John DeFlorian Jr. and the Total Seal Piston Rings Chevy Camaro rallied to their third-consecutive win of the season in Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Mountain Motor Por Stock category Sunday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
In his fourth final round of the season, DeFlorian laid down a clean 6.325-second pass at 221.67 mph, but he had the race won on the starting line when the JHG Elite Motorsports machine driven by Mike Coughlin left -.001-seconds early. For the record Coughlin had a 6.361-second pass at 220.44 mph.
“I couldn’t be any happier, this is such an amazing opportunity, I thank God for this. This has been a blessing. Thank you to all the people behind me and helped me out, without them, this wouldn’t happen. Having Total Seal come on board last year when I thought we weren’t going to make it, they saved us,” said DeFlorian. “My grandson’s, birthdays are this week, Lucas and Brooks, they’re going to be one and two. This is for them. It’s super special to be able to take this back to them. It’s going to be a good time.
“I love Brainerd. The people here are spectacular, I got the DeFlorian fan club out at the top end of the racetrack, and everybody in the grandstands, yelling and screaming all the time,” DeFlorian continued. “We love coming up here because these people are awesome, and they appreciate us and they’re happy to see us and we love it, and we love it every time, thank you guys.”
DeFlorian started eliminations from the No. 2 qualifying position thanks to a 6.355-second pass at 220.98 mph. In the first round, DeFlorian’s Total Seal Camaro chased down Dennis Firkus and his Done Right Auto Chevy Cobalt. Firkus would leave the starting line first with a .057 reaction time to DeFlorian’s .121, but DeFlorian crossed the finish line in 6.339-seconds at 219.97 mph to defeat Firkus’ 6.469 at 216.65.
DeFlorian had a bye in the semifinal round. The Total Seal Camaro went out of the groove and towards the centerline forcing DeFlorian to shut it off for an 8.178-second pass at 116.07 mph, giving up lane choice to Coughlin in the finals.
En route to the finals, Coughlin and his JHG machine matched with reigning world champion Johnny Pluchino in the first round of eliminations after qualifying in the No. 3 spot with a 6.355-second pass at 220.08 mph.
Pluchino, driving the Feather Lite Batteries Ford, would give the race away at the starting line going -.042-seconds red on the Christmas tree. Coughlin would have a clean pass at 6.380-seonds and 210.83 mph for the win. For the record Pluchino had a 6.365 pass at 219.26.
In the semifinals, Coughlin would face Brad Waddle. Waddle, the No. 1 qualifier thanks to a 6.323-second pass at 221.71 mph, had a bye in the first round of eliminations and made the quickest pass of the weekend at 6.313-seconds going 221.45 mph in his Innovators West Inc. Ford to get lane choice over Coughlin. It wouldn’t matter; Coughlin left the starting line first and never trailed for a 6.341-second pass at 221.20 mph to take down Waddle’s 6.448 at 216.00.
This story was originally published on August 18, 2025. 
