $1 billion mark which
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we know is certainly out there. So you know but you know it's
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weird as as you're looking through a process like that.
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You know we're almost interviewing the buyers as much
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as they're interviewing us to try and you know try and find
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the right, the right partner to dance with and and that's not
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easy because we've never done it before but we we enjoyed the
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process and and we did sell them a majority share in the company
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at the end of 2021 and that's where I said a little more
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elective time came under my umbrella.
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And when this came up with the Richard Freeman consider doing
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some testing and and see where that took us became much more
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interesting to me. Well, I've been to the Jags, you
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know, the main place, the flagship, and you guys got it
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going on. Quick delivery overnight, all
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automated. And I when I see those tractor
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trailers being loaded up, it blows my mind.
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There'll be a drag, a drag tire, then a dirt tire, then a seat,
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then a shock, then a muffler. JEGS definitely has it all OK.
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Engines. You.
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Yeah. I mean everything, right?
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Everything. Blows my mind.
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You know we built that facility you were in and moved into it in
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late 1999. You know we're still kind of
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young Cowboys running a business and having a ball and building
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this multi multi $1,000,000 automated facility.
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And you know we're fortunate when you look around the outer
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belt of of Central Ohio, you've got you know the likes of McGraw
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Hill, the textbook maker for a lot of the schools.
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You've got all the limited brands, you had Sears, you had
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JC Penney, you had Eddie Bauer and Spiegel.
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So you know we're we're fortunate to be able to point is
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is that go through a lot of different facilities to see what
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technologies were relevant at the time, what might fit in our
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industry, what might not fit in our industry and voila, we built
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our our new facility there and it doesn't seem like you know 24
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plus years ago already really does feel like yesterday and and
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at 53 I still feel in those late 20s myself but my body tells me
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different every now and then. I understand.
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Well that is a whole nother show Jags.
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So let's move forward. Let's change subject a little
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bit ago. I believe that you are a Drag
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racer's dream. Whether it's a fan or just
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somebody that loves Drag Race and and here's why and you
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brought it up. You said that you've been you've
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been racing a little bit and you've been playing a different
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game not not the first one to the line wins in what you've
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been doing. So you hold an NHRA record for
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winning in four divisions in one year.
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Pro Stock, Super Stock competition and Super Gas.
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Now I've got a lot more here that I want to go through.
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Why do you run so many different divisions throughout your
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career? You know, I think it was more of
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a progression. There was never really a a sight
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to say, hey, you know, here I am at 20 years old running in Super
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Gas and doing some bracket racing, you know, by this year
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or this year or this year I want to be in this class or that
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class or or beyond. I never really had that in mind.
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Things just kind of played out. So I'm the youngest of of four
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boys in our family, you know, John, Troy, Mike and then
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myself. And so I grew up watching John,
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my father race, helping, working on his car and then grew up by
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going to the races with John, which was you know, we had a ton
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of fun. He's a hell of a racer and and a
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competitor himself. And then Troy started racing,
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Mike started racing and then I was the last to follow.
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Point is is you know the year I won four different eliminators
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was was kind of a mistake. I was.
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I was racing in comp eliminator in super stock.
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My super stock car had was just being a pain in the ass and we
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weren't able to get it really working well.
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So I took a super gas car to the Englishtown, New Jersey national
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event, the summer Nationals, and I'll be damned if I didn't win.
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The son of a gun is the only it's one of the last times I
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ever drove that car in 1997. I guess it would be and so that
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was that I wanted comp eliminated earlier that year and
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I won in Super stock also that year and then I won in in super
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gas there at Englishtown. And then you Fast forward my
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brother Troy had been running Pro Stock for a couple of years.
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He was partnered with Larry Morgan as kind of his engine
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builder and and and consultant so to speak.
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He had then moved on and was racing with one one of the
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greatest Warren Johnson and they they were partnered in the 1997
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season and as a family we were talking there was a new class
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coming out called Pro Stock Truck and you know that seemed
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to be kind of in a linear path of as my competition eliminator
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car was a small block Chevy with a 5 speed transmission but in a
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much lighter and you know unique looking S10 truck.
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And so we talked about potentially diving into that as
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a as a family and as a business and and my father's like you
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know, Troy's running in Pro Stock.
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You know, I think we could probably more economically run
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two cars in that class then we could, you know, 22 cars and two
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completely different disciplines from a financial standpoint.
