Original subtitles

Previously on The Graded.

We were at New England Drag Race, and Kai Kelly got off to a fast start.

He beat Giuseppe in round one. Kai Kelly going to take the win. Great pass.

Put down Dan Merchant in round two to advance to the final.

Finally got a good race. Now we know. Now we know. Good job, baby.

went up against first -time grade -A driver Callie Mills. She's making good

runs. I watched every pass she made last night. I'm bad.

Kai won the race and his first grade -A of the season.

Dang, Kai Kelly will take the win.

He took home $10 ,000 and has a seven -point lead over the rest of the field

the individual championship.

I was looking up at the scoreboard. There was no way you could tell who won.

looked close from the starting line. She was in front of me almost the whole

way.

Now, on a scorching hot day in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the current top eight in

will battle it out for another $10 ,000 and valuable points towards the

individual championship.

Oh, what a ride.

Grade 8 drivers meeting, so y 'all are in the top 8.

If we're talking about the grade 8 point, Kai Kelly, number 1 right now,

Don't forget, this is the individual championship, $100 ,000 to the person

the most points in the grade 8 at the end of the season.

Here's how it works. If you win the grade 8, you get 10 points. Plus, you

get $10 ,000.

If you runner up, you get 7. And if you make it to the semifinals, you will get

3. Those points go towards an individual championship that will be worth $100

,000 at the end of the season.

As of now, Kai Kelly has a seven -point lead over Axeman, who didn't qualify for

the grade eight today.

There's a four -way tie for third between Ryan Martin, David Gates, Kayla

Morton, and Giuseppe Gianchia.

Gates and Ryan are both watching from the sidelines also because they haven't

been doing well in the Saturday races, which means Kai can really open up his

lead today.

Are you all ready to draw to see who you're going to race in the first round?

It's hot in case you didn't notice.

Yes, Bodie. I want to throw a dilemma here, man. I'm feeling confident. I feel

like I'm like Don King. I've been drafting good. I got the first place

second place in the team. I want to take a bet right now, $1 ,000. Whoever Damon

draws in the first round, I'll put $1 ,000 on. I mean Nathan.

Wait. Nathan.

Use yourself.

You broke the rear end right now. Wait a minute.

If Damon draws Nate. They're the guys that broke rear end right now, so I want

to wait. I got $1 ,000.

He'll outrun anybody.

First pass down.

All right. Let's go ahead and draw chips.

I don't think y 'all will.

All right. Where are my number ones at?

All right. Pick up right where we left off. Kayla versus Damon. That's a good

rear end. First pair.

Damon Carr is really consistent on Saturdays. He seems to struggle on

which might play to my advantage, but we're not thinking about that going into

round one. We're thinking about what this one can do. It doesn't matter who's

the other lane. She needs to perform to the most potential she can, so we'll be

ready for round two.

Number two, Nate Saylor and Lizzie.

We got Lizzie Mucey. We feel pretty good about it. We got a fast car.

We test it here. I'm pretty familiar with the track.

I ain't doing a thousand. She ain't doing a thousand. You got all that

She'll do $10.

You got all that money.

Lock in my money back. Tell them, lock in $10. I bet $100. Bet $100. Bet $100.

Bet $100. $100. I'll do $100. $100.

$100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100.

$100. $100. $100.

$100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100. $100.

$100. $100. $100.

$100. $100.

$100.

$100. $100.

$100. $ This is the same race that I had a year ago here. I drew Kai Kelly first

round. I was able to beat him, so I know he owes me an ass whooping, but let's

see if we can go ahead and pull it off 2 -0.

It plays like it did last year. If we win this first race, we went on to win

event, so let's just see how it plays out.

Which means our fourth and final pair will be Giuseppe and Scott Taylor.

Grade 8, we drew Giuseppe. Last time I run him, he knows me out, so I know we

got a battle coming ahead of us. And as much as I want to put power in it, I got

to know that that racetrack's hot. So that's going to be the kicker right

Trying to figure out how much it'll take, but he's got the same battle ahead

him. All right, guys and ladies, here we go.

