{"id":93770,"date":"2023-12-04T16:39:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T00:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=93770"},"modified":"2023-12-04T16:39:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T00:39:26","slug":"elite-motorsports-adds-jeg-coughlin-jr-to-full-time-nhra-pro-stock-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/elite-motorsports-adds-jeg-coughlin-jr-to-full-time-nhra-pro-stock-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Elite Motorsports Adds Jeg Coughlin Jr. to Full-Time NHRA Pro Stock Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elite Motorsports’ Erica Enders is the 2023 Pro Stock champ; teammate Aaron Stanfield won the season finale – Elite Motorsports photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elite Motorsports\u2019 Erica Enders won her sixth NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Pro Stock championship on the final day of the 2023 season in November. At that race, her teammate Aaron Stanfield earned the win, while Enders watched from the sidelines, having secured her title in the first round.<\/p>\n

Like most championship teams – whether in motorsport or other sports – Elite Motorsports isn\u2019t sitting still and resting on their laurels. The eight-car Pro Stock squad, that earned five of the top ten final positions in class, will change a little bit. Their motivation to succeed in the door slammer class is as strong as it\u2019s ever been.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after winning the championship and the series\u2019 final race under Camping World naming, Elite and team owner Richard Freeman are focused on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series future. \u201cWe have some of the best true partners in motorsports and we\u2019ve worked hard to develop deep relationships and an understanding of each partner\u2019s individual goals and objectives,\u201d with regard to their participation, he said.<\/p>\n

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Richard Freeman – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have a powerful lineup of drivers and the talented individuals outside of the car are equally as strong,\u201d Freeman noted. \u201cTo have Jason Johnson and the group at Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage be a major partner in our program and continue to grow their involvement around our team, speaks volumes about how our team operates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Freeman and his team know better than to mess with success. Six-time Pro Stock champ Enders will continue, in 2024 and beyond, to pilot the Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage\/Melling Performance Chevrolet Camaro, while her teammate Troy Coughlin Jr., who finished fifth in the final standings, once again will take on competition in a JEGS\/White Castle Camaro.<\/p>\n

The makeup of this team will have some changes, as 2017 Pro Stock champ Bo Butner III is moving to the team\u2019s two-car Mountain Motor Pro Stock squad starting in 2024, with backing from Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage, a partner Butner brought to the team. The second driver will be named at a later date. A 27-time NHRA national event winner, four-time divisional champion and bracket racing star, Butner also transitions to the role of director of team development for Elite Motorsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new position will help foster new talent in and out of the car,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cHaving won NHRA events in six different categories and numerous bracket races, Bo is a perfect fit to help and head up this effort. We are in this for the long haul,\u201d he said. Butner is looking forward to the new challenge: \u201cHelping with team development at Elite Motorsports is going to be a fun project to help ensure long-term success in and out of the race cars,\u201d he allowed.<\/p>\n

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Five of the eight Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro race cars – courtesy Elite Motorsports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stanfield, who not only won the season closer in Pro Stock, earning fourth place in the season-long standings, is also the Factory Stock Showdown reigning titleholder. He moves to the second Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage Camaro for the 2024 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign. He\u2019ll have support from longtime partners Janac Brothers Racing and JC3 Energy Services. Melling, a longtime supporter of Enders, began to support Stanfield during the 2023 Countdown to the Championship and is moving to an associate sponsorship level for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say this has been a crazy couple of days would be an understatement,\u201d Stanfield remarked. \u201cFrom winning Pro Stock at the NHRA Finals, my wife having our second baby, to now driving a Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage car with the support of Melling and my longtime sponsors, Janac Brothers Racing and JC3 Energy Services, seems more like a dream than reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melling Performance and Melling Engine Parts have been a large part of Enders\u2019 success since joining Elite Motorsports and they continue to support her programs at Elite. Their relationship has grown within the team at Elite to include the Melling brands in a more comprehensive manner, across the entire Elite fleet. \u201cWhat a blessing it\u2019s been to ride with Erica the past seven seasons,\u201d Mark Melling, CEO of Melling Engine Parts said. \u201cWe really enjoyed our involvement with Aaron last year as well and look forward to 2024 with fingers crossed there will be a fifth championship in Pro Stock with Melling\u2019s involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he returned to Pro Stock for the final two races of the 2023 season, many wondered if Jeg Coughlin Jr. was planning a full-time return to the class he once dominated? The answer is yes: Coughlin Jr. will race full-time in 2024 with backing from SCAG Power Equipment and their more than 1,500-strong dealer network.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more pleased to have Jeg Coughlin Jr. return to the seat of a Pro Stock car at Elite Motorsports,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cSCAG Power Equipment came onboard for the last two events of the 2023 NHRA season to put Jeg behind the wheel of Erica\u2019s new car, to break it in during real competition. SCAG Power Equipment is another of our partners that share the same values we share,\u201d Freeman continued. \u201cJeg is a great fit for SCAG, and seeing him interact with dealers in Vegas, at the track and away from the track, only proved what a great ambassador to a brand he can be.\u201d Coughlin Jr. will have support from Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer in addition to SCAG Power Equipment.<\/p>\n

Following his initial test at Tulsa and during the final two races of the year, Jeg Coughlin Jr. erased any thoughts he forgot how to drive one of these cars. \u201cThe feel and acceleration of the car, working with the Elite team, drivers, and crew, and working with our great partners, surpassed my expectations and solidified in my mind that I want to make a run for future Pro Stock championships. I really look forward to working with the team at SCAG Power Equipment to learn and help grow the relations with their dealer network and end users. The car looks great and I couldn\u2019t be more proud to transition to the SCAG \u2018Cats Eye Gold\u2019 in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Tucker, who was in the running for NHRA\u2019s Rookie of the Year honors in 2023, is returning to the team with continued support from Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer and the Cuadra family comes back with support from Corral Boots and other Cuadra brands. This year it\u2019ll be a four-car Cuadra effort with Fernando, Fernando Jr., Cristian and David Cuadra wheeling Elite-prepared cars.<\/p>\n

In addition to competing at all 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Elite Motorsports is participating in the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, FL being held February 8-10, as well as a match race at the NHRA Open, scheduled to take place August 8-11 at Rock Falls Raceway in Eau Claire, WI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elite Motorsports\u2019 Erica Enders won her sixth NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Pro Stock championship on the final day of the 2023 season in November.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":93772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[9275,3643,846,1704,3477,877,9966,7,4801,10058,6483,10057],"class_list":["post-93770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-aaron-stanfield","tag-bo-butner","tag-chevrolet-camaro","tag-elite-motorsports","tag-erica-enders","tag-jeg-coughlin-jr","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock","tag-pro-stock-mountain-motor","tag-richard-freeman","tag-troy-couglin-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Elite-celebrated-Enders-title-and-Stanfields-race-win-min-e1701736753831.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ooq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93782,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93770\/revisions\/93782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}