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And you know, I think I had to think about it for about 1/2 a
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second and and I said sure. So later on in 1997 we had
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rolled out a second car. We partnered with Dick Mask and
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the great DART machinery and a lot of Pro Stock fame with Dick
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from an engine building standpoint and developing
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standpoint and a pioneer in the aftermarket world that we offer
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at JIG still today. So you you, we bring that car
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out, I get my license on say a Wednesday, we go to Norwalk.
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We make a few more test runs with a 500 cubic inch Pro Stock
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motor and then we go right to Dallas.
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For my first jump in the sea with these Sharks Pro Stock
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race, I beat Scott Jeffrey on first round, got beat second
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round by the world champ Jim Yates.
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The next week is the race in Houston and you know things just
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went our way, went qualified well, run through the field on
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Sunday and hoist in a trophy in my second ever post doc start
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and that was the four categories.
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Very long winded Lee. I apologize.
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But no, no, no. It was.
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It was a good time. This leads up to my next
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question. I have talked to your previous
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pro stock owners, I've talked to your previous crew chiefs and
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and I always ask the great athletes like yourself, what
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does Jaggy have that other drivers don't know?
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You know, when I asked John Force that he had fun with me
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and then when I asked Erica that you know, or Ron Capps.
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But everybody around you tells me the one thing that you have,
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I'm going to tell you what they say.
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And then you answer. They say that you are, you are a
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computer. They say when, when, when you
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get to the end of a run, you know, and the parachutes pulled
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and you're calm down, you're like you're like a computer.
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You're you're downloading. You're telling them things that
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no other drivers can tell them. And I would think that's why you
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win and everything comment on that.
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You're you're like no other driver.
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That's that's the word on the street.
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Jeg's a computer, He tells us things that no other drivers
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tell us. Well, IBM, are you out there?
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Are you listening? Yeah, some help log into his
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brain. Right, right.
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Now it's been, you know, growing up in the sport, you know,
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having a mentor like my father, Jag, I'll go back to him again
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here. He was just a brilliant
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mastermind in the business world.
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And then and then when I started racing professionally, he was,
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he managed our entire team. He was my crew chief, my
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brother's crew chief as well. And but much much before that
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you know, we we go race and he would just always ask you know
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what did you feel? You know, what did you hear?
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What did? Did you smell it even?
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It's the dad that constantly questions you.
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It was a question. It was never.
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He was always the questioner. He was never.
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If you asked for the answer and you, he didn't feel you were
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there. He could give you an answer
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without question but he was always very crafty and in
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forming a question to get you to think and and that developed
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over an entire lifetime, you know at the end 1997, I'm 27
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years old so I'd already had 20 plus years of this that mind
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frame. But when you hop into a prostoc
20:59
car, there's a lot more going on than any other race car I've
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ever driven. So you did all this because
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because of your dad's influence? Yeah, I absolutely incredible.
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And and fortunately I was able to innately pick up on the cues
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of which he, you know, had had kind of triggered.
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You know, not not everyone maybe picks up on those cues either
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and I was fortunate to be able to to maybe do just that and
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then be able to improve on some things, you know, for either
21:29
myself personally or feedback for the engineers and the crew
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chiefs. But it's it's it's been a neat
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psychological experience my lifetime.
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You have to take pride in people talking about you like that.
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Yeah, no doubt. I I haven't heard it.
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You know, I've heard it framed in different ways in in my life.
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But yeah, it is you know and and what really hits home with me is
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I I have a three-year I retired. I mean I was, I was done racing.
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I was happy as a lark, you know. I'm retired too, you know.
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Yeah, I get it. I should be down there with you
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right now. Hey.
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Where's my cup of coffee? Let's cheers, you know.
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But now it was, I was, I was retired, I was happy.
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And you know, here here we are three years later and to be able
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to pick it back up again does feel good.
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You know, we've, we've made many runs in our career where, you
22:27
know, the onboard data did not record.
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And you know, early in my life, in the late 90s, my dad would
22:33
just say, hey, can you just draw me out the RPM graph, what you
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think it looks like, what you think the drive shaft graph
22:39
looks like, and what you think the clutch graph looks like,
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'cause that was. Bad.
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I was very much in tune with all the digital side of of racing,
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so I would do that. And I remember the spring
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nationals we won and how, I don't know what year it was,
22:52
9899 first round, we didn't get a graph so I drew it out and you
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know he's watching the car. So now he can say, OK, I see
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what he's saying here or I agree with it or I don't whatever his
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mindset was on it, well, lo and behold, we win second round
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again. No computer.
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We go through the same drill. You know, we end up winning the
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race that day. Fast forward my first ever run
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with Elite Motorsports. I was driving Drew Skillman's
23:20
car in a year that I was not racing.
