Well. that didn’t go as planned.
Steve Torrence, the four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion who has dominated the four-wide drag racing format, fell in the first round of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals outside of Charlotte.
There are two four-wide races annually, the aforementioned one in Charlotte and one in Las Vegas. Torrence has advanced to the final quad four times in five appearances, winning in 2018 and 2021, and runner-up finishes in the last two years. At ZMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., he won four consecutive times from 2017 through 2021 (there was no race in 2020). This year those stats were a throwaway.
Returning to traditional drag racing, Torrence hopes to right the ship after an uncharacteristic first-round loss. Chicago provides the perfect opportunity for the driver, who holds the track record at 3.677 seconds and has won in two of his last four Chicago appearances.
“We were pretty aggressive (pushing the performance limits),” Torrence said of the last two events, “and when we didn’t get (the anticipated results), it put us behind the curve. We got better, but so did everybody else, and we were always just a tick off the pace. Don’t think these CAPCO boys have lost their edge. They know the game better than anybody, and we’re looking forward to Chi-Town.”
Torrence’s first course of action will be qualifying in the top half of the field. He started the season with a No. 2, 4, and 1 qualifying position, but he landed in the No. 9 and 10 spots at the four-wide events. The second-half qualifying positions are rare for Torrence since 2016, as he’s only done it five times in his career.
Torrence won’t be alone in his quest for excellence, as his father, Billy, who has committed to a full tour in 2024, will make a run for the championship. The elder Torrence’s dragster, prepped by the crew chief tandem of Jason McCulloch and Joe Barlam, is fifth place in points, one position behind his son. An eight-time Top Fuel event winner who also has won at the national level in Super Comp, Billy will be making just his third appearance in Chicago, where he lost in the first round in 2014 and the second in 2018.
For the first time this year, a CAPCO car will not be in the Mission-backed 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge. Semifinalists from the previous event get a do-over and a chance to win bonus money and points applying to the Countdown.