Grade 8 starts now.

The matchups are set, and it's a hot and humid day with temperatures over 100

degrees, which will make the track very slick.

Eyes will be on Kai to see how he responds after tapping the wall last

New England.

Also, Lizzie Musi will be debuting a new race car today, Bonnie 2, that her team

just finished building.

I don't know where that oil is coming from.

It's everywhere.

I have

a clue.

I mean, but it's up here, too.

Hey, it's spraying oil everywhere again.

Yeah, it's just as bad as it was the other night.

We had some gremlin from testing the other day, like a little leak on the

that we cannot find. It's spraying.

I still think it's coming out of that damn plug.

There's a line that goes from that plug straight down the sidewall. Come look at

it.

We've got to start cooling it down.

No, no. We're just going to have to, like, kind of go over a few things.

Hopefully we find something and get that thing mopped up and get it fixed

because, you know, having like these little leaks are never a good thing out

here on this track.

What's this? What'd you get me?

Well, we got a little something new to play with this week. We have a brand new

MH7 411.

Supposed to make about 200 more horsepower, but what we're up against is

100 degree temperature.

So it's never bad to have more power, but it's not really an optimal time to

trying these stuff.

Right. We are in Tulsa, my home track. I'm super comfortable here. What is not

comfortable is these weather conditions.

It is 109. The chances of looking pretty after getting out of a race car today

are slim to none.

But that's not what we're here for.

I'm in the grade 8 tonight, which is super exciting.

We're up against a lot of different stuff. I know. This engine burns more

makes more power.

We went tested, and we didn't get to use any of it. Right. And then today, as

hot as it is, as greasy as the traction is. Not going to get to use any of it

either. Let me tell you, we got a lot of extra horsies, but right now we cannot

use them. It's a hot -sum gun out here.

Horsepower is not going to come into play.

It's going to be tuner -driver race, and I feel like we got the right combo for

that.

I'm super close in that third and fourth spot.

So it's super important to do well in the grade eight tonight and keep

accumulating points so I can climb my way out of the middle of the field and

towards the top.

And Damon Merchant's going to get the win. Nice drag race there.

Damon Merchant turns on the wind light. Nice job.

It was a wild ride. I stayed in it as best I could.

I feel like we've left together.

And we'll just try again tomorrow.

You know, this is the fourth pass on a brand new combo, so no shame in our

We'll make another test pass and come out swinging tomorrow.

That was just a good drag race.

I'm done.

I mean, it was like one of those things where you just looked at the board and

it could have went either way.

It won't take the tune.

Conditions out here are insane.

Caught, the track is greasy.

What that does to these high horsepower cars is the starting line's pretty

decent because everybody's leaving some fresh rubber there. You get out probably

330, 400 feet.

and the car wants to start rattling the tires or hazing the tires, that then in

turn is where we have to figure out. That's a tuner's game here.

It's actually super funny. Like when I plug the laptop into it now, the screen

turns on, but it won't open fuel check on its own anymore.

We have to figure out where to turn it up and where to turn it down so that we

can make a clean pass A to B and a fast pass so that we beat our competitor.

Well, this is why my car wouldn't start in the staging lane. Right, right. I had

the same problem.

You guys didn't start before you went to, okay, always start before you load

something.

I think the hardest part is going to be getting out of our own way.

I'm used to clicking the up button and wanting more power, and in this

situation, we're not going to be able to do that.

This is going to be a who can turn it down and not down too much.

Oh, we got to race each other. I know, good luck, be safe.

She got a brand new Bonnie 2 .0, so we're hoping.

I mean, I hate to hope anything, but I'm hoping she's struggling with that thing

a little bit until we get this racetrack figured out.

At least the sun went down, thank God.

I'm like, it was freaking too hot earlier. Oh, my God. The wind coming in

what scares me. It scares me what's blowing in.

Oh, you think a storm?

Probably. It looks like all the rain's hitting.

Around? Really?

Yeah, that's what I was worried about. Yeah. There's so much humidity in the

already. I know, I know.

We're what, second pair?

