At the 2002 Million and the Twin 20s, Chad was really on the Christmas tree, hitting only two "teen" reaction times in the 10-round race; the rest were "double-ohs." "The car just sat there and ran 5.44, 5,44, all day," he says.

He beat Tim Cmar of Illinois in the final on Friday. In the Million Dollar Race itself, he went five rounds, winning more money, and on Sunday McKee admits he wasn't as good on the tree as on Friday but he still won, beating Jeff Strickland of Alabama. Both runners-up were in dragsters.

At this year's Million, McKee won the Friday Twin 20s race, and beat Trans Am shoe Stacy Johnson of Seminole, Oklahoma, in the final. In the Million, he again went five rounds, "but I went .399 red in the fourth round on Sunday," Chad said. "I mean .499, not .399. I've got a Super Gas this weekend (just after our late October interview). I guess I've got Super Gas racing on my mind," he said. Meaning that the McKee Camaro can run anything from

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brackets to Super Gas/Super Rod to Super Comp/Quick Rod to Competition Eliminator. "Just whatever we want to run with it, it can do it," he said. "It's paid for itself a few times over."

Would you ever want to go Comp racing, he was asked. "Why, sure, if somebody had enough money to go. I can't see myself doing it, but somebody else could. It could be done out of this car."

They obviously like a small block in a door car. "You don't have all that nose weight, and a small block Chevy is all that we've ever run," Jim says. "It makes the car lighter, and the Camaro was originally a small-block car anyway. I've done some minor things on it, but other than that, shocks and stuff, routine, it's as it was when we first got it. And we just let the motor go until we think it needs it (a freshening up) and go again."

Their plans? More of the same next year -- brackets, maybe some heads-up class stuff, but probably no Competition Eliminator. "That costs too much," Jim McKee says.