If i remember correctly they changed an intake,cam and carb on that mopar and gained about 150hp..the magazines can do that but you and i can't.
That mopar might have been tweaked a little.(or lots)
We've had this debate before. The 383 Chev was a create engine from one of their sponsors, and yes the shootout was probably thought up to show off the create engine but saying that if they were gonna give advantage to anything it would of been the Chev not Dodge.
Also intake cam and headers can add a lot to a low performance engine since there 3 of the 5 main things to make power the others being cr and heads. There's some engines builds on here have proved that.
Think of it this way a stock long block (heads/cr) has a certain potential hidden away. With the right cam carb intake and headers will realize that and if you could change cr for even more cam and with the right parts for the rest of the combo you could get even more.
Thus leaving heads as the limiting factor for more power.
And you missed the main thing of that shoot out is that the powerband is not overly dictated by bore stroke ratio but by mainly Cid.
Yes longer stroke has more multiplying power. But bigger bore has more surface area with more pressure per square inch so needing less leverage (shorter stroke ) to come out with similar torque and power curves.