DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
Racing Out Front
What it ’ s like to race with a target on your back
BY JOSH HACHAT
Becoming a champion is something every drag racer dreams about , but staying a champion is something that is exponentially more difficult . Racing with a target on your back is no easy task , as everyone instantly has you in their sights . There ’ s callouts , teams forming just to knock you off , trash talk upon trash talk and , if you ’ re really good , rule changes that can make things even more difficult . In short , it takes a special racer to not only race out in front , but also stay out in front . Thanks to the thoughts of some of the elite in the sport , we can see just how hard it is to maintain success at a championship level .
Drag Illustrated spoke with longtime standouts Jason Line , who just won his third NHRA Pro Stock world championship last year ; Troy Coughlin , a two-time NHRA Pro Mod world champ ; and Rickie Smith , who has three NHRA Pro Mod titles in the past four years and a bevy of additional world titles in his legendary career , about the aspect of racing out in front and staying at the top of the mountain . The differences in their personalities give a complex and insightful look at just how difficult it is to stay at the top of a grueling sport .
Line is most certainly drag racing ’ s Bill Belichick : incredibly successful ( 46 career wins to go with the three championships , including nine in the past 25 races ), never eager to pat himself on the back and always looking ahead to the next challenge . He ’ s never been one to revel in success , but it ’ s worked for him and it ’ s one reason why he ’ s had a prolonged stay in one of the sport ’ s most
“[ Racing out front ] takes a lot of work . You can ’ t sit back and enjoy it for too long or you ’ re going to get crushed ,” Line offered . fickle classes . It was perhaps best illustrated in 2016 , when he dominated and won eight races even as Pro Stock underwent a massive overhaul .
Coughlin is part of an iconic family name in the sport , but he ’ s carved out his own path at the top in Pro Mod . For this piece , he focused on the last couple seasons and some of the changes his turbo car has had to deal with in the wild world of Pro Mod . But rolling with those punches and still coming out on top is something he has savored , and those moments make all the challenges worthwhile .
Smith , meanwhile , has 40 years of sitting at the top to draw from , using those experiences – and ones before his racing career even started – to help mold himself into a consistent winner . With that kind of length in the spotlight , Smith has seen it all : pre-Internet trash talk , the advent of message board call-outs , one rule change after another and much more . But relying on an impressive work ethic , Smith has seemingly always managed to rise above it .
All three talked about racing out in front , the challenges that presents , avoiding all the drama in trying to stay at the top and , of course , how special it feels when things come together year after year .
DRAG ILLUSTRATED : It can be difficult racing out front with a target constantly on your back . How do you handle that when people are gunning for you year after year ?
JASON LINE : To be honest , and I think a lot of people think about that , but I ’ ve never been one to think about that a whole lot . I always feel like I ’ m an underdog . I say it and people give me a hard time about saying it , but I say it all the time . I ’ m not the best driver out there , that ’ s for sure . I ’ m trying to do the best job I can and I consider myself an underdog , no matter what . So ,
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