pro stock engines

I was cruising the ss/ah thread this afternoon, and spyphish showed a 500" pro stock hemi engine he was installing. the oil pan caught my attention. the way it wraps around the side of the block...is that just for air space to diminish windage, or do they (cringe!)cut the side of the block out to allow the oil to fly that far out? or am I missing something else? excuse the ignorance, but that thing is freaky.

On the early generations of those motors they cut out between the main bulkheads to the crank center line to relieve windage. The newest gen has the pan rail at the crank center line.

That picture was of my old 99 Hemi and yes they cut the block away between the mains there. Does not make them any weaker in that area as they are plenty stout there. That is also a CG block.