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I think it was 2015. Richard asked if I want to just
23:24
come out and run the Western swing because Drew was not going
23:27
to make the three races. Denver Snowman Seattle and I I
23:32
had a a prior golfing commitment during Denver so I can't make
23:37
Denver but I could certainly make the last two and we ended
23:40
up doing that. You know, on Q2 of Sonoma, I
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went to the number two spot in the computer it it probably
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would have worked fine, but the idiot behind the wheel didn't
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turn it on and which was me. And so you know, when we got
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back to the trailer, you know, we've got all the engineers and
23:58
we're shit, we didn't get any data that kind of deal.
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And so I just drew him a picture of what I thought it looked like
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and you know, there's a couple of chuckles and then you ha ha,
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you know, whatever. OK, cool.
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And and I got a phone call about 10:00 that night from Jake
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Hairston who's our chief engineer over the all the motor
24:15
tuning stuff. He's like you know what I forgot
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at that time that we could download out of the ignition
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system And so you know we were our race pack didn't work so I
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didn't turn it on but the ignition system did catch the
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MSD did capture the data most of the data he says I just want to
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call and tell you we got the data and well by God it it
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overlays damn near exactly with what you drew out.
24:40
And I just want to tell you, you know, he appreciated me doing
24:43
that and and furthermore was I guess slightly impressed with me
24:48
being able to, you know, navigate something on paper to
24:51
what I felt. But you know, I was starting to
24:54
say, you know, a Pro Stock car is there, there's something else
24:57
to drive. I mean you've you've done a
24:58
burnout in one and it's it's. They're intimidating.
25:02
There's a lot to them. Yeah, not that it's not easy,
25:05
but it's just there's a lot there.
25:06
But in a Pro Stock car, let's just, you know, we'll get
25:08
through the burnout and back up. You got to be like a robot.
25:11
Everything's to the almost a millisecond of being perfect.
25:14
You're on the clutch the right amount of time.
25:16
You got the clutch pushed in the right amount of time.
25:19
You know when you're pre staged and your stage you go to the Rev
25:21
limiter and as soon as you see the yellow and pop the clutch
25:25
and you're starting to accelerate you know you're
25:26
accelerating just under 4 GS and that first probably second and a
25:31
half of the launch and 1st gear and 2nd gear for that matter.
25:35
You know, you got a shift light right in front of your face that
25:37
lights up at about just over 3/4 of a second after you let the
25:41
clutch out to say, hey idiot, it's time to put it in second
25:44
gear. That's your queue.
25:45
So you know it takes you a couple tenths of a second to
25:48
react to it, another 10th or so to get it into gear, and now
25:51
that gets it perfectly up to the 10,500 Max Rev limit that we're
25:55
allowed in pro stock today. So that's all first gear, all
25:59
the meanwhile, the seat of your pants is kind of micro
26:01
processing. OK, what's the car doing?
26:03
Is it going straight? Do I need to give it some input
26:06
on the steering wheel? Do I need, is it started to do I
26:09
feel the tire oscillating a little bit?
26:10
Is it oscillating because it's spinning or is it oscillating
26:13
because it's it's shaking and actually you know, doesn't have
26:17
enough power to get it to move. So you're kind of mock micro
26:20
processing what's going on all in that first probably two or
26:23
three seconds of the run to try and manipulate the most
26:27
efficient quarter mile dragger as she can.
26:29
And it's it's nuts to break it down because that run takes 6
26:33
1/2 seconds at 200 and 1314, whatever the mph are.
26:38
And it just took me a minute to tell you the things going
26:41
through my mind in that couple second period.
26:44
But, but there are a lot of drag racing fans listening right now
26:48
and what you just did could be I have Charlie my YouTube manager
26:56
having cut that out because that's what the fans want to
27:00
know and that is that was absolutely unbelievable to
27:05
listen because you know I didn't know what I was doing.
27:07
You all helped me. I got pictures of us.
27:09
I'm going to we're going to drop it in right here.
27:12
Charlie's going to show that I did a simple whole shot and and
27:17
I was so green I couldn't understand that you hold the
27:21
clutch in you hold it wide open. But let let me change subjects
27:25
real quick in the same area. We're going to talk about the
27:28
same thing. I always tell everybody any
27:33
conversation is a celebration of that person.
27:36
We don't try to get you. I'm not a this is not a negative
27:40
deal. This is a learning situation.
27:43
So years ago and up to right now, you are also known as one
27:48
of the greatest reaction time drag racers in the history of
27:52
NHRA. You were cutting 0.1 O likes way
27:58
before the kids were. Now let's go back to Vegas, OK?
