Practice report

ARCA

Coughlin finishes 2014 at Daytona

19-year-old from racing family gets valuable experience.

Edited: Dec 22, 2014, 4:47 PM

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Cody Coughlin

After such an impressive season as a rookie in the ARCA Racing Series, Cody Coughlin finished his work behind the wheel for 2014 as one of the fastest in Daytona Testing.

The Joe Gibbs Racing Development Driver only needed the morning session on Saturday to officially complete his inaugural test session at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The 19-year-old turned a lot of heads as he went out early and put himself on top of the chart in a single car run before the team turned their focus to draft runs throughout the remainder of the morning.

Coughlin ended up fifth quick during the morning practice with a lap time of 48.489 seconds at 185.609 mph.

"I am very pleased on how smooth things went over the last two days,"Coughlin said. "We had a lot of speed, especially on single car runs and had pretty good speed on drafting runs as well. We continued to get better each time we went out with a pack of cars."

He also praised his Venturini Motorsports team headed up by crew chief Dave Leiner along with Team JEGS General Manager Kevin Hamlin and spotter Scott Wimmer.

"I am with a great group of guys and we expect to be fast every time we go out,"the Delaware, Ohio native said. "We worked together as a team in the last year and kept getting better all year long. It really showed this weekend. I can't thank them enough for their hard work to get ready for this weekend."

Bill Venturini, President of Venturini Motorsports, gave Coughlin high accolades on his first test session on a superspeedway.

Blessed by The Lord

"We are very pleased. We didn't know what to expect since he has never been on a superspeedway before,"Venturini said. "I was on top of the trailer watching him and I told his crew chief Dave Leiner that I was very impressed about how he kept the car on the yellow line while some others drifted up. He was very smooth behind the wheel. Cody told me afterwards about how he had to learn to use the brakes when in the draft and I told him that was a good thing because we wanted him to learn how to run in the draft."

Coughlin said that the test session gives him a lot of confidence heading into the Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAVTV American Real on Saturday, February 14, 2015 at the "World Center of Racing." Overall, he was eighth fastest during his time on the track with a speed of 187.165 mph.

Once again, Cody received support at the track from his parents, John & Di, JEGS General Manager Todd Iden and Team JEGS crew member Dave Holt. He also received support from his sister Kennedi back home.

"This weekend could not have been accomplished without the great support of my family and everyone at JEGS,"Coughlin said. "I am very blessed by the Lord to have this great opportunity and I cannot thank everyone enough for this weekend."

Speed 51

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