In less than 7.4 seconds Saturday, Steve Torrence removed any skepticism about his ability to dominate in the NHRA Top Fuel class once again, purged his season-long frustrations, and injected a huge dose of drama into not just this weekend’s Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals but also into the upcoming Countdown to the Championship. 

The $80,000 he pocketed for winning the rain-postponed inaugural Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out, which took place during qualifying for the regular-season finale, was further validation. 

With his winning 3.701-second pass in the semifinal against Justin Ashley and his 3.692 in the final of the bonus race that began at Gainesville, Fla., Torrence continued a streak that should silence his doubters. He reached the finals at Topeka, then recorded his first victory of the year the following week at Brainerd, Minn., before defeating Brittany Force early Saturday evening at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. 

“Tons of respect for Brittany Force and that team, because they’ve been bad to the bone,” Torrence said immediately after exiting his Capco Contractors Dragster. “But these Capco Boys and Toyota Boys, we’ve been bad to the bone for five years. 

“We didn’t forget what we were doing,” Torrence said. “We struggled a little bit, but you’ve got to stay with it. You’ve got to persevere. We’re standing proud right now. Two finals, one win, and a win in the shootout.” Then, although it was unclear to whom he was speaking, he said, “We don’t look so stupid right now, because we’ve got the money, Big Dog.” 

He said this race-within-a-race triumph “is huge for us. I wouldn’t say that we’ve had a difficult season, because we’ve been no lower than fourth in the points. But it’s not indicative of the last five seasons that we’ve had where we’ve been able to really dominate and at this point in the season be so far ahead that we’re not worried about losing that No. 1 seed. 

“But mainly, the biggest thing is just fielding the questions so many times, time and time again, of ‘What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you winning? Why are you not doing like you were?’ I felt like I answered that question more than a million times. To be able to go to two finals in a row, win one of them, and go to the shootout race and win 80-grand, it’s just validating that maybe we’re not as dumb as everybody thought we were. We didn’t forget what the goal and what the objective was. We just deviated from the norm to develop a new platform. It’s all going in the right direction now,” Torrence said. 

“We’ve been in the situation where you lead the points all year and you go into the Countdown and you lose every bit of that hard work and effort and money that you wasted to get to that point – and you lose the championship. Then we’ve been also in the position that where you throw it all away again, but you win six races in a row and win the championship. So we've been on polar opposite sides of the scenario,” he said. 

“But I think at this point, we're maybe coming into the right timing, the right position, the right program at this race, at Indy, to march into the Countdown with a lot of confidence and a lot of strength. I mean, we're a strong team. Justin [Ashley] just said it's a culture that you create. It's the people that are the team. It's not the parts. It's not the pieces. It's Richard Hogan, Bobby Lagana, every one of those Capco Boys that we count on and get us to where we're at, and that's what we've done. 

Torrence said, “I'm only as good as the car that they give me. But when you're confident in it and you're confident in yourself, I say this all the time, and, I mean, I don't want to pat [Tony] Schumacher on the back, but the guy has been in so many high-pressure situations that that's what makes him good. That's why it never doesn't rattle you when you race for $100,000, you race for $80,000, you race for the championship, you race for the win at Indy. When you've been there, it's not a complacency, but it's not a distraction of nervousness. I have a job to do. I need to go up there and step on the gas on time, drive it straight, and win this race. They're going to give me the car to outrun her [Force], and I need to move on. That's just the mindset that you have to be in. And I think you only get that with experience.” 

Despite the temptation, Torrence said Saturday’s accomplishment wasn’t his “I told you so” moment. 

“No. Other than just winning a race, I just don't have to answer the same question over and over,” he said. “You don't win races and championships by not trusting the people that got you there. In Texas, we say you got to dance with the girl that brought you. You just stick it out. We got the same guys, the same car, the same pieces, everything. I went years without winning a race and everybody made a huge deal about me going 15 races without winning. And I'm like, ‘I sucked for a long time before I ever won a race. I don't know what was wrong with you guys. I'm happy just to be here.’ And if you look around, there's a lot of other cars that would like to have the season that we've had so far. Like I said, we didn't go lower than fourth. On our worst day we're still pretty scrappy.” 

Saturday’s semifinal round pitted Torrence against Justin Ashley in the Phillips Connect/Vita C Dragster and Force, driver of the Monster Energy Dragster, against Mike Salinas with his Pep Boys/Scrappers Racing entry. 

In the final, his 3.692-second elapsed time at 329.02 mph on the 1,000-foot course trumped Force’s 3.704, 330.31.