28:04
It's like it's like the the students are getting ready to
28:08
teach the teacher. Now, your your nephew cuts a
28:14
0.11. You cut a 0.22.
28:17
But here's my point. You started that you are the
28:20
innovator, the man you're looking at right now.
28:23
You were the one that was automatic, a computer cutting
28:27
these zero lights all the time. How did you learn that it And
28:32
obviously now, now they've caught up to you a little bit.
28:35
Not all of them, but where did that start with you?
28:38
How did you cut these incredible lights?
28:41
Well, it's just started by following the sport, you know,
28:44
racing with my dad, racing with my brothers.
28:46
It's it's just something I enjoyed.
28:49
I enjoyed every bit of all the mathematics of the sport as a
28:54
kid and as a teenager and I think I got my first practice
28:58
tree riding around in a Suburban with John going to the races
29:02
and. You know, all over.
29:04
The country so and you know we rigged a cigarette lighter so we
29:07
can plug it in the cigarette lighter and and you know we just
29:12
you know we competed as a family riding down the road in.
29:15
The as a child. As a child so you know I I
29:19
didn't have the luxury of today's racers to be in a junior
29:22
dragster and get some real seat time going down the racetrack.
29:26
But we definitely got a lot of time.
29:29
You know with just a practice simulator it's a simple push and
29:32
hold the button. The tree fires yellow you let go
29:34
of the button gives you your reaction to a perfect green
29:38
start which is .000. And you know back then I would I
29:43
would write down 100 reaction times in a row.
29:45
I'd divide them by 100. That was my average.
29:48
Today's units, today's units give you all the statistics you
29:51
want to know and and then some so you know but but it's I think
29:56
it was times like that that really allowed me to you know
30:01
get comfortable with reaction time.
30:03
I was usually one of the quicker people of you know, that were on
30:07
the practice tree or even in a race car for that matter to be
30:11
able to launch a car. So that didn't hurt either.
30:15
You know, you Fast forward through early part of my career
30:18
into the early 2000s. You know, all the Christmas
30:21
trees had what we're used to. Then an incandescent bulb, you
30:25
know, the, you know, power signal goes to the tree.
30:30
The bulb, you know, gets the signal.
30:32
It starts to light a filament up.
30:34
It comes on, you react to it. You go in the early 2000s, you
30:40
know, and I was very quick at that.
30:41
I could. I could.
30:42
I see the filament lighting up. I could see the filament
30:45
lighting up, whether it was in, whether it was in the
30:49
professional racing or the sportsman racing and that was a
30:52
a big, big help. I hear some background noise, is
30:57
that OK? Oh, it's beautiful.
30:59
Keep keep going. You Fast forward to the early
31:02
2000s when NHRA came out with the first LED bulb and these
31:08
things are like instant on. I mean there is no, there is no
31:11
filament. I I think I led the the class
31:14
and reaction time. You know each year I was in pro
31:18
stock and my average reaction time to the average of the
31:23
entire class was about 2 1/2 to 3 hundredths better to the whole
31:28
class. And then the very first year of
31:31
the LED trees, I think I still led the reaction time.
31:36
It was much better as an average, and then the class
31:38
average was only about 100th of a second behind me, so.
31:42
Unbelievable story. So the light.
31:45
Bulb changed the game. Well, there's no question you
31:48
know, NHA did it to, you know, the Top Fuel and Funny Cars are
31:52
so I won't say violent. That's not the right word.
31:56
There's so much horsepower, so much ground shaking that the
31:59
filaments would often burn out in the bulbs.
32:02
So they were able to upgrade their bulbs to LED that are
32:06
pretty much a lifetime lasting bulb or or diode.
32:11
And but in in the midst of doing that it kind of picked my pocket
32:14
a couple hundredths of a second to the field which again that's
32:18
just that's part of the game. You know we we we enjoyed that
32:22
while while we had it and and from that point to today you
32:28
know we we have to be crafty and other measures.
32:30
And you and you're and you're still winning.
32:32
You just did it last week. You you shifted properly.
32:35
You did all the right things. So that leads me.
32:38
This is perfect segue. You're the only drag racer to
32:42
win from all qualifying spots, one through 16, you won from the
32:47
16th spot. In 2000 at Indy, you qualified
32:53
16th, so that meant you were the You were 16th.
32:56
You were. You were.
32:58
You were junk. I was.
32:59
I was. And you came from 16th to beat
33:04
everybody. Was a lot of that, did you come
33:07
from 16th because of your reaction time or did you get?
33:11
Far better, no? It was both, without question.
