Steve Torrence didn’t forget how to win.
Despite a dry spell of nearly a year without a win, the four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion (2018-21) showed Sunday that he is still one of the best in the business. He posted a 4.022-second elapsed time at 325.37 mph to defeat Justin Ashley in the finals of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. – his first win since July 21, 2024, in Seattle. Ashley’s better reaction time was negated when his dragster smoked the tires, and he crossed the finish line in 8.6 seconds.
This was Torrence’s 56th career NHRA Top Fuel win. It was his second Bristol triumph, with the first one coming in 2013.
Torrence qualified No. 5 with a 3.834 at 329.50, and then proceeded to oust Dan Mercier, Clay Millican, points leader Tony Stewart, and Ashley.
“First and foremost, it’s the week before Father’s Day,” said Torrence, who drives his family-owned Capco Contractors dragster. “I have two beautiful little girls (Haven Charli and Harper Sloan), and I haven’t won this race since they were born. That’s why this is special to me. It’s been a tough day, a tough weekend. The conditions have been very tricky, and I knew I had to be consistent and do my job on top of the (fact) that we had not won since Seattle. We have tried a lot of different things. We have been working on trying to get better and make a better mousetrap, and sometimes it is difficult.
“You have to stay with the girl you brought to the dance and (crew chiefs) Richard (Hogan) and Bobby (Lagana) have persevered, and they are working really hard, and I think they are getting really close to figuring it out. (Sunday) was a testament to their ability to read the track. We went down the track every lap but the final.”
The final against Ashley is when Torrence stepped into the spotlight.
“Some way or another, the driver did his job and was able to get it hooked back up and get it down through there,” Torrence said. “I’m very thankful to have this opportunity and it has been since 2013 since I won this race. Me and a couple of the guys on the team have won at every event, but some of the other ones came after that season, so we just completed the sweep of all the national events for them and that was special as well.”
With his win, Torrence sits seventh in the season points standings with 450 points. Torrence has competed in seven of the season’s eight races; Phoenix was the exception. He improved his elimination-round record for 2025 to 10-6.
“The left lane was really good all day and the right lane was causing some heartache to a lot of people,” Torrence said. “With the weather that came in, the track cooled off and I knew it was going to be a lot better. (Ron) Capps and I have won a lot of races together, and I saw that he was in the right lane and saw him go out and run low (ET) and win the round. I thought this was going to be a tough race because Justin can run just as good, too.”
With pressure at a paramount, Torrence embraced the challenge.
“It made me be on my game,” he said. “It made me be ready for anything. So, I went up there and had a gameplan. Lane choice was huge all day. There were not a lot of cars that went down the right lane, so the final was a testament of what the (NHRA) Safety Safari guys were able to do to make the track good enough to go down. It is gratifying as a driver to go out and win a race where you just didn’t step on the gas and drive it straight. You have to work a little bit to get that round win, and these will definitely stick out in your memory.”
Torrence acknowledged winning was a confidence boost for him with his family.
“My little girl (Haven Charli) was born in 2021, and that was the end of our reign when we were winning all the time,” Torrence said. “I don’t want her to think that daddy was good before she was born and he’s not really good anymore. My oldest asked me this morning ‘Daddy, are you going to win me a trophy?’ I told her, ‘Yes baby, I have been trying to,’ and she said you have not done it yet. Today, we won her one.”
Since the start of the 2023 season, Torrence has had three national-event wins – one in 2023, one in 2024 and one so far in 2025. He has been to the winners circlce each of the last 11 seasons.
“I wouldn’t say that we ever didn’t appreciate a win,” Torrence said. “We have won a race every year since 2012 (with the exception of 2014), so we have a lot of success. I have had years where I won 11 races a couple of times (in 2018 and 2021), so you may take that for granted but it does put it in perspective that this is a lot more difficult than what it seems from the outside.”
