Antron Brown stands in unyielding Steve Torrence’s way like some seemingly doomed target in a video game. He’s the Top Fuel points leader’s first-round opponent in Sunday’s eliminations, which kick off at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. And he might be the toughest rock to budge. 

Torrence has the chance to become the first since 2009 to sweep the three-race Western Swing. The Capco Contractors Dragster driver would be the sixth Top Fuel driver to accomplish that (following Joe Amato, Cory McClenathan, Larry Dixon, Tony Schumacher, and Brown) and the eighth in all (including Funny Car’s John Force and Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson). What he’s laser-focused on instead is winning this race – and the next and the next and on down the line to a fourth straight championship. 

That’s what Brown, who’s directly behind him in the standings, is trying to do, as well. 

“Sweeping the Swing would be a great accomplishment, but that is not what we are setting out to do,” Torrence said. He said his goal Friday night was “to make a solid, clean, and fast run down the racetrack.” (He didn’t, losing traction right away and having to start Saturday qualifying front the No. 12 spot. Only Brandon Welch, whose attempt Friday night was disqualified because his out-of-shape Max Mileage Dragster clipped the guard wall.) 

“It’s one run at a time for us. One run at a time equals one race at a time, and if it happens to be three races in a row that equates to sweeping the Swing, then that’s what happens,” Torrence said. “Racing in Pomona during the middle of the summer is also a different ball game. We generally run in the cooler months there, so it should get interesting.” 

Torrence has secured his berth in the Countdown to the Championship, winning six of the nine completed races this season, including three in a row and four of the past five. And his dad Billy, who just won THE Super Comp trophy at a Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Topeka last weekend in a break from the Camping World Series, won at Epping, N.H. That has left only Gainesville to Josh Hart and Atlanta to Brown. 

“These CAPCO boys are unbelievable,” said Torrence, who has 46 career victories. “It’s hard to not be confident when you’ve got [crew chief] Richard Hogan, [car chief] Bobby Lagana, and the rest of the Capco boys behind you. I’m just the fortunate guy who’s blessed to have the opportunity to drive, and I couldn’t be more excited. These guys, they work hard and they love their job. You learn a little bit each day and we have so much fun when we come to the track.” 

He has fun because he’s winning. Brown – the three-time champion who managed to derail Torrence with a victory at Atlanta and was the last to sweep the Western Swing – understands why, all while plotting to spoil his close friend’s party. 

“They have raised the level of the game,” Brown said of the Torrence Racing team. “You know why their car runs so consistent? They run brand-new parts almost every lap. You know why their car doesn’t vary? It doesn’t vary because they killed all the variables. 

“They don’t have a head gasket that’s been welded up or redone and put back in. They’re running everything fresh. So you know what they do? They’re able to replicate a lot more. They’re not doing anything different than anybody else. They’re not smarter than a lot of different people out there. Their efficiency is way better than everybody’s else’s because of the procedures that they do,” he said. 

And Steve Torrence has said several times that he and his team buy parts off the shelf. He says, “We’re not smart enough to make our own parts – or maybe we’re smart enough not to make our own parts.” 

Brown said, “That’s their whole way of doing it. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Everything’s out there. Don Schumacher sells parts and pieces to a lot of people, but now he’s gearing up to do more of that [with his DSM manufacturing arm of his racing business]. NHRA’s got stipulations on everything. They’ve taken out all the R&D that you can make your stuff better with. Now, you’ve got to make your packages better, not the parts you run. That’s where the cost has gotten fixed, where everybody can afford the same stuff. And the more people that make the same stuff, the cost does get a little bit cheaper that way, except for the materials.” 

So the emphasis is on personnel. And that has been the mantra of both Torrence and Brown all along.  

“It takes so many people. We know how that is” Brown said. “We had an all-star group of people together for over five years. In five years, we were unstoppable. If you took out the Countdown to the Championship, we would be five-time champions. And Steve would be four-time champion if you took away the Countdown to the Championship. So it shows you how dominant teams [can be]. And it takes the same guys going out there and being better each and every time. And Steve’s team has been together for eight years now, same guys. And they’ve only gotten better. 

“What it’s going to take is you getting your package together where you compete on the same level,” he said. “Our team’s getting close. We’ve just got to qualify better. If we can start qualifying better, we can be in that same realm that he’s in. He qualifies in the top three every race. When he does that, he sets himself up where on race you see him going down the track, putting up great laps, and Steve’s a great racer, too. They’ve got the full package. And that’s what our team has – our team has that full package. But we’re still just getting in synch with all the new crew guys that we have on our team.”