[Superfan1]

Originally Posted by Rory McNeil

Agreed. The new factory race cars are cool and fast, but hardly are the same thing as a true Stocker, which was a regular production car with a regularly available production engine that most anybody could have walked into his local Ford, Chrysler, GM or AMC dealership, bought, registered, and drove home with license plates.
Yes, you can buy a new factory race car if you have connections and the $$$$$s, but you sure as hell won`t be legally registering it and driving it home. And it would not be anything like the factory available versions. Try going into a typical Chrysler dealership and tell the salesman that you want to drive home in a new Challenger with a 2 speed Powerglide and 9" Ford rearend. Not to mention comparing the naturally aspirated factory production cars is hardly the same thing as a heavily boosted purpose built "create motor" new cars. I think most class racers remember Bobby DeArrmonds historic 9 second feat, but most couldn`t recall which late model "paper" car ran the first 8 second ET in Stock.

Don Fezell ran the first 8 second ET in Stock at the 4 wide Nationals at Charlotte in April 2012. He ran 8.95 in Q1 on Friday April 13 in his 2008 Cobra Jet, which at that time was a stick car, and I was there to see it.