Darren went back to the pits to make sure Dad wasn't eating all the food as fast as Rachael and Shari could fix it, so Dale moved down on the same bleacher as Boone and I.
"What was with the big burnout? I thought you were going to get backed off!"
"Well, I haven't had the best luck hooking this engine up on a small shot, and the track has been greasy all day, so I just felt I had to put some rubber down", Dale explained.
"And put down some oil, I saw the starter talking to you...what did he say?"
"Well, he shut me off, and then they went about their cleanup. When they finished he walked over to my door and explained that it was oil, and asked if I had an issue."
"What did you tell him?" Boone asked, leaning over to hear the answer.
"I told him yes...it was pushing out some oil and the engine was less than a hundred percent, but we would make it down just fine!"
"He was good with that?" I asked, a little incredulous.
"He looked at me for a second, then explained that it was on me. I nodded to him and told him I appreciated it, and he waved me into the beams!"
"Dang, you know that would have never happened at an NHRA event!" I exclaimed with a shake of my head.
"No, but these guys got it. They knew what we were trying to accomplish and worked hard to accommodate us. If you think about it, we've been at this track three days, and from tech on Sunday, through all the problems on Monday, to trying to keep this surface good in the afternoon heat today, they've done a killer job!"
"Agreed. I was talking with Brian Meyer, MFR440 on Moparts, and he was explaining that we were racing at three premier tracks, and the host track was actually the worst of the group!"
"Where did you meet him at?"
"Uhh, Norwalk...I think, or maybe Indy, but I think it was most likely Norwalk!"
"The guy with the brain that remembers everything, and can write a story months later, can't remember where he met and talked with a Moparts member", Boone shook his head, mocking me.
"Whats MFR stand for?" Dale asked.
"Meyer Family Racing", I replied, "They have a 64 and a 65 that they race in NSS."
"Wonder if they are related to Craig Meyer?"
"The D-3 Super Street racer with the Black 62? I don't know, I'll have to research that when I get home."
Boone rolled his eyes, "Everything comes back to NHRA Super Street with you two!"
"He's right", Dale changed the subject, "National Trail doesn't match up with those other three facilities, but this is a top notch crew, you have to give them that!"
"So..." I hesitated to ask the next question.
"How did the 572 fare? It did make it to the stripe."
Dale chuckled, "oh, she's most definitely done!"
"You made it back to your pit spot", Boone added.
"Barely, we will have to push it on the trailer. When I let off at the finish line, it burbled and died. I had a hard time re-firing it at the top of the track, and had to keep it above 2500 to get to the time slip booth, where I kicked it in nuetral. It died about fifty feet later and I coasted in!"
"So, you improved your average!" I was trying to be positive.
"Yeah, by two hundredths over the 440!"
"So, why didn't you see more improvement with an extra hundred and thirty-two inches?"
"Still has 4.10 gears, still the same converter, still the same unported Indy -1 heads. I mean, at 7500 rpm with those heads I bet that 572 is a hundred horsepower under it's peak...it had no business being treated like that!"

#2 Dale Gebhart White 76 AMC Gremlin X
Day 1: 9.83-152.5
Day 2: 9.18-155.1
Day 3: 8.97-151.6
Day 4: 9.15-138.5
Day 5: 8.91-152.1
Final Average 9.212-150.02

All three years that it has finished, the Gremlin has been in the top two "Quickest Mopars". The final 8.91-152 puts the little beast as the fifth quickest on the "Mopars single pass" list, and is ranked 120th on the overall all time list.