By the time I walked back to our pits, Dale already had the front clip off the Gremlin, and was working to remove the valve covers.
"Did you hurt it again?" I asked as he bent over the 440.
"Yeah...sounded exactly like it did in Union Grove...", he pulled the cover from the repaired passenger's side head, "...all good on this side."
"It's over here", Aaron confirmed as James pulled back the cover from the driver's side.
"Looks identical to the last time", James shook his head, "valve half way down and stuck in the guide."
"Well, go turn in your time slip, then you can go get your truck and trailer so we can load it," I offered.
"There ain't no way!" Dale shot me a dirty look, "I'm running in the shootout tomorrow!"
"You want to spend another night wrenching on this thing, go right ahead, but I'm not having any of it!" I turned toward the Valiant to prepare for one last pass in the final session.
Dale didn't even bother to answer me, and it seemed as though Darren, James, and Aaron were up for another session of track side engine repair as they were gathered around the Gremlin with him.
Boone just shook his head, "at least we're much closer to the motel this time."

Jason and Charlie Ogle had parked their E-Bodies at the back of the closed off lanes even before the call for Street Machine Eliminator went out, so they were the first pair of those cars to enter the water box at 4:45 pm. Jason nearly matched his best ET with a 12.20, and recorded his best mph, 116.6 in outrunning his brother's 12.52-115 in the Challenger, who, as he reported earlier, was struggling with a clutch issue.