33:15
You know, 2000 was a banner year for us, for Team Jags and for me
33:21
and inside of that Oldsmobile Cutlass that I raced.
33:24
I mean, we were almost unstoppable that entire season,
33:27
winning the Winston championship.
33:29
But you know, Labor Day weekend, US Nationals, Granddad,
33:35
granddaddy of them all, we're struggling A. 100°.
33:39
Out. We're on the struggle bus big
33:41
time. Friday night is the premier
33:44
qualifying session period. 999% of the qualified cars came from
33:49
Friday night, and in Indy there's five qualifying
33:52
sessions, one Friday night to Saturday to Sunday.
33:55
We got all the way up to Sunday's last qualifying effort.
33:58
We're not qualified. It's hotter and blue blazes out
34:02
and you know, we we barely tipped our way into the show.
34:07
There's about 30 cars going for 16 spots too, by the way, which
34:10
makes it tough. So I we pump.
34:13
We broke ourselves into the field and there were still six
34:16
cars behind me that could bump us out of the field.
34:19
That was. One of those nerve wracking
34:21
moments that I'll never forget was brutal show.
34:25
We stay in the show. I go to the Car Carcraft All
34:28
Star drag racing event that night at the local Convention
34:31
Center to, you know, fortunately receive a a driver of the year
34:36
award and also receive a crew Chief of the Year award for for
34:40
Dick Maskin. And.
34:42
And they stayed at the racetrack and they went through my car
34:44
from front to back, side to side, top to bottom, reset the
34:48
entire car. And I remember my dad saying,
34:51
you know, we've got this thing as good as we think we can make
34:54
this car right now. And I said that sounds great.
34:59
I said I got all the confidence in the world.
35:00
He says But we just might need a little help this first round,
35:04
you know, because it mean it may not go perfectly straight, it
35:06
may not do this or that. I said, and I'm in, so, you
35:10
know, here we are racing. The number one qualifier #1 race
35:13
is 16. As a benefit to being the
35:16
fastest, you run the slowest and but we're really a top, you
35:20
know, top five. But this?
35:22
This is where your legend was born.
35:24
Things like this 16 going up against one.
35:27
Yeah, so we. And you kicked your ass.
35:30
We worked our way through the field that day.
35:33
That was one of the points in history that we made.
35:37
Yeah, so bad ass. OK, so much to keep talking
35:41
about. So I want to go back to your
35:45
family for a minute. Right now you're driving for
35:49
Team Elite. And in my world, in Kenny's
35:53
brain, because I'm a NASCAR dude, Dirt dude.
35:57
Elite just kind of starts showing up on the radar for me.
36:01
But I remember when the Jags family, you know, was was going
36:06
to do the Pro stock deal and then and then you all shut it
36:09
down and your team was out of North Carolina and I remember
36:13
asking somebody there, it could have been you.
36:16
So I'm going to ask you right now, how come the Jegs family
36:21
did not keep owning their own Pro Stock car?
36:26
What was a situation of really just?
36:31
You going to kill each other? No, no, no.
36:33
It was I think managing the engine development side of the
36:38
business was was something that you know it just wasn't maybe my
36:44
Forte or our Forte too hard. We had great people, we had
36:48
great engineers. But at the end of the day it was
36:52
just, it was it took a lot of time to do it and you know
36:56
there's nothing wrong with that. I I was probably working more
37:00
hours on that in trying to support that growing then then
37:05
the main business of jigs and you know when you look at the
37:09
grand scope of things that's a little backwards so.
37:11
Well, we hear, we hear the story of Glidden, a crazy man at night
37:15
working on these motors. I can't imagine you doing that
37:18
while you're running jigs. Glidden was gnarly you.
37:22
You had a business to run. Exactly.
37:25
And and so we just made the decision to to sell off that
37:28
part of the business and we still owned our racing teams.
37:32
We just didn't do all the engine development side which is
37:35
honestly a multi $1,000,000 project to do and to do
37:39
properly. If you want to be a front
37:41
running team. You know good friend of mine
37:44
Richard Freeman had ended up purchasing a lot of our engine
37:47
pieces, parts, assets and intellectual property.
