With the Mission Foods Countdown to the Championship looming just ahead, Team CAPCO moves to improve its Top Fuel championship odds this week with a two-pronged assault on the 42nd Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, a track on which it has had a winner in three of the last five races.
Before four-time World Champion Steve Torrence drove his CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota to victory at BIR in 2021 and 2022, dad Billy coaxed the second CAPCO Toyota to a breakthrough first pro win in 2018, winning from the No. 1 qualifying position and beating Antron Brown in the final on a hole shot.
“We’ve got two good hot rods,” said the younger Torrence. “Everything seems to be coming together at just the right time. That’s what has to happen because, when you get to the Countdown, it doesn’t make any difference what you’ve done before. It’s just about those last six races.”
An outspoken critic of the playoff system introduced by the NHRA in 2007, Torrence nevertheless has adapted to it and, in 2018, became the first and only driver to sweep the six Countdown races.
He’ll start this week at BIR from the No. 3 position in Mission points behind only reigning series champion Doug Kalitta and his teammate, Shawn Langdon. Meanwhile, although he is only No. 8 in the standings, Billy Torrence is just one racing round out of sixth place with this week’s race and the Toyota U.S. Nationals remaining before the totals are adjusted for the Countdown.
Although he’s won eight Top Fuel races, Billy hasn’t celebrated a victory since Sept. 12, 2021, when he prevailed in the Pep Boys Nationals at Reading, Pa. He was runner-up to Langdon at the 2024 season-opener at Gainesville, Fla., but hasn’t escaped the second round in 10 events.
Qualifying begins Friday with sessions at 4:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., Texas time, and continues Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Final eliminations begin Sunday at 10:45 a.m., Texas time.
This story was originally published on August 15, 2024. 
