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Troy Coughlin raced to the No. 1 qualifying position in dramatic fashion and won the first round of competition at the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing, presented by Real Pro Mod Association, is the eighth of 12 events on the 2017 schedule.

Coughlin raced to the qualifying lead in his JEGS.com Chevy Corvette, with his pass of 5.756-seconds at 259.31 mph for his third No. 1 qualifying position of the season. His speed of 259.31 bested the previous record set by Melanie Troxel in 2011.

In the first round of eliminations Coughlin faced Danny Row and was able to parlay his top qualifying position to advance to the second round. Coughlin posted a winning run of 5.751 at 258.42 to the trailing pass of Row at 6.274 at 178.71. Coughlin will face Michael Biehle II when racing resumes tomorrow. 

“It’s pretty awesome," said Coughlin. "To be at home, in our home state, with a lot of the associates from JEGS.com up here, we couldn’t be more excited to be able to be No. 1 and national record-holder. We strive to break records and there’s going to be people who break our records. We’re just pretty excited to be a big piece of J&A Service Pro Mod series and the NHRA. All the folks at Jegs.com, Pro Line, Mac Tools, I mean, there’s many that are out here that help support our racing program and we couldn’t be more excited for sure."

In other racing action, points leader Mike Castellana races Shannon Jenkins, Rickie Smith will face off against Jonathan Gray and Shane Molinari will square up against Stevie Jackson. 

The second round of eliminations for the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Series are slated to begin at 12:45 p.m. Sunday.