37:50
The the guys that worked behind it and they moved out to to
37:54
Oklahoma and and one of the three guys is still there Jake
37:58
Hairston is is still with the team and and doing a hell of a
38:01
job. So and and one of the others is
38:05
still working with the team. So bottom line is it was just
38:10
too much to probably tackle on a day-to-day basis and and there
38:14
was other opportunities out there to bring in that
38:16
horsepower. Makes all the sense in the world
38:18
to me. All right now we're with Team
38:21
Elite and you know I met Erica Enders and the the store in the
38:28
garage area. The pits is that they reached
38:31
out to you to help you. They they wanted your expertise
38:36
to help them test a little bit and I is this how you ended up
38:41
with Elite? Tell me that whole process of
38:44
them calling you. But again, Richard and I've been
38:47
friends for 20 years and we've done a lot of transactions
38:50
together over the years, but we. I like how you put that
38:55
transactions. Yeah, we had and we just
38:58
haven't. Well, he he buys and sells
39:00
everything under Elite Elite Motorsports, whether it's motor
39:04
homes, trucks, trailers, race cars, transmissions, tools.
39:07
I've learned a lot. One, one man.
39:09
I wouldn't call it trash 'cause it's all good stuff.
39:12
Is how to get rid of it. Treasure.
39:14
And he was a good facilitator of being able to move problems.
39:18
Now we're getting down to the brass taxes here.
39:20
God Dang. It we are.
39:22
Anyway, you know he and I have been friends a long time.
39:25
That's the point and we always said we want to race together
39:28
and we finally did in 2016. I had got a phone call from
39:33
Dodge and the folks at Dodge that they wanted to put together
39:36
a fuel injected program with myself and with Erica and with
39:42
Elite and so we we were able to bring that program together.
39:46
It's the first time we ever raced together.
39:49
The 16 season didn't go as we planned the just struggle
39:53
getting the the horsepower properly out of the Dodge.
39:56
But nonetheless we moved on and transitioned into Chevys for 17
40:01
and I raced with them from 17 through the end of 20 as well.
40:05
So again, a lot I. Guess I'm.
40:06
I guess I meant them calling you you know last you know.
40:10
Yeah you know last year you're taking me 10 years back.
40:13
I'll. Just give a little a little back
40:17
story there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:19
Now we can Fast forward to 23. I've had this relationship with
40:22
him. They just wanted to get some new
40:24
runs on Erica's car. Brand new, brand new Rick Jones
40:27
car. She's in the heat of the battle
40:29
for the 23 Camping World World Championship and did not need
40:35
any distractions. Didn't need any anything thrown
40:38
her way. And so I agreed to come out and
40:40
drive. I flew out to Tulsa.
40:42
I hadn't been in a car in about three years, almost to the date.
40:46
Did that make you feel good when they when they wanted your you
40:49
know, hey, help us. Did that make.
40:51
Yeah right. You're needed.
40:53
Yeah, it felt good. Yeah.
40:54
So it was a different again a different way way of going to
40:58
work, so to speak and I enjoy. I enjoyed the opportunity to go
41:02
do it. I was nervous to be honest with
41:05
you. I mean, I here I'm, I'm a 80
41:07
plus veteran in the winner's circle and many, most of them
41:10
85, yeah, most of them in pro stock and and all the things
41:14
that come with it that we've talked about.
41:16
But I'm nervous. I'm in.
41:18
I'm in Tulsa. I'm sitting in this car.
41:20
All right. It's made for her.
41:23
The steering columns a little different.
41:24
The shifters in a different location.
41:26
Again, just get in and drive the son of a bitch.
41:28
He says you know, so I do and you know we made five runs there
41:33
and by the end of the the five runs I was pretty happy, pretty
41:36
comfortable. I felt like going to Vegas we
41:39
could handle it. Go to Vegas the first run.
41:41
As soon as I made that first qualifying run in Vegas, I
41:44
thought just like Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
41:47
Yeah, yeah. Dad, Daddy's homeboys.
41:50
Totally. Awesome.
41:51
And so here I was you know and I really felt after I made the
41:56
first run not so much the first run I felt competitive.
42:00
I felt up on the wheel let's let's give this some of a bitch
42:03
a ride and and we raced hard we raced smart the rest of the
42:07
weekend and you know had a semi final finish got beat to Erica
42:11
in the semi finals. But most importantly had you did
42:14
your job. Yeah, I had had one of the KB
42:17
cars who was number two or three in the points Dallas Glen round
42:21
one and was able to take him out.
42:22
So you know that was. And.
42:26
Trust me, I was feeling it. I was like, shit, you know, this
42:29
is what they brought you here for.
42:30
Don't don't mess this up. But you know, it.
42:33
It was a lot of fun. It was flattering and you know,
42:37
I was able to meet Randy and Maria and the folks at SCAG that
42:40
weekend. They were a part of our program
42:42
for Vegas and for Pomona, the two races and Randy, Randy runs
42:47
an unbelievable business in Mayville, WI.
