Well I'm stumped, as I said the '97 Daks did not have 5.9 as an option. Check the label on your drivers side door, tell me when it was made, and the weight specs.
And you have Drag radials on this thing? Do you use it for track use?
The R/Ts you raced, taking off the cat, or a simple performance muffler will make the 5.9 sound stronger than it is, and perhaps they were crap drivers compared to you. And if your using Drag Radials on the street (dont know why you'd do this, but to each his own), than that would also help in beating those other R/T's.
Oh, did your friend pay more for this truck than other 5 he purchased (since they were 4-bangers)?
As it stands, if it's a 97, than you have a one of kind truck, either Dodge/Chyrsler made a huge error at the factory and your friend got really lucky, or somone jacked the truck, replaced the motor, stripped some wight, and made it a track ready R/T wannabe
