Louisiana’s Steve Kent heats up the Goodyears.  (Jeff Burk photo)

The elder Westcott, winner of the 2009 Mopar HEMI Challenge U.S. Nationals event, gave his son a lesson off the starting line in the final, recording a 0.010 reaction time to Jr.'s tardier 0.103 mark. However, youth would win out at the finish line, as Westcott Jr. pulled away in the battle of '68 Plymouth Barracudas with an 8.441-second run at 158.50 mph to his father's 8.549/157.65 effort.

Despite heat that had the track temp around the 100 and a lot of water grains in the hot air, both Westcotts recorded speeds that were better than the current 157.08 national standard for the class. It appears the Westcotts could re-set the speed record any time they wanted to.

"The heat has been killer, and we fought some issues with both our cars, but it ended up with me and my dad in the final," said Westcott Jr., who also triumphed at the Mopar HEMI Challenge U.S. Nationals event in 2005-2006 and 2008. "We've got a good rivalry going; the last two times I ran him in a final he beat me. We race wide open and we don't have any gimme’s. He ran a really good race. He had me a lot better on the reaction time; he treed me by a tenth.”