42:50
You know, you know SCAG Power equipment is almost a billion
42:55
and a half dollar business. I see that logo like Jags like
42:59
you you guys, you paint the world black and and yellow and
43:03
and now this man scag. I mean, it's everywhere.
43:06
Yeah, I I agree. Did you teach him?
43:08
Did you teach him? No, it's it's so much I left
43:12
there. I left the plant facilities that
43:15
we went to and I went home and I want to get back to work.
43:18
He was inspiring. I mean he just got over 1500
43:22
associates that work with him and he knows most of them by the
43:26
first name and you know running a billion and a half dollar
43:29
business is. Roger principally is like that.
43:31
Is that right? Well he I'm sure Randy and
43:34
Rodger would be much in the same company and Randy's a year or
43:37
two younger than I am. So it's it's really cool is the
43:40
point. You know I transitioned from you
43:43
know an iconic Jags yellow and yellow race car and family
43:47
business and all this stuff. I kind of feel like I
43:49
transitioned right into another family business which it is
43:52
privately owned and this cat's eye gold with the SCAG low going
43:57
on the side and it's it just feels right at home.
43:59
It's I feel like I'm I'm truly representing an American icon
44:06
and that makes me proud. That makes me excited.
44:08
That makes me energized. That makes me want to win.
44:11
And you know that all sounds good.
44:14
It's tough to win, but it feels good to come off a strong
44:18
chilling in Vegas there. Yeah, well, I learned something
44:22
about a month ago. It was actually a quote from the
44:27
the late, great Brian Clawson. When we get too cocky, the
44:33
question is this, are all the other racers trying as hard as
44:36
we are, you know, and and the answer is yes, everybody.
44:41
You know, when you show up, I'm not telling you anything.
44:43
I'm saying what I've learned. You show up at an NHRA event and
44:47
you're assuming all those guys are trying as hard as you are.
44:51
So when when the race is over that evening and you are, you
44:55
are, you are the badass. You are the best that day.
45:00
So I get it. I totally get it.
45:01
All right, we're coming to the end here.
45:03
My God. Already almost an hour.
45:05
I always amaze myself when I'm having fun.
45:08
I look up, I'm like, what in the world, right?
45:13
You keep setting records, so this isn't a record, but this is
45:18
your first four wide win. And what I noticed about Vegas
45:24
is it was the best four wide weekend I ever witnessed in NHA.
45:28
And here's why. Hey Kenny, tell us why.
45:32
It's because it seemed like every four wide race, all four
45:35
were running at the end. You know in the past you got two
45:38
cars to break and but what did it feel like?
45:42
Or is there anything different in your seat in A4 wide since
45:46
this was your first four wide win?
45:48
Yeah, no doubt. You know, I've run in several,
45:51
you know, since they were recreated, you know 5-6, seven
45:55
years ago, whatever the number is and I've never been able to
45:58
win one, but and I and I like the psychological side of it in
46:01
a Pro Stock car, the staging event is much, much, much, much
46:04
different. And so I'd I'd like that end of
46:08
the discipline. But you know this week like you
46:10
said, the Top Fuel cars, the Funny Cars were all completing
46:14
their runs and it was I mean triple hole shot win in the
46:17
final in Funny Car. So you know Bob Taska the third,
46:22
you know got to the finish line 1st and ran slower than the
46:24
other three guys that crossed 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
46:26
So it was cool but in the final race of Pro Stock you know it
46:31
was it was pretty surreal you know had had two six time yeah
46:37
26 time world champs with Erica and myself and then you had two
46:41
relative newcomers Brandon Foster out of the KB Rain and
46:46
then Jerry Tucker out of Elite and I knew those two guys would
46:49
be hungry and obviously the six time needs 0 introductions and I
46:54
just had to be on our best behavior and and was able to mow
46:57
the tree down and cross first. First of all, we talked about
47:01
it. Start.
47:01
I'm a little nosy right now. When you won, they went to Erica
47:06
and and she said I shook the back glass out of it.
47:09
What? What?
47:09
What happened to her car? Obviously I didn't see it, but I
47:15
heard the same. Usually when it shakes, it's,
47:18
you know, it does it for one or two reasons.
47:21
Typically controlled wheel speed, where it's more wheel
47:23
speed than you want, can shake a little bit, but it still
47:25
accelerates pretty well. Or it's not accelerating, it's
47:29
not getting the tire around and not getting it to accelerate,
47:33
and it just bounces on itself and never gets to accelerate.
47:36
That's likely what happened in her case.
47:40
There's not a whole lot you can do there.
