Coughlin Gets His First Guitar at Nashville

Special from Speed51.com – A stout field of 37 Pro Late Models made the trip to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, pitting Nashville’s best against the invaders from the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour. Just like the Masters of the Pros one year ago, it was an outsider leaving the Music City with the guitar.

Three-time and defending JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour champion Cody Coughlin took the lead from Chase Johnson in the opening laps of the 100-lap event and scored his first win at Nashville.

REPLAY: North/South Super Late Model Challenge at Nashville

While it looked like he dominated the race on paper, it was anything but a cakewalk for the Ohio driver. He held off repeated efforts from two-time track champion Cole Williams through the majority event before fending off 2018 champion Michael House in the final laps.

With his win to start off Saturday night, he joined a long list of drivers that have won at Nashville.

I’ve been coming to Nashville for a long time and I’ve always wanted one of them guitars really bad. I really had to do the best we could on all those restarts, Michael (House) is one of the best around here,” Coughlin said on the Speed51.TV broadcast. “I’m just real honored to join the list of winners here.

“Everybody on the JEGS team did great. It’s a blessing.”

Even while coming up just short, Michael House continued an impressive streak of finishes at Nashville. He ended 2020 with a win and a second, and he has now started off 2021 with a win and a second.

In House’s mind, a red flag just before the three-quarters mark would change how his car handled for the final run to the checkered.

“We had a good car, we just had that long caution and I felt like it really affected us,” House said. “I feel like the car was a lot tighter after the red flag and never really got back to where we were on the balance as far as being free enough to get up to Cody’s bumper.”

A pair of former track champions in Dylan Fetcho and Cole Williams finished third and fourth, while California native Kyle Neveau rounded out the top-five.

-Story by: Koty Geyer, Speed51 National Correspondent – Twitter: @kgeyer3

-Photo Credit: Speed51/Brandon Zumbach

JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Results: