Steve Torrence didn’t need any additional motivation entering this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season finale.

With a chance to earn his second Top Fuel world championship and put a period on one of the most dominating seasons in the history of the NHRA, Torrence is already set to kill this weekend. Add in a few choice comments from his closest competitor following the completion of the most recent race in Las Vegas, and Torrence is ready to let his team do the talking this weekend.

And he did just that on Saturday, leaping from the bottom half of the ladder to the top spot, earning his fifth top qualifier award of the season and putting a few more points between himself and the field.

“Honestly, I think that it is a little disturbing how relaxed I’ve been coming into this weekend,” Torrence said. “I’ve been in this situation before where I’ve come here with a lead and it didn’t pan out the way that we wanted it to. Then we came here last year with much less pressure because we were already the champs and were able to enjoy this.

“Honestly, you just have to take a step back and look at what we are doing here. This is the final race of the season and you need to go four rounds. It’s no different than when you were here in February. You need to get off to a good start and go four rounds. Tomorrow it is going to be sudden death. You’ve got Brittany and I and whoever goes the furthest and then trying to keep Doug (Kalitta) from jumping on us and also keeping my dad from getting there too.

“You’ve got to have faith in the good Lord and just do your job.”

Sitting ninth on the ladder entering the fourth and final qualifying session on Saturday, Torrence laid down a 3.686-second pass at 329.99 mph in the Capco Contractors dragster to jump ahead of Friday’s provisional top qualifier Leah Pritchett and earn the green hat for being low qualifier.

Pritchett dropped a spot to second in the MOPAR dragster with a 3.694 at 322.88 mph and Clay Millican jumped up to third with a 3.699 at 328.30 mph. Mike Salinas (3.699) and Billy Torrence (3.701) rounded out the top five.

Doug Kalitta, who entered the weekend third in the Countdown to the Championship standings, qualified sixth, while Torrence’s closest challenger Force placed eighth on the ladder.

“Honestly, we were trying to run a 64 or 65 yesterday, but the track wasn’t there,” Torrence said. “We came out today in Q3 and made a layup run to make sure that it went down and get good data. Then we came out and did what we thought we could get away with. We thought it could go 68 and that is what it did.

“We needed to capitalize because we were in the bottom half pretty deep. So we needed to try and get into the top four and position ourselves better for tomorrow.”

After the run, Torrence commented on the statement made by Force two weeks ago in Las Vegas where the young driver said that Torrence should be “shaking in his boots” after beating him in that race.

“As far as the comment Brittany made, Brittany is a super sweet person and she is not a trash talker,” Torrence said. “You get out of these things sometimes a little jacked up and liable to say anything. I’m the king of that. You just have to be humble, do your job and worry about what everyone else says on Monday. Because when we leave here tomorrow, somebody is going to be the champ.”

Of course, Torrence couldn’t resist adding in a little comment of his own at the end.

“To be the best you have to beat the best, so she’s got to beat us,” Torrence said. “(David Grubnic) Grubby is great when the conditions come to his wheelhouse, but these conditions are in our wheelhouse. To be the best you have to beat the best and we are the best.”

Now Torrence’s focus shifts to Sunday as he faces Cameron Ferre in round one seeking his second championship in a row after being in the title hunt the past three years - winning one and losing another.

“(Winning another championship) would be a dream come true. To win one championship is more than you can ask for and to be in a position to go back-to-back, I think that is a testament to the hard work that each one of those guys has put in on both teams,” Torrence said. “My dad has run 16 races and he is in contention to win. It just shows what those Capco boys are capable of.

“Ultimately tomorrow is already written in the book. Everybody just has to live it and see where it ends up. The good Lord knows what is going to happen, I am just going to rely on my faith and come out here and do the best that I can. I’ve got a great group of guys behind me and I know that we have the team to beat.”