Yeah, second pair. We're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it's freaking hot as hell.

We got a new car. It was in the works. In the beginning of the season, we

decided to build a new car. The reason being is because we want to try to get

down to weight. I think the biggest advantage for a nitrous car right now is

weight, getting down to weight, and it's so hard to do that with steel roots,

steel quarters.

So my chassis guy, I mean, he freaking nitpicked everything in that car to get

it down to weight. I'm going to throw out there, it was like literally 90

lighter than the other car, and that is a huge jump. So she looks identical to

the other Bonnie car, so I feel good about it.

A lot of people say new car blues, but I'm positive, and we're ready to go.

We're ready to rock this race.

But over in the right lane, that is going to be Nate Taylor.

Nate Taylor in the right lane.

Going up against Lizzie Mucey.

Lizzie Mucey in the left lane.

Brand new Camaro for Lizzie.

Over in the right lane, that is going to be Nate Saylor going up against Lizzie

Musi.

And Nate Saylor.

We'll get the win.

That was another great drag race there between both those cars.

What the hell happened on that run?

Making a run.

I don't believe this.

I felt like I laughed pretty good on him. I didn't see him for a while. And

all of a sudden it felt like someone just cut the throttle cable. Everything

just shut off completely.

Mine just shut off. Like in the middle of the run.

People that are supporting me, I appreciate it. And you're one of them.

I know.

And I appreciate you very much.

Yeah, I made it, and then it, like, it sounded like it should just shut the

motor off. Like, it just shut off.

Mine shook the tires about 400 feet, but I drove right through it. Yeah, it went

through it. No, I know. I don't blame you. I can hear you. Yeah, you heard me.

I don't know what happened. I have no idea.

I owed her one. She got me the first time, and we owed her one. So we put a

-up in the car we knew would go down, shook the tires still a little bit. I

think the middle of the track's a little greasy.

She had enough, and we went around her. So grateful to go on a round two of the

grade eight and hopefully earn some individual points, too.

Dad, we would have had that. So bad.

It's like the worst feeling when you're ahead of someone, and, like, all of a

sudden your car key just shuts off, like, and here they come just blow past

Like, it was a sickening feeling. I was pretty aggravated, I'm not going to lie.

It didn't rattle nothing, right?

No, it wasn't.

Everything.

Everything. Like, I still stayed in it because I wanted to bust it through the

firewall is what I wanted to do. I swear.

Yeah.

There is no freaking way.

Oh, that was a very sickening feeling.

Get your fingers out of the way.

So we're out here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa Raceway Park, and it is hot. It is

very hot. You can't even walk outside without breaking a sweat.

We're ready to get back in the race car, so this heat wasn't going to stop. I

fixed the car because I hit the wall on my last pass.

Couldn't save it from scratching the wall.

I held it as long as I could.

It was going to be a life or death situation, but out of it, gave her the

Ain't nobody in them stands saying that I didn't push my car to the limits

trying to get that win.

We got the quarter panel looking good, but the way it worked out, we didn't get

the test. So we got a few changes to the car, no test passes, and we're here in

Tulsa.

Broke the plug. Yeah, on the backfire probably.

All right, so that means that plug.

All right, see if you can get that plug out.

It got this hole.

Is it bad?

What's the owner of that?

Number seven. He's got number seven.

What'd you do? Turn it up?

Took fuel off it. That's what Lee kept saying. I took fuel off the motor.

Y 'all kept saying I wasn't running hard enough, so I did. I took fuel off it.

So I probably took a swing. I took 5 % fuel off it, like 7%, and now that's the

result of it.

Isn't that a pretty big swing?

What? I said, is that a pretty big swing or no?

I mean, I think so, but...

Apparently it was.

It looked like one of our spark plugs broke.

When it broke, that's what allowed the motor to basically put a load on it. And

when it put a load on it, everything else was trying to work harder. It

just backfired and popped. That's what popped itself.

Yeah, see how it blew the burst panel?

So it's kind of a protecting deal, okay? So it doesn't blow this off the top.

It blows the burst panel, so that's not supposed to look like that.

