Cool find. But what has always bothered me about this particular photo is that the red blades of the bird-catcher are closed. That would seem to indicate the engine is either off, or operating at low throttle.
I can't tell for certain, but are the blower drive belt and pulleys not moving? The detail (scratches) on the pulleys appear sharply in focus. which would not indicate a turning engine.
Having been a car mag writer and photog, and having shot lots of action photos of race cars including dragsters (back in the dark ages of film cameras) I wouldn't be surprised if they put together that image from two photos: The front of the car stationary, to get sharp focus on the engine, but the back end burnout (maybe just the smoking tires) came from another pix.
Diggers aren't exactly vibration-free when doing burnouts. Yes, a very high shutter speed and some luck could let you capture a nicely in-focus shot, but I'm still calling "art director magic" on this one. (Nothing wrong with that, IMO.)
Other thoughts?