Steve Torrence never has been a cheerleader for the four-wide drag-racing format.

Despite his grudging participation, the Capco Contractors Dragster racer Sunday became the only one to win a four-wide NHRA drag race at two different tracks.

Torrence used a 3.771-second 1,000-foot elapsed time at 326.63 mph to defeat a Murderers Row in the final round of the Denso Sparks Plugs NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Tony Schumacher, in the U.S. Army Dragster, was runner-up at 3.790, 325.22 – 0.0083 seconds (or about four feet) behind.

So while Torrence pushed his elimination-round record to 8-2 by winning two of the past three events, Schumacher had to settle for his third runner-up performance in four-wide competition. Schumacher’s consolation prize was improving from fourth place to second.

But the victory was no cinch for points leader Torrence.

“We rode the Struggle Bus all through qualifying. We even stopped in Struggletown – I made one [complete] lap out of four. Our car did nothing we told it to do. We were trying to figure out what it was doing,” Torrence said.

But thanks to crew chief Richard Hogan’s late-Saturday obsession at the computer, Torrence said, “When we came out this morning, that thing did everything it was supposed to every lap.”

In the final round, Torrence didn’t face only eight-time series champion Schumacher, the most successful Top Fuel driver at Las Vegas (with eight victories). He also had to line up against three-time champ Antron Brown, his close friend and on-track nemesis in the Matco Tools Dragster, and veteran Mac Tools Dragster ace Doug Kalitta, who also was going for his second victory in four races.

Said Torrence, “They’re legends, at least in my eyes. They’re the bad dudes. I’m just the kid going, ‘What am I doing here?’ It was a tough final. I just went up there and tried to do my job.”

The Kilgore, Texas, native stretched his lead in the standings from seven to 33 points as the series shifts in two weeks to his home state for the Spring Nationals at Baytown’s Royal Purple Raceway.

To Torrence, the victory here was as ironic as his points lead. He has been a critic of the novelty layout here and at Charlotte’s zMAX Dragway, but mastered it, praised the construction and track-prep crews, and said racing on the equally smooth lanes “was like going on a Sunday drive down through there, just easin’ along.”

But he isn’t convinced the four-wide design is for him.

“Not at all. It’s terrible,” he said, a bit chagrined.

As for his status, he said, “We’ve won two races out of the four. Nobody has set the woods on fire. We sucked at Pomona. We sucked at Gainesville. And we’re still No. 1 in points.” He said rival team owner Don Schumacher asked him what had been wrong with his performance lately, and Torrence said he replied, “I don’t know, but nobody else is doing much better. So it’s OK.”

“We’re still working on our car. It’s not performing at the level it was all last year. But it’s coming around. We approached this season with a little different strategy than last year,” Torrence said. “We’re prepared right now for the latter part of the season instead of driving [with victories in mind]. You always want to go rounds and win races, but you need to prepare for those last six. Who knows what would have happened in a different world if we wouldn’t have had the wreck [at Dallas]. That definitely put us behind, and we’re trying to diversify our set-up so we’re not solely dependent on just one car, one everything. We’re still working on the set-up, and it’s a little bit of a struggle.”

But he said Sunday he was going to visit the casinos for the first time all weekend. He hadn’t tried his hand at gambling before race day “because I didn’t want to use any of my luck up. I figured as bad as we did in qualifying, I wasn’t going to be lucky, anyway.”

That might be how Doug Kalitta felt. With JR Todd in the Funny Car final four, Kalitta Motorsports was trying for the 13th time to pull off a nitro-class double victory. Kalitta, the Pomona winner, was seeking his third victory at Las Vegas and his second victory in four races.    

Brown, four-wide winner at Charlotte, was making his first final-round appearance of the season. He dropped from second place and seven points off Torrence’s pace to third and 43 points out of the lead.

Torrence and Todd joined Pro Stock’s Vincent Nobile in the winners circle.