He started drag racing--and winning--in a door car, and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits will mark his return to the 1/4-mile in a New Challenger Drag Pak car...Swamp Rat 35.

"I started with a stocker, and I’m gonna end up with a stocker," Don said from his Ocala, Florida shop, where he was wiring up the LX-body Challenger in preparation for Stock Eliminator competition over Labor Day Weekend at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana (just west of Indianapolis).

As Don said, he's no stranger to doorslammers--along with his first win (in a "Brand X" car years ago), he's also raced and won in one of the first '62 Dodge Max Wedges, as well as in a lightweight '63 Dodge with Stage II Max Wedge power.

This time, he's got the race version of Ma Mopar's current Hemi under his hood, one that dynoed at over 600 horsepower.

Swamp Rat 35 is also the first Drag Pak Challenger built by Chrysler. Last December, when he and the Mopar folks announced that he'd be getting Drag Pak car #1, Don told NHRA Online, "I am going to have fun competing in a car my wife will actually let me drive. I’m not allowed to drive a Top Fuel dragster anymore. She said to me after my last 310-mph run at Indy in 2003, ‘I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t do this anymore,’ and I knew I had better comply because I didn’t want to come home and find all my stuff piled on the front lawn.”