The track clean-up, and removal of the coupe took a grand total of eighteen minutes. At 2:04 pm, 9 more cars made their runs down the track, of that group five of them either made the only, or their best run of the day, the passes they would turn in for their official run, so clearly we were down to "Make it or break it" time.

Dale had taken a fuel jug to get fuel for Boone, and didn't return, so I figured he was up there helping with both trucks. I finished up the Belvedere, dropped it off the jack stands, and told James to go up there with her to get in the lanes. I walked over to the fence to watch the show. I'd done my part, now they had to do the rest.

The nine cars finished their runs at 2:09pm, and the next car to push up to the head of the lanes was Jeff Lutz in the Evil Twin, that seemed to send shock waves through the entire place. John Gatliff, who had been hot-lapping his Mustang into oblivion, pulled alongside, but the lane director cut him off. Boone in the Barnyard Viper was the next vehicle to pull up. I watched him get out of the truck, walk around, then ask John what was going on. It was as if everyone had stopped what they were doing, and were just watching the staging lanes to see who would jump in before the 2:15 deadline.