Yeah, we're going to put in a new burst panel.

And then put it back on the car.

Hey, man, we're going to need probably about another 15, 20 minutes.

I don't know if y 'all are okay with that. If not, you got to do what you got

do. I'll wait. I just want to beat Swanson because I like beating Swanson.

pisses him off. He has a real long face on the big end. He tries to cuss at his

daddy. And Daddy threatens to whoop his ass. It's just a funny case scenario

down there on the big end.

We can put that blower belt back on. I'll do this. Put that blower belt back

I think we're good. I'm just going to fire it up. Hopefully it don't leak.

My luck. I know usually when you do this, the blower ring leaks on the

Ready?

They're going up. We're racing against Kai Kelly. You know, he's got this new

combo screw blower. He's doing extremely well.

Let's get it down.

I think we kind of found the issue.

It looks like, you know, we missed a gear change in the car.

Luckily, I have parts here to be able to get this fixed. What sucks about it is

I am going to be basically throwing darts at the wall and hopefully get past

first round and try to get a better handle on what we got going on.

Coming into the night, I'm number one in points in the grade 8, and we really

need to do good. Pretty much leaving it all in the tuner's hands to make sure my

car goes down the racetrack.

And Kai Kelly!

Kai Kelly takes the win!

Justin Thornstrom, another pop down there at the finish line.

All right, give me one second.

Okay. Is this on fire or no? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Ow.

It's hot as hell in here.

And we are struggling right now, and we have backfired the blower twice. We are

running into issues.

We lost first round of grade A, and now we have a lot of stuff on the motor.

Bitch had a pretty blue flame coming right out the back of that chimney. It

just over here, and it was growing.

Y 'all couldn't see it there? That bitch was over the windshield.

Over here, it started out like this, and it went.

And I was trying to get the car shut off.

We are going to be up extremely late tonight, get everything done.

We're going to put a set of heads on it tonight, so we've got new valves and

everything, and we're going to put a set of rods in the motor. We're also going

to check the transmission and converter, just make sure everything's good so we

can get prepared for tomorrow.

We're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the last round one race for tonight's grade eight

is between Scott Taylor and Giuseppe Gentile.

What do you think the heat's going to do compared to New Hampshire?

Obviously, the car ran sweet in New Hampshire.

The humidity here is terrible.

Water grains are higher.

150, Ryan said. 150 elevations over 4 ,000.

Well, it's going to be slow. The track's going to be slow.

It's going to hurt anybody with a blower. Really getting into weather like

hot, greasy, a good car is going to really show. A car that has a little bit

more room for error, won't shake the tires.

We've been fortunate so far that this car has got a pretty big window where I

can go ahead and control the power and get away with a little bit if we miss a

little bit. We'll have to see because this is the worst condition so far.

So I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Try to keep it something we

can make it.

And then you've still got to be fast.

Good.

That's all we can do.

We're going to put time behind.

We're going to do it right now.

With Scott Taylor, I think it's going to take really a good run. I've got to cut

a good light and almost make a near -perfect run, I believe. I mean, Scott's

fast. I think when we raced him, it was within a half a car or something like

that. So I feel like this is going to be a tough round for us.

The weather is changing a lot, so I got the laptop in the car. I'm trying to

stay on top of it.

Last 10 minutes we've come from what felt like 100 degrees down to what feels

like 75.

I don't know what it is right now, but it's dropping by them.

And hopefully we got the tune -up right, that's all I can say.

First round is going to be a good one here over in the left lane.

Backing up that beautiful Nova.

That is going to be Giuseppe. He is going up against Scott Taylor. Scott

in that right lane.

It's the win.

What a great eighths rough, y 'all.

Leaving the starting line, I felt like I was out front maybe eighth of a car.

So, you know, I think I led to the 330 and then 330 to finish line. He just got

more mile on iron than I did.

But, man, I just don't know what I'm exactly doing wrong, but it's just a few

inches there.

I think me and Giuseppe's had a race, that same race, separated by a few

a couple times now, and ain't the one thing to say. I'm a couple inches too

slow, and I don't know what to do to figure it out, but like I always say, my

famous saying, we're too dumb to quit, so we're going to keep on digging, man.

It's inches down there, but all these cars run with inches, so ain't nothing

new.

happy here. We got two more rounds to go. We want to win this tonight.

These next guys, Kai Kelly, Nate Saylor, and Damon.

Everybody's fast.

All those top guys going right now. It's going to be a tough round here. We're

going to see where we stand up from these guys right now.

Here we go. We're going to go ahead and start our great eight semifinals drivers

meeting. We started with eight racers.

We are down to four.

Currently, Kai Kelly, you are sitting...

In first place in the grade eight points. Way to go.

But you've got some tough competition. You've got Giuseppe, who, as you know,

has won an Invitational race, right?

You also have Nate Saylor, who is hauling some serious butt this year. And

also have the current number one points guy in the Invitational class, Damon

Merchant.

All right. Well, let's go ahead and draw chips and see who's racing who.

Here we go.

Where are my number ones?

Number ones. Well, Damon Merchant, who are you racing?

Oh, racing Nate Saylor.

Wow.

Which means our second pair will be Giuseppe versus Kai Kelly.

All right, y 'all.

Hey, you got me two times already. What's that, Giuseppe? He's beat me two

already, so hopefully it turns our way right now. Now it's your turn, right?

Yeah. Is that right, Kai? I don't feel like I've got to run the car that

everybody else has yet, so we still got him on our list. We're faster.

We're a little faster.

Okay, got it. Thanks for that, Kai. All right, y 'all.

Go get your cars turned around. Bring them in the staging lane.

Let's get back to racing.

Turn your light on. Give me your phone.

Is that mine or yours?

I just need to look in the pro charger.

We're going to have to face Nate this round, and he's been super fast. He's

getting a lot more consistent, so that's a recipe for a good race any time.

I don't know where the be coming out at, dude, because that thing's spraying.

We ended up this round, still had the oil leak. Sensors could be prone to

leaking.

I've seen them on other vehicles where once the sensor goes out, it creates a

leak. Kind of narrowed it down to that, so we're going to try that now.

Put a little thread sealant.

on this one and then cram it in there make sure it reads right and see if we

it's doing it under pressure because when we start it here in the pits it's

doing anything it's not showing that it's leaking anywhere so once we're in a

pass and creating a lot of pressure and it's uh pushing

it back out so hopefully it's fixed i don't need oil going everywhere and i

sure don't need it on the back tire so There's no telling, and hopefully we got

our stuff together here, got things fixed up. Just go up there and kick his

and we'll play the teammate thing tomorrow.

Damon and I ended up drawing each other. We really wanted to save that for the

final. We want to get as many individual points as we can, so we both got three

points last round.

Obviously, I want that 100 grand, so I want this win bad. So give us three more

points, and then 10 for the win and 7 for the...

semis, so hopefully we get this win.

But I say this from the start of all this, that it really doesn't matter

in the other lane for us. We're going to do everything we can do to make sure we

put this Nova in the winner's circle, and that's exactly what we're going to

Winner of this round will move on to the finals and race for $10 ,000.

Let's see who it'll be.

Your first pair.

Grade 8 semifinals is here.

Nate Saylor. He is going up against his teammate, Damon Merchant.

What a drag race.

Damon Merchant heading to the final. Nice job.

Hey, that was a badass pass. Both of my guys, they went down there. That was a

badass pass right there. Hey, Weasley.

Golly, I told you.

Hell yeah.

Oh, Nate won from Bowling Green.

He stuck me on the tree real hard.

I've been watching him week after week be a little more consistent, a little

more consistent.

I pulled on him before the 60 foot.

I could hear him. He was coming. But the race went our way.

Felt like I got it early and he could have been around me, so.

Holy.

What a rush.

When they left together, I thought for sure Damon was.

You mean the 60?

Yep.

Well, I mean.

Damn, Damon's bad, man.

It doesn't matter who's in that other lane.

I'm always going to try to win that race regardless.

You good?

Yep, good.

Staying sure.

It's a big win for us because Nate's a killer. He's got the best of the best

everything over there. And he's been bringing people in. He's smart.

And it just felt good to get that win against him.

Yeah, this thing's 60 foot. It's like a son of a bitch.

Oh, my God.

That car's fast out of the hole, man.

It is.

We put a tune -up in the car we thought would handle.

It did.

Our car handled it great. We went A to B, just not fast enough. He's got a

car. This car is so fast early that by the time you have to try and get around

him, there's not enough real estate left.

And kudos to him, man. They got that thing running good.

Good job, bud.

Thank you.

I knew that was going to happen, but at the end of the day, two of the team

boaties people have to race each other, so that means one of them is not going

to the final or the runner -up. So that's a good thing for us points -wise.

The only thing is, I've got to go ahead and beat the pair.

You just take one right there in the middle where it's happy, and then

take it.

Oh, I ain't going to have a problem. It ain't going to have a problem. It just

needs more.

As long as it's past that one spot.

As long as it's past 160 out, there'll be no issue.

Right now, it's been unbelievable doing everything we wanted to do. It responds

good. We make changes. The car gets faster every round we've been picking

Couldn't ask for a better car.

So, Kai Kelly, we've raced already a couple times, and he's got me both

We've made the car a little faster. I just don't know if it's fast enough yet.

Now we've picked it up enough where if he didn't pick up anything, it should be

a really, really good race this time.

Me and Giuseppe's race before, one time he burned a push rod up on a big end and

I came around and he was beating me. Second time, the car just kind of laid

about mid -track and I came around him. So I hadn't really got the race side -by

-side with him yet. I'm not taking anything away from him because I know

fast because he's always been in front of me to the three -thirds.

Kai Kelly all up on the center.

I don't know what happened.

I had to aim for the left. I kept looking at that wall. I was like, gee, I

want to go that way. I looked and I seen that I could make it to the cone before

I touched the center line, so I just held it.

Giuseppe, he's a fast car, so you get a win against him. It's always a good

thing going to the finals.

Against, damn, Damon Merchant again. That dude, he ain't playing. He's here

he's always in the semis or always in the finals. So hopefully we can keep our

record up and beat him again.

He got us.

It was close. We have to look at the camera, but it was close.

Putting pretty good tune -up in the car.

Let go of the trans brake.

He was there, there, there.

All the way to the finish line.

And, I mean, 18 inches, he beat us.

Every time it's been close, he got us on the other end.

Guys are saying I left a little late. We'll have to find out. But, you know,

was a great race, and we'll just keep working on it. We'll get them next time.

They said he got me a little bit on the tree, but I don't know.

He said it was close.

I can't get it.

I don't know what happened. I got to lean on it. I got to lean on it, Arter.

Call it now?

Look, I don't want to tell you all about Oz, but I just threw three heads in a

row. Okay.

All right, here we go. We're going to do our grade eight final drivers meeting

while we wait for the official word on the track down there. Grade eight finals

will be Damon Merchant versus Kai Kelly. You're racing for $10 ,000 and

10 points, right? So whoever wins gets 10 points towards the grade eight points

championship. All right.

Who's going to call this in the air?

He said good.

All right, here we go.

Heads. Heads is the call.

And it is tails.

Damon Merchant, you're laying, my friend.

I told you, I cannot win a coin toss. I'll let you know. He's going to let you

know, too.

All right, y 'all. Well, go back in your cars and get suited up because your

final race is coming up here shortly.

You got to get down, man. Oh, yeah.

Hey, I'm Damon Merchant.

This is my pit. Let me take you on a tour.

We got the kitchen back here going on.

Quincy makes a killer pork chop.

Got a pretty good display of tools.

If there's one thing I learned from running with Dave last year, it doesn't

matter how big your rig is and all that stuff. You don't have tools in it.

This is where I change and get ready.

This is my little corner here.

I got my closet, my pants, and helmet.

Keep all my stuff in there.

