A year ago, Steve Torrence had the opportunity win his first career coveted NHRA Top Fuel world championship, but he let it slip from his grasp.

Torrence has been on a mission to take care of unfinished business and that mission is going full steam ahead.

Torrence, who pilots his Capco Contractors family-owned dragster, won his class-best ninth race when he took home the title Sunday at the Carolina Nationals in Charlotte.

Torrence clocked a 3.703-second lap at 329.67 mph to edge Brittany Force’s 3.708-second run at 329.26 mph in the finals.

“The final round against Brittany, when you have Alan Johnson on your side, that guy has a golden horseshoe, he really does,” Torrence said. “He goes up there and pulls stuff off that nobody can do, and nobody thought he could do, and he does it time and time again and you can’t take them lightly. In the final, I knew they would be right there with us if not outrun us. But, I felt confident I could leave on Brittany just because I had been on my game. That’s what it is going to take. You don’t win a championship by default. You go up there and do your job when the crunch time is on. (Sunday) was the biggest race of the season for us. We needed to capitalize and gain points and gain rounds. With Clay (Millican) going out we did what you needed to do.”

On Sunday, Torrence mowed down Chris Karamesines, Leah Pritchett, Tony Schumacher and Force.

“We dodged a bullet the first round,” Torrence said. “It goes out and rattled the tires and somewhat I pedaled it and it stayed hooked up. Usually, I start smoking the tires and going sideways. Leah was a big round, that team is fighting. I think Tony got a little bit aggravated with me I might have let him sit there a little long and he came over and told me about it. I did also remind that’s he’s done that to me before too and sometimes that pill doesn’t taste as good when you have to take it yourself. It is racing. Like I said, you go up there to win.”

This was Torrence’s 25th career Top Fuel national event win and more importantly it helped him extend his points lead to 169 points over second-place Clay Millican.

“I just looked at the points and saw what they were,” Torrence said. “It has been truly unbelievable and nothing less than just a miracle for us to be able to go out and accomplish what we have done. I brought everybody together (Saturday) and just had a team meeting and said ‘Guys, don’t let this moment pass us by. Look at what we have accomplished as a team. Look at what we are doing. It is truly remarkable what we have done. We are a family run, family-owned, family-sponsored race team and everyone of those guys are family to me.”

Torrence has won all four races of the six-race Countdown to the Championship – Reading, Pa., St. Louis, Dallas and Charlotte, which is 16 round wins in a row.

There are two races left in the season – Las Vegas (Oct. 25-27) and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 8-11). There are 321 points up for grabs in the final two events.

“Last year, we weren’t able to cap it off and be champions, but I think we proved that we could,” Torrence said. “To come out and have the intensity and focus that Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana (his crew chiefs) and every one of those guys have given to win rounds and not make mistakes, I just sit back in awe. I did my job (Sunday) and they saved me a couple of times through this deal, but it is a team. It takes the whole village to make this machine work. I couldn’t be prouder of what these guys are doing. I’m sitting up there getting all the glory, but they are pushing me to the front and it is pretty special to be a part of.”