Still on a mission to extend Top Fuel drag racing’s longest active winning streak, Texan Steve Torrence goes back to work this week at Route 66 Raceway, where he and his CAPCO Contractