After winning his fourth consecutive NHRA Top Fuel world championship in 2021, Steve Torrence had yet to qualifying No. 1 or win a race so far in 2022.

Torrence checked the first box when he blazed to a track record 3.693-second lap at 323.66 mph in the final qualifying session at Houston Raceway Park Saturday.

This is Torrence’s 32nd No. 1 qualifying position in his Top Fuel career. He just edged Brittany Force’s 3.695-second pass on Friday night for the top spot.

A year ago, Torrence qualified No. 1 in Houston and won the race.

Torrence’s best qualifying position in the four prior races this season was in Phoenix and Gainesville, Fla. He had a season-best runner-up finish at the Four Wide Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the last race on the circuit before Houston.

“Going into the final session, I talked to (his crew chiefs) Richard (Hogan) and Bobby (Lagana), and they rarely give me any input of what they're going to do and say anything other than just drive the car and don't worry about it,” Torrence said. “And they told me, they said, ‘Well, we're going to try to step it up a little bit.’”

Torrence, who is from Kilgore, Texas, a little under four hours from Houston, would love to win Sunday, especially since this is the last NHRA event at Houston Raceway Park as the track is closing at season’s end.

“There's a lot of event emphasis on that,” Torrence said about winning Houston’s last race. “I mean, I've only won at this racetrack one time, and it was last year. It seemed that Houston had alluded me for my whole career and to be able to get a win at Houston... and it's a track that just holds a lot of history for me. I've raced Super Comp, Super Gas, (Top) alcohol (Dragster). I've raced every class that I've ever been in at this place. I raced here when I was 15 years old. This is one of the two Texas tracks that I got to go to when we raced Sportsman level, when we raced Super Comp. You make a couple national events a year. This was one of them.

“I grew up racing with all of my friends here. And so, to see it go away is sad, but to try to cap it off with a win, it would be a very special thing for us, my family, my team, myself, and to be able to close out this chapter of this racetrack. But I mean, we're one step further and closer to it right now with the No. 1 qualifier. And we'll just see what we can do.”

Torrence will match up against No. 16 qualifier Buddy Hull in round one Sunday. He will be aiming for his 52nd career NHRA Top Fuel national event title on raceday.

A year ago, Torrence advanced to 14 final rounds, winning 11 races. He also won 11 races in the 2018 season.

Although Torrence has yet to win a race in 2022, he still arrived in Houston in first place in the points standings. He collected six qualifying bonus points Saturday as he was the quickest in Q2 (3.768 seconds) and Q3 (3.695 seconds). Doug Kalitta had the second quickest elapsed time on Saturday at 3.696 seconds, which put him No. 3 on the qualifying ladder behind Torrence and Force.

“It was really good going out for the first run of the day, Q2, to go low ET by three hundredths was really good for us, a confidence booster,” Torrence said. “Only a couple cars went down the racetrack. So, when you can go out there and do that, go to A to B on a racetrack that more than likely we'll see tomorrow, sometime around second round I think, that's a confidence booster and just gives you some information that is very much appreciated and needed going into race day.”

After a so-so effort Friday night in qualifying Torrence said his team went to work heading into Saturday.

“It was running really good (Friday) night and just wore a little too much clutch, I think, or something happened where it just kind of gave up in the middle to the end,” Torrence said. “So, we tried to remedy that problem. And it went out and it ran well. I knew that we could run well. I didn't know if it would be enough to go to the top. But to go (3.693), to go low for the weekend and No. 1 qualifier's great for us. I mean, typically No. 1 qualifiers are not my favorite thing. I think those yellow hats are unlucky. So, I gave that away as fast as possible, but it's a confidence booster for all of the Capco boys just to go into race day No. 1 qualifier and see what we can do. I think that Richard and Bobby have a good handle on the racetrack and tomorrow is going to be up to anybody. But I think that we've got a pretty good shot at it.”

Torrence acknowledged he’s not surprised the Top Fuel field is catching up to him after he has won four world titles in a row.

“Well, I don't know what those guys and girls are doing,” Torrence said. “I know that we've run the same thing pretty consistently for the last four years at this point. They were catching up to us a little bit last year. So, we kind of went back to the drawing board and we've came out swinging with a whole different bat. I mean, we changed the tune up, changed the set up and are working on it to try to improve. We've learned over time that you don't have to be the best performer throughout the year. You need to be the best performer in the last six. And so, we're taking advantage of that opportunity and trying to utilize this time during cool conditions, great track conditions, to try step up and run harder when we need to. And so that'll benefit us at the end of the year.”

Even though Torrence has yet to get a win so far this season, he doesn’t believe his team is far away from the winner’s circle.

“I wouldn't say that we're in any slump, or we've fell off, or we've lost anything,” he said. “It's just we're trying something different. And I've had quite a few people come up and say, ‘Well, you're not as dominant as you were.’ And I mean, it's only been four races. We won the last one at Pomona. So, I mean it's not like we fell off the face of the planet, or figured out, or lost, or forgot to do what we're doing. It's just we're working on trying to be better. You have to constantly evolve. And sometimes in anything you need to tear it down completely to rebuild it better and stronger.”

Torrence pointed to the Houston qualifying field to demonstrate the strength of the Top Fuel class.

“I mean, you say that there's new people, and new this, and new that, but nobody's new,” he said. “It's the same folks. And maybe the teams are a little different and Antron branched off, but it's the same team he had at Schumacher. Justin Ashley was here a little bit, but he was bad to the bone back then. Josh Hart was here a little bit too, but he was bad when he came out. I mean, he won his first race ever. So, I mean these guys that everybody's saying are new, they're not new. They're just out here a lot more than they were, and they're still bad and hard to deal with when they show up. So that's a prime example. (3.72) gets you ninth. I mean, I don't know what 16 was, but I mean…”

“I've seen where (3)72 wasn't No. 1. So, it just goes to show, this is a great racetrack. It does have some obstacles in it, but we've navigated them well. And you can go out here and run fast. I mean, I hate to see it go away because this was where you used to come to see... You'd show up to Houston with a suitcase as big as this sign right here because you're going to have a raincoat, a sweatshirt, a pair of shorts and who knows what else. I mean, you might have to have anything. So, we'll see what we can do with 72, No. 9, crazy.”