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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