When he was dominating the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series, winning four consecutive Top Fuel world championships at the wheel of an all-conquering CAPCO Contractors dragster, Steve Torrence admits that he was a different racer than he is on the eve of this week’s 39th Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
Now married and the father of two young daughters, the 41-year-old Texan has acknowledged that his priorities have changed since he won this race in 2018 on the way to sweeping the six events in the NHRA Countdown.
“I guess I’m not racing with a chip on my shoulder like I was back then,” he said, “but I’m getting some of that edge back and I feel good about where we are.
“Hoagie and Bobby (crew chiefs Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr.) are getting more comfortable with this set-up every week and now it’s up to me to do my part to get us back to where we want to be.”
Coming off another impressive performance in drag racing’s biggest single event, Torrence starts the latest Countdown in fourth place, 41 points behind regular season champion Doug Kalitta.
Dad Billy, founder and president of CAPCO and driver of the second of the team’s Top Fuel Toyotas, starts 10th in a race in which he hoisted the trophy the last time he ran it in 2021.
A member of drag racing’s 500 Club, reserved for pro drivers who have won at least that many competitive rounds, the younger Torrence has lacked consistency this year, as was the case in 2022 and 2023. Nevertheless, he’s qualified No. 1 at two of the last four events, earning a victory at Seattle, Wash., before finishing second to Clay Millican in the Toyota U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
“We have a great car right now,” said the 55-time tour winner and former Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion (2005).“Our problem has been getting the car and the driver on the same page at the same race. To win out here, as competitive as it is, you gotta have both. You gotta have a car, but the driver has to do his job, too.”
This story was originally published on September 12, 2024. 
