I've noticed that most of the winged sprints have the shocks mounted with the body at the top while nearly all of the non-wing have them the opposite. Sammy was an exception at the King's Royal. What is the reason?

Usually the mounting orientation is dependent on the cable adjusters.
Body or shaft end on top depends on which end of the shock the cable has to hook up to. In the old days before adjusters, we ran them bodies down (shaft seal pointing upward) because the seals leaked so bad all the oil would run out if the bodies were on top.

It depends on all of that, and unsprung weight, and some guys don't like it if someone else can just walk by, and see what shocks you're using, I don't see any difference between wing and non wing orientation, I don't think the shock knows the difference! Bob

With Gas shocks, is there any worry about heat from the mufflers if you are running the body down in the rear? I don't have turn downs on my mufflers and sort of curious to hear thoughts about the exhaust heating up the body too much.

A good shock will develop some heat, and yes, too much will change how it dampens, I always just "hand feel" the temp, and if they are very warm, I may chg to one that will stay a little cooler, primitive, I know, but a good way to make a "balance" decision on your setup. I have a friend that was in on the development of the Penske shocks, and he said somtimes they used water, because it got rid of the heat faster. Bob