When Dale finished Drag Week 2017 by running the Gremlin NA, bringing home an intact and running car, he vowed to spend more time racing it in 2018, and so far he had lived up to that promise to himself. The first time out for the new 10" billet JW Performance converter was supposed to be the Coffeyville Street Drags, but the installation went a little slower than he liked, and he missed the race by a few hours. The Mopars Invade Mokan race had been postponed for a couple of weeks, and served as Dale's first test of the new converter. Much to Boone's chagrin however, Dale had ripped the majority of the wiring out of the Ruster Duster so he wouldn't have a ride for the annual event at Mokan Dragway, one of his favorite to race at. Little Billy, Dale's son would make his debut passes at a dragstrip in a real car at the event, only days away from getting his learner's permit. Dale had traded time spent working on James Gilliland's Challenger for a late 70's long bed D-100 he had purchased for his daughter (she hated it), and gifted it to Billy. The truck features a b-body 8 3/4, widened stock tubs, weld wheels and warmed over 360, good enough for 15.60's with a raw kid behind the wheel. Uncle Darren slapped the kid with his first bracket race loss in his silver Ram R/T.

Dale managed to bring home the class win in Super Pro, but the new, really tight converter wrecked havoc on the Gremlin's sixty foot time, and slowed the car a half a second NA. Despite the smile in the victory photo, Dale wasn't happy!