Dale still had the nitrous coming in later after the hit, and a conservative tune, so the Gremlin left very smooth once again with only a 1.40 60'. It began to pull really hard from there, and was 5.75-121 at the eighth, but there was a pop at about the 1000' mark, so the front dropped and he rolled through with a 9.15 at only 133.5 mph.
Dad groaned, "He didn't just drop another valve, I hope."
"He's still driving it", I answered, "but with Dale, that doesn't mean something isn't wrong!"

By the time Dale made it back to our pit spot, the last cars of the day had just cleared the traps and it was 2:50 in the afternoon. The Gremlin seemed to be on eight when he parked, but Dale had a very concerned look on his face when he crawled out.
"What happened up there?"
"Ran out of fuel."
"How the heck does that keep happening to you...this is the third time you've ran out of fuel on a nitrous pass in the Gremlin, and you got pistons on the other two", I shook my head.
"Got pistons on this one as well, hopefully not as bad, since it was a smaller hit, but she's hurt".
He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it on our pile, "I had one and a half or two gallons of 118 left, so I dumped it all in and was only expecting to make one hit."
I helped him pull the hood off and set it in front of the car, "This is an awfully big place, and with exiting on the opposite side, and driving all the way around the staging lanes to get back to your pit."
"Exactly", he shrugged, "and I was in such a hurry to get back up there, I never considered adding more fuel!"
"So how bad is it?" I blurted out, not really thinking.
"Don't know, I'm going to start by pulling the plugs and looking around", he gave me a sheepish grin.
I realized in that moment that he was internalizing the anger and disappointment he was feeling, something he's done his entire life, so I moved away from the situation so that he wouldn't have to keep trying to fake it in front of me.
Rachael, the taskmaster, was once again trying to get Boone, Billy, and I on point and organized so we could get our cars loaded up and ready to hit the road. She was putting stuff behind the seats in my Valiant when she looked up and suddenly asked the question, "Have we turned in our time slips yet?"
"DUH!" I threw my hands up, and looked around at everyone else, "We better go get that done!"



Pic. 1

John Hindley Sr. followed the entire route with us in 2014 when his son ran his 67 Valiant. This year he was in Indiana visiting family, so he came by and hung out with us at Lucas Oil Raceway! Definitely an unexpected bonus to our day.

Pic. 2
Darren and Shari applying warpaint. Sun screen is your friend on Drag Week...usually!

Pic. 3 & 4

Earl Shexnayder's Orange 2000 Mustang has a big inch Boss engine, and only made it twenty miles from Tulsa on Day one before falling out in 2014. In 2016 he had serious help in the form of Robert Robinson and his LUV mini-truck. Despite the fact that Earl's Mustang was hurt and slowing down every day, Robert helped keep him on the road, while battling Dale's Gremlin with his LUV for 7th place in Modified PA. Leaving Indy, the LUV's average was 9.257 to the Gremlin's 9.287. Their adventures included using duct tape on the inside and outside of an ET Street to keep air in it long enough just to make it to Indy!