In a showdown between the top two ranked Top Fuel Countdown contenders at the AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals, Steve Torrence nosed Doug Kalitta by 81-ten-thousandths of a second.

With that, the NHRA’s David continued to knock out the Goliaths of the sport.

And after pocketing his eighth victory of the year, Torrence said, “All the glory goes to God. This has been a storybook season, and without His hand involved, we wouldn’t be doing anything. The Good Lord has blessed us. The Good Lord’s going to look after us, and if it’s in the cards for us to be the champ, we’ll be the champ. If it’s not, we won’t. But we’re going to do everything we possibly can. If it’s going to happen, can’t nobody beat us, anyway.”

On the 1,000-foot course at Gateway Motorsports Park at Madison, Ill., near St. Louis, the Capco Contractors Dragster driver ran a 3.684-second elapsed time at 329.34 mph to get to the finish line about four feet ahead of Kalitta and his Mac Tools Dragster (3.698 331.28).

Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action heads south to Torrence’s backyard for the AAA Texas FallNationals, at Ennis, Texas, near Dallas. The tour will take a weekend off before resuming with the Oct. 12-15 stop at the Texas Motorplex, the fourth of six playoff races.

Torrence, a Kilgore, Texas, native, said he’ll be pursuing every point, because he said he thinks “this thing could come down to one or two points at the end of the season . . . with points and a half at Pomona.”

Kalitta said he’ll “keep doing what we’re doing.” Kalitta entered this race second in the standings, 22 points behind Torrence, and takes a 42-point deficit to Dallas.

Torrence dismissed Shawn Langdon and Don Schumacher Racing championship hopefuls Leah Pritchett and Antron Brown to advance to his 11th final-round appearance this season. And defeating Pritchett and Brown, who have had stellar seasons, as well, buoyed his confidence.

At the top end of the track after the semifinal round, he quipped, “Ol’ Don Schumacher, he’s been dodging me. He won’t even talk to me. So now he’ll probably walk all the way around the track so he won’t have to see me.” (Later he said Schumacher shook his hand but didn’t say anything in the sportsmanlike gesture.)

“I enjoy racing those DSR cars. It’s fun to beat them,” the 16-time winner said. “They’re the bar. That’s the racing factory. It’s hard to beat those guys. So when you do, you’ve got to be jacked up about it. It’s like David and Goliath.”

He said racing Pritchett, with whom he has had friendly trash-talking banter all season long, was a pivotal battle: “Taking her out there probably took her out of the championship chase. But us going out against her might have revived her chances and shot ours.”

Brown, he acknowledged, is a three-time and the reigning champion. And Kalitta he called “a great driver” who has “been there a lot” in the thick of championship wars.

“You’ve got to wade through these guys at some point in time,” Torrence said.

And Sunday was one of those days. He recognized that it won’t be the last. “We’ve got three more of these things,” he said.

“It’s tough,” Torrence said. “We’ve got Dom out here helping us,”

He’s referring to Dom Lagana, who, when he isn’t racing his own Nitro Ninja Dragster, is a crew member for the Capco Contractors operation. Lagana served as blocker Sunday and in Round 2 took out Clay Millican, the No. 1 qualifier, owner of the fresh national elapsed-time record, and No. 5 Countdown racer.

But, Torrence indicated, he didn’t want to get into a mind set of expecting help from others or bad circumstances to befall his rivals.

“We got here by doing what we do all year long, and that’s doing it ourselves,” he said after sharing the winners circle with Ron Capps (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock), and L.E. Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Kalitta, who won the Countdown opener at Charlotte to take the points lead but lost it last weekend to Torrence, was seeking his second victory of the season, second in three events, and 44th total. He was making his fifth final-round appearance of the year, having knocked off Scott Palmer (despite a massive engine explosion), Reading winner Brittany Force, and Lagana.

After the race, Kalitta said, “I’ll get him [Torrence]. It’s just a matter of time. We let that one get by us. We should have gotten by Stevie.”

Stevie . . . Steve-o . . . Points leader . . . St. Louis winner . . . Eight-time winner this year . . .  Whatever anyone calls him, Torrence won’t stop until somebody calls him Champ.