Sitting out the recent race at Norwalk, Ohio, in the aftermath of a medical procedure wasn’t something Top Fuel owner-driver Steve Torrence took lightly. If his rivals thought he was scary-serious before, they ought to be really frightened now.

"We're a lot more focused and intense – I know I am – after missing Norwalk. It's kind of changed the dynamic of how I've approached this [championship chase]," Torrence said after powering to the top of the provisional lineup Friday at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals near Denver.

The Capco Contractors/Rio Ammunition Dragster driver set the track elapsed-time record at 3.776 seconds on the 1,000-foot Bandimere Speedway course. (His 325.14-mph best speed of the day left Brittany Force still clinging to her year-old track mark of 326.95.)

And Torrence, a scrappy privateer who has a loose alliance with John Force Racing through tuning consultant Alan Johnson, means business.

"We're going to do everything we can to continue to march forward and stand our ground," he said. "We're a solid contender for this Mello Yello championship, and we've got a point to prove."

Torrence took the day's maximum qualifying bonus points (six) by being quickest in both sessions. He started by topping the field with a 3.787-second E.T. (at 323.43 mph) that toppled Larry Dixon's 2015 time record by four-thousandths of a second.

Actually, Torrence – last year's winner here – said even before he made a run Friday that he had confidence in crew chief Richard Hogan, car chief Bobby Lagana, and his entire team.

He said Hogan "has developed a tune-up that has a great deal of power but doesn’t sacrifice the engine, which is one of the things a lot of teams have had to deal with.

“We’re not just running it hard – we’re running it hard and not tearing up the engine,” Torrence said. "There are a couple things we’ve found that have been an advantage, and I don’t think I’m bragging when I say that we’ve had one of the best cars [at Bandimere Speedway] the last few years.  We have a good baseline, and we’re not going to deviate from that.  We’re just going to try to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Torrence has been a top-four qualifier in his last three Mile-High Nationals appearances and led the field in 2013.

Friday night he repeated his praise for the crew: "It seems that Richard, Bobby, and my whole team has a really good handle on the mountain. They've adapted very well and been able to build on it for the last few years. We'll try to keep the momentum going. It's really cool to come here and have the confidence going into the weekend that you've been successful here the last few years. Confidence is at an all-time high.

"We’ve got a good group," Torrence said.  "All these guys have been here at least two years, so everybody is on the same page. That’s huge for me as a driver, because

I know every time I go up there that my guys have put a bad hot rod underneath my butt. I just try to go out there and not screw it up."

This first leg of the three-race Western Swing that will continue through Sonoma in Northern California and finish at Seattle is unique.  

"You change everything for this race," Torrence said. "Basically, what you do is run this tune-up, take it out, and don’t run it again until next year."

Said Torrence of the Western Swing, "It's tough on people, and it’s tough on parts. It’ll beat you up and you can lose focus but, for me, I think racing every week keeps me in my routine and helps me stay sharp. We know we have a car that can win every week. Unfortunately, that’s true for about a dozen other teams.  Coming out of

Seattle, you’ll kind of know who’s going to make a run in the Countdown.

"The challenge is why we do it, to prove ourselves against the best in the business," Torrence said.  "We’ve had more cars in Top Fuel [in the past], but I don't think we’ve had this many championship-caliber cars."

He said the team makes "a huge amount of changes. And these guys will have to revert everything to the way we normally run it when we leave here Monday."

But Monday is Monday, and Torrence, who’s third in the standings, just wants to get through Saturday atop the leaderboard as he seeks his third victory of the season. (He won at Pomona, Calif., and Englishtown, N.J)

"I don’t know what we're going to do tomorrow," he said. "The track is unbelievable. It always is here at Bandimere. It's fun to come here and race because it is a crapshoot. It's a wonderful facility, a great family that runs this racetrack and takes care of us. They always have the best racetrack. But I hope it’s not good enough to go faster than that tomorrow."