My buddies who ran at Champion always have a fight story or two, so I believe ya.
In the '70s, I worked on funny car bodies, and spent a lot of time at a shop that Jim Hume & Pat Foster had.
I remember that McEwen's chassis' were wider than anyone else's they did, because he was wider.
There was a team out of Texas, VERY well known, who supplemented their income. Very creative modification to their Dually. 'Nuff said.
The chassis builders had their own rivalry going, and I remember a pick-it-apart session one night on a Brodie chassis that had tubes going EVERYWHERE. Mind you, Foster & Hume worried about the orientation of every fastener, every tube, and if the finished product wasn't a work of art, they'd probably have hung themselves.
Cecil Yother had a rocket car, and sent it to Dean Moon's shop for some work. It ended up missing. About 30 years later, he's talking to Garlits, who had the rocket car but didn't know it'd been stolen or that it was Cecil's.
I've told this one here before: Cecil & Sox are running their AWB cars, injected nitro by that time. Sox tries burning Cecil down at the tree. What Sox doesn't know is Cecil has a water tank & pump in his trunk for just this kind of stunt, so Cecil sits. And sits. And sits. Sox' car is now overheating, so he gives up & stages. Cecil sits some more, then stages. End of the race, Sox drives directly to his trailer with the motor literally smoking, only time Cecil can remember him angry.
A couple of years ago at MATS, Lindamood, Yother & Vanke were telling war stories & life-on-the-road stories, and I was alternately laughing so hard I couldn't see, and in awe that they were still around to talk. Vanke took us up to the starting line for the SS/A cars like he owned the place, and I'll never forget that either. Dart stick car had a chip malfunction and left nearly floating the valves.
I could go on for hours, including events at Lions, but let's just say I've been very lucky to be in the right place with the right people at the right time.