Steve Torrence’s path to a fifth Top Fuel World Championship became less clearly defined Sunday after the 41-year-old Texan and his potent CAPCO Contractors dragster bowed out in the second round of the 24th Ford Performance Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, losing by a scant .022 of a second.
“Not much you can say. The top two guys were out; the door was open, and I just didn’t get us through it,” said the 55-time tour winner. “This can be a very humbling sport and it sure was today. The good thing is that because Justin (Ashley) and Antron (Brown) also got knocked off, we still have an opportunity at Pomona (Calif., site of the season-ending In-N-Out Burger Finals).
“We’ll just have to lick our wounds and get back after it,” he said. “We know we have a good car, and we know we still have a shot. That’s all you can ask for out here.”
When qualifying begins at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragway, Torrence will trail Ashley by 85 points, Brown by 41 and Langdon by 40, margins which are less imposing because of the points-and-a-half element of the season finale in which round wins are worth 30 points instead of the usual 20.
The No. 4 qualifier, Torrence won a shootout with eight-time World Champion Tony Schumacher in round one, winning in 3.700 seconds at a finish line speed of 335.7 mph, his fastest of the weekend.
However, he wasn’t able to duplicate that performance in a second round match with reigning U.S. Nationals champion Clay Millican whose slightly slower 3.726 beat Torrence’s 3.719 by the aforementioned .022 of a second
Driving the second of the CAPCO Toyotas in his 100th pro race, CAPCO founder and CEO Billy Torrence lost to Millican in round one, a setback that knocked him our of the Top 10 in points for the first time this season. He’ll have a chance to reclaim the position in the Pomona finale.
This story was originally published on November 4, 2024. 