47:42
When it's spinning the tire, you just kind of fishtail and ride
47:44
the son of a gun out and grab another gear and go, yeah, when
47:48
it's shaking like that you can try and get it in second gear a
47:50
little early, Volt the engine down to get the tire to settle
47:53
and and it just takes off on its own.
47:57
But in that case you know she was it must have been shaking
48:00
hard. Her 60 foot was like 1.1 seconds
48:03
where ours were like not .98, so she was a good bit behind.
48:08
Well, that that's I was nosy and I knew if anybody could explain
48:12
it, it would be you. Well, last question is a fun
48:17
one. You might have to think about it
48:19
for 30 seconds, but that that's OK as your as your lifetime in
48:25
NHRA has existed so you've been in it your whole life.
48:29
What is the one driver that makes you go wow that you're
48:33
still kind of like, damn, who is it?
48:42
I would say honestly, it would have to be Erica today.
48:45
Really. Yeah.
48:47
Yeah. Yeah, when I look at you know
48:50
where where she came from, you know, she had a very successful
48:54
junior drag racing career. You know, the right on track
48:58
Disney film was huge for for drag racing, huge for obviously
49:02
her career, which I think is leading into what I'm getting
49:08
to. She transitioned out of some of
49:10
the Sportsman racing Super Comp Super Gas, had success in those
49:13
into a pro stock, maybe didn't find herself with the right team
49:19
until couple years into it and and started winning.
49:23
And she's you know kind of kind of like one of those no give up
49:29
attitude racers, you know and I and I appreciate that and I like
49:34
it and she and I've had a lot of conversations in some of those
49:37
time frames we just spoke about about racing and about Pro Stock
49:40
racing and etcetera. No credit what I'm trying to go
49:45
for there. It's just it's just you know
49:47
when you look at her Nate abilities to to drive the race
49:50
car and I I see her as as one of those drivers just like wow, you
49:57
know and I've raced with some greats.
49:59
I've raced with some greats. You know you look at Warren
50:02
Johnson, a many time world champ and a great engineer and
50:05
fabricator. You look at Bob Glidden, A10
50:08
time world champ. I did race on track with him.
50:11
Just of real little little bit you look at the multi time
50:15
champion Greg Anderson you know but you know I got I got to go
50:20
with with the sixth time on this one because and because I think
50:24
the the grit and drive and determination to win at any at
50:29
any cost any whatever it takes that's her goal and and that's
50:33
how I feel about racing it's we'll we'll we'll kiss and make
50:37
up later let's race. Jaggie, I agree with you.
50:40
And for everybody watching right now, you can scroll right here
50:44
on Kenny conversation and I and I talked with the great Erica
50:48
Anders. She, she she was roughed up.
50:51
She overcame. She never let them get her down.
50:56
Jag, listen, you're a great man. Our our history is there.
51:03
I know you are the Skag man now, but you know it.
51:06
It's like I'm always going to be Rusty Wallace's little brother
51:10
and and you're always going to be, you know, Jags and and
51:14
that's something that's something to be proud of, Buddy,
51:16
you built a hell of a company. I know Skag is your deal now and
51:19
I know they're great people. But listen, you are, you are
51:23
Jags. You and your brothers and I
51:26
admire you. Listen, everybody, we are in
51:29
podcast form. You're going to listen to Jaggy
51:32
on the way to work. It's so long.
51:34
You're going to go to work. You're going to turn around.
51:36
You're going to turn it on again.
51:38
We are in Spotify. We're in iTunes.
51:43
Jeg Coughlin, There you are, buddy.
51:46
Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been great to be on
51:49
Kenny without questions. So we'll we'll we'll clash a
51:53
coffee mug one of these mornings and get down and dirty some
51:56
more. But I hope the listeners enjoyed
51:59
as well as much as I did. Well, I am sure proud to carry
52:02
the JEG logos this year. I I get out, I get out of bed
52:06
and I put this shirt on every single day of my life and I
52:09
drive the JEGS dirt car and thank you so much.
52:12
All right everybody, listen, we they are in the pipeline.
52:15
We just we got the greatest drivers in the world.
52:17
It don't matter if it's NASCAR drag racing motorcycle.
52:22
I'm going to call Michael Andretti up.
52:24
I'm going to call them up. Let's see if he answers my call
52:26
everybody and see what's going on with that Formula One deal.
52:29
The Indy 500 is coming. I've talked to Roger Penske.
52:33
We'll see what he says, he said. Let me find a time.
52:37
So we're waiting on Roger Penske.
52:39
All right, everybody, until next time.
52:41
We'll see you later.