FYI WIRZ: NHRA Grandson Getting Top NASCAR Coaching at Late Model Level

For an aspiring race car driver, the road to NASCAR's top levels is steep, tricky and expensive.

An early start in racing is almost essential.

NASCAR driver Landon Cassill began racing an ATV at age three and won a Kart Series national championship at age 11. JEGS.com Late Model Stock Car rookie Cody Coughlin, a third-generation racer, started in .25 midgets at age 12 and won a USAC .25 Midget Heavy Mod championship in 2009 at 13.

Cassill will be 22 this July, and Coughlin turned 15 this past December. Both are youthful, but Coach Landon instructs student Cody whenever schedules permit. Cassill explained.

“It’s nothing I ever had to do before,” Cassill said. “It’s new. I constantly remind myself that he’s 15 years old. I have to think back to when I was 15 years old. I have a 16-year-old sister. That helps. He’s a good kid and fun to work with.”

Two-time ASA champion Gary St. Amant also coaches Coughlin and did much the same for a young Jimmie Johnson when he was on his way up to NASCAR. Johnson now has five Sprint Cup championships. 

“Cody's the youngest driver I've ever worked with,” St. Amant said. “He knows having the name Coughlin puts expectations on him, but you have to let him be a kid.”

Jimmie Johnson commented on St. Amant.

"In ASA, Gary St. Amant was a huge help. There were a lot of very helpful drivers within the sport, but Gary in those early events and test sessions that I ran was very instrumental in my early success and understanding what in the heck was going on with a stock car."

Coaching personalities are a plus to a young driver, but it takes other resources to develop the proper skills.

This year Team JEGS—owned by Cody’s father, John, and three brothers—brought in an experienced crew chief: Rich Lushes.

“I worked with bunch of young kids like him,” Lushes said. “I worked with Landon, with Michael Annette. I’ve worked with so many young kids at that age so I’ve got a little bit of a background of how to deal with them. Gary is doing a great job adapting him to racing, so me and him are building a race kid there that’s going to have a bright future ahead of him.”

Building a race kid is no easy task. The Coughlins seem suited to the demands.

The NHRA drag racing family owns JEGS mail order, requiring a dedication to the high-performance parts business for all sons, daughters and cousins. Usually that also means a commitment to drag racing, which began with Jeg Sr. five-plus decades ago.

Cody broke the traditional mold and decided he wanted to race in circles, not straight lanes.

NASCAR has rewarded JEGS, a contingency sponsor in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, by arranging 15-minute meet-and-greet sessions for John and Cody. Talking with Kyle Busch in the 18-hauler and Tony Stewart in the 14-hauler like John and Cody Coughlin did in New Hampshire last year can build a knowledge bank few others get this early in life.
   
Training takes many forms for the oval-seeking Coughlin. Recently at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, instructor Tommy Byrne, a former Formula One racer, gave Cody some pointers on road-course racing.

Coughlin explained, "It was a great day. Mr. Byrne taught me several things I know will transfer to my JEGS.com Chevy.  A touch of the brakes here, the slightest adjustment of the steering wheel at a certain point of a turn can make all the difference.”

Cassill understands what Coughlin needs:

“The toughest thing that he’s going to battle is harnessing the speed.  He’s got a lot of speed and we have to maintain control his speed.”

Coughlin appreciates Cassill’s help.
 
"It's a good sign when a young guy is a good teacher,” Coughlin said. “He showed me how not to move the wheel so much through the corners, so I don't scrub speed off."

Cassill expanded on his role with Coughlin.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to work on with him right now is to just to understand, we can go at your pace here,” Cassill said. “This isn’t anybody else’s pace. This isn’t Jimmie Johnson’s pace or John Coughlin’s pace, this is Cody’s pace. Whatever Cody wants to run, so we really want to manage expectations, go out and learn something every time we go out on the racetrack. Just kind of manage all that stuff so that we can maximize our learning experience.”

In the same weekend recently Mentor Cassill achieved a career-best 12th-place finish in the Sprint Cup Series, and rookie Cody Coughlin in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Series raced to his best finish, a fifth-place spot in the Dixie 100 presented by JEGS.com at Dixie Motor Speedway in Birch Run, Michigan.

Crew chief Rich Lushes commented, "I'm very happy with the progression of Cody. Dixie was the best race I have seen him drive yet.

“At this level, this is definitely a top-notch team, well funded, well organized. We’re looking at definite bright future here. The possibilities are endless.”

Cody seemed tuned to that potential.

“I’ve watched Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart,” Coughlin said. “I’ve always wanted to be like those guys. Right now it's all about getting seat time and learning how to race. If things progress the right way and an opportunity happens, it would be a dream come true. No one knows who the next big name is until it happens."

A big-time seat might be waiting for young Coughlin.

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of motorsports topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Most quotes were derived from personal interviews and teleconferences.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained from official release materials provided by NASCAR.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum at Racetake.com