The much-anticipated Shootout paired NMRA and NMCA champions on a staggered tree to level the playing field, and the battle began with A/NMC racer Heath Shemwell taking down Truck & Lightning representative Dave Cole with a 10.512 on his 10.50 index to Cole’s 10.929-on-10.91. The next pair in the water box were the Open Comp racers from both series, with the win going to the NMCA’s Vince Brown on a double-breakout race against Andy Blackmon. Down two to nothing, the NMRA fired back with a win courtesy of Modular Muscle champ Brandon Peterson versus Late Model EFI winner Jason Phillips. A -.053 redlight from Nostalgia Super Stock racer Jason Krueger against Factory Stock’s Jeff Schmell tied the score up at two-two, with seven races left to go. Next up was Grandpa Ron Anderson from Pure Street versus Mean Streeter Jeff Swanson. Anderson’s 10.378 at 128 and change was enough to stay ahead of Swanson, and the win put the NMRA up for 
the first time. Bruce Hemminger from the Real Street ranks extended the NMRA lead when his opponent, Street Race winner Tim Meagher, couldn’t make the call, and Hot Street champ Charlie Booze added his own contribution with a huge .009 light against Pro Stock racer Jeff Chandler, running three hundredths under the fastest Hot Street pass of eliminations in the process. With just one more win needed to clinch, Drag Radial champ John Kolivas pulled to the line to run against the wounded Extreme Street Corvette of “SpongeBob” Curran, who had gotten a lucky final round win when he suffered a nasty starting line nitrous sneeze but his opponent crossed the center line. With Curran unable to take a serious shot, it was all Kolivas, sealing the deal for the Blue Oval faithful. The following match paired Renegade racer Brian Mitchell against Nostalgia Pro Street winner Jack Boer, with the win going to Mitchell in a clean race. John Urist, coming off of an amazing turnaround win in SSO, faced Super Street champ Billy Glidden, but was overmatched as the Mustang racing legend pulled a tenth out of nowhere and ran 6.972 at over 200 mph. That left just Randall Haynes’ wild Pro Street ’41 Willys and Tony Bischoff’s Pro 5.0 Cougar, and the pair were evenly matched all the way to the 1000-foot mark, where Bischoff’s nitrous-fed big block started to go away and Haynes pulled out the win. The final tally – NMRA 7, NMCA 4, and everyone looking forward to doing it all again next year.