You kind of see how the floor is all broke down and starting to pull up.

when I put a big car in here and start pulling up off the floor to anchor it

down, it tears the floor up pretty bad. So I appreciate you guys coming by,

seeing how we've been doing things.

We've got some work to do to the car, so you guys get the hell out of here.

That's off.

Coming. The bottom of that rag on that corner is covered.

There's one right here. Yeah, there's one on this side, too. There's a funnel

this side.

There's something that's not tight.

That's a lot of wool. Man, we have no idea where it's coming from.

This is not good. We're right now.

We were dealing with a little bit on a firewall and kind of back around the

china rail.

This time, soaked the entire intake and everything around it on the blower.

Like, honestly, probably lucky it didn't quad the car up out there.

We've been constantly chasing this oil leak that just

keeps coming up. We don't find it exactly what it is and take care of it.

going to be hard to let go of that button, I'm going to tell you that,

we put everything into that car.

You know, I can't take the chance of, you know, wadding it up or hurting

or killing myself out there. So we've got to find this issue before we can go

any further.

That taps into the oil path that's out ahead.

All right, let's see what we got. Ready?

There it is.

Oh, wow.

All right, let's get it up in the air so we can

start cleaning it up.

Right out in plain sight, there's a bolt missing in the intake, which goes down

into the oil galley in the head. So it looks like that might be it. We're going

to throw a bolt in it, refresherize it, make sure we don't hear anything funny,

and pull with it from there, I guess.

All right, let's see what we got. Ready?

Yeah. Okay, we're going to put some air to it.

Ready?

See nothing.

See no bubbles.

I think we're good.

All righty, guys.

Since we found the issue, got it fixed, checked everything out, everything's

good to go. The car's been giving us a lot of trouble, but to be honest, I felt

confident every round. The car's been running a little bit better and a little

bit better, kind of getting our heads wrapped around the combination, what it

wants, what it needs. This is our time, and no better place to kick guys out

than right here in Oklahoma.

Going into the finals, I got Damon Mercer. He's a familiar face.

I've been to... two or three finals with him this year already.

So he's a newcomer.

You know, he don't really race with a big budget. I think he's really only got

one motor. So the last four times we raced, he had technical difficulties

times, so we actually got to race once.

And his car's fast, and he's in the semifinals and the finals every week,

in and week out.

All right, here we go.

Grade A finals for $10 ,000 headed your way.

So this is your Grade 8 Finals. 10 ,000 to win. Over in the left lane, David

Merchant going up against Kai Kelly. The winner will get the $10 ,000

and the 10 points for the Grade 8 Championship.

the shootout early.

Damon Merchant with the drive -by gets the win.

He

went

right in like I figured he would, followed him right in and pretty sure I

him on the line. I've never seen him after that.

I knew once we had him then that it was going to take him running us down, and I

just didn't think he was going to get it done this time.

Was it a good race?

Uh -uh. Did you get to see it? Yeah.

Did you get to see all of it, how'd it go?

Good. Did it look good from your view?

Yeah. Did that wind light come on?

Yeah. I got to stand on an ice chest in the middle. Ah, cool.

Hell yeah.

Game plan worked. I mean, we just worked our ass off all day in the heat trying

to get there.

And we made it happen tonight.

That's what hometown looks like.

Like homegrown, hometown.

That's what you get.

That's it for the great eight here in Tulsa, and Damon comes away with his

great eight win. He's pocketing $10 ,000 and gained 10 points to his individual

championship points total.

But Kai still has a commanding lead with 27 points, while there's a three -way

tie for second place with 13 points.

Next week.

It's broken two places.

All that for the shop. I'll carry none of that.

Damon goes for another grade 8 win.

Kai Kelly is behind nobody in the grade 8 right now. Can we start calling it

gold medal? While Kai looks to extend his points lead even more.

Our engines hate this air. OJ and Lance are going to have some trouble

breathing, but I think she's still got enough to get past these boys.

Cars are breaking down.

We're not going to be able to race.

Can't get the gas in it.

We're getting transmission broke.

Never went out of first.

And things are getting personal.

I want to tell my mom I'll run for $5 ,000.

And we'll do it.