I think this was a one time event where they allowed drag radials for the shootout.
I was standing 10' from Ralph Barbagallo's Hemi RR, it clicked off some high 11s. And I watched the Vette make it's first 10.95 pass. They dont rocket off the line, but they for certain run the ETs on them. I think it was a Buick, the Corvette, and Hemi Dave's car that had a shootout on race tires. The vette actually slowed down a little IIRC, the Hemi and Buick went faster IIRC. Somewhere online (maybe moparts?) there was a video of the runs too..