In the meantime Garlits had already started to bring Swamp Rat 34 up to current Top Fuel specs. The mono-strut had been previously certified by NHRA with the 1250 square inch wing mounted to a max speed of 300 mph. Chassis builder Murf McKinney and NHRA ran separate engineering studies and each came to the conclusion that the strut would handle the new 1500 sq. inch wing and increased speed. There were also some questions concerning how the rear-end was attached to the chassis. McKinney made new stronger components for attaching the strut and the rear-end to the car.

Don Garlits has spent the money and time to get Swamp Rat 34 to conform to NHRA and SFI chassis specs. According to Carl Olson of SFI, "The chassis for Garlits' car and specifically how the mono-strut is mounted and the rear-end attaches to the chassis was reviewed and approved by the SFI chassis committee."

In an accident such as this one involving Jack Ostrander, the frame and attached tubes come under great stress.

Ray Alley's main concern was and is using both lower frame rails for fuel lines instead of plumbing fuel lines through the foot box, which is the accepted standard. His concern is that in a crash the chassis tubing could break, uprights could pull out of the lower frame rails, or the rails themselves could be ground down until the tubing wall was breached, allowing the fuel to escape and catch fire.

Garlits was, however, adamantly opposed to changing his fuel delivery system by running fuel lines through the middle of the car and lobbied NHRA both privately and publicly at the highest levels to allow him to run the car with the fuel lines as they are. Perhaps fearing another PR fiasco like the one that resulted when Garlits was left out of the NHRA-backed drag racing history book, NHRA gave in and will allow Garlits to race the car as is, using the lower frame rail as a fuel line despite the fact that it isn't legal according to the 2002 rulebook.

Ray Alley explained why NHRA chose to do so. "We initially looked at the fact that the car's lower frame rail carries the fuel and told him he would have to fix it. We thought it would be a relatively low cost project. However, it would actually be a very expensive and radical fix."

In Garlits' car, because no fuel lines run through the foot box, the driver's seat is mounted lower and the roll cage is lower than on a conventional car. In order to route the fuel lines in the conventional manner, the seat in the car would have to be remounted, the cage would have to be completely rebuilt, and the canopy replaced. Rather than force Garlits to re-route the fuel lines and radically change the car and chassis, NHRA has given him permission to run the car as it now is at three NHRA events this season.

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