I've got a SE Sport and it doesn't have the plastic thingy you mentioned.
I'll try to post pics of my dash, so you can see the difference.
Pete...
98.5 SE Sport Duratec ATX (P66L) Black Clearcoat on Greystone DOB 11/21/1997 DOP 12/25/1997 PIAA 510 Super White Driving Lights SVT CAT-BACK EXHAUST (No Resonator) DiabloSport Chip (LPQ4) - Engineered To Raise Hell Too many other mods to list... Sounds sweet, runs quick... Crazy Horse Dyno @ 121.4 WHP/129.6 TQ