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WINCHESTER, IN :: With the laps winding down in Sunday’s Winchester 400, Cody Coughlin found himself running just in front of the leaders as he secured a championship, a position he’d pictured himself in multiple times in the weeks leading up to the race.

However, unlike in his vision, Coughlin found himself pulling to the inside lane to let the leaders pass by him, though the championship came just the same.

Sunday’s 400-lap crown jewel event proved to be a difficult one for the Ohioan, but Coughlin survived an attrition-filled ending to salvage a fifth-place finish and hold off rookie Dalton Amrstrong for his first-career ARCA/CRA Super Series championship.

“This is pretty cool, but it was sloppy for both days,” Coughlin said. “The power steering broke last night and we couldn’t finish, and then here we were just really sloppy. But that’s the deal around this place sometimes, and we got a top five out of it somehow.”

With the victory, Coughlin capped off a weekend that saw him claim titles in both the Super Series and JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour, though neither title came in the fashion he expected after separate issues plagued both races.

Entering Sunday’s race with an 18-point cushion over Armstrong after a fourth-place qualifying performance, Coughlin surged to the lead for a brief stint early on in Sunday’s race. However, an ill-handling No. 1 JEGS Toyota Camry relegated Coughlin to the back half of the top 10 for much of the opening 200 laps the the event.

Still, Coughlin found himself in position to clinch the championship on points as long as he could maintain ninth or better.

Then he got into the outside wall.

Coughlin was battling with current CARS Tour championship leader Raphael Lessard for position on lap 216 when contact between the two sent Coughlin’s No. 1 Toyota into the outside wall off of Turn 4. The resulting damage forced Coughlin to pit road laps later, and ultimately trapped him multiple laps down.

From there, the name of the game for the points leader was survival.

“After we hit the wall winning the race went out the window, so I was just trying to manage points,” Coughlin said.

On the other end of the spectrum, Armstrong found himself in contention for both the win and the title. Driving a strong machine, Armstrong survived a litany of issues himself to rise as high as second in the final 100 laps of the CRA finale. At one point, Coughlin’s issues and Armstrong’s strong performance saw even saw the championship gap fall to a tie.

In the end, it was Coughlin that surged to the championship, rising into the top five amid a slew of late-race crashing to seal his team the championship.

“Once the (No.) 9 retired we were pretty solid if we just finished,” Coughlin said. “It was in the back of my mind but everyone on this JEGS Toyota Camry did great.

“We passed the guys that won all day long. I just wish we wouldn’t have had that bad luck. The (No.) 99 threw us in the wall. don’t know what he was doing, but he ended up where he deserved, which was on the wrecker. I’d say if we wouldn’t have had all that crap we would’ve probably won. So, like I said, sloppy but we met our goal.”

 

Aaron Bearden is a contributing writer for Short Track Scene. Having grown up watching NASCAR and IndyCar, Bearden began following short track racing during his high school years before starting a blog about racing in college. A writer for Frontstretch and Motorsports Tribune, Bearden also covers NASCAR, IndyCar and other forms of open wheel racing.

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