Well now that we know "
the rest of the story", my apologies to Joe. I would suppose a decorative part is not cheating. If NHRA says OK then I guess it's OK. Kinda weird but it's their rules. That space beneath the scoop would be a great place to have a rust issue....
Buy the way, how well does that 290 run against his competition? I think the 290 is a great engine at 210 HP in both Stock and Super Stock. Garrett Ghezzi runs one in SS/MA and Roger Fain runs one in IHRA in SS/M. I would guess Joe is first with one in Stock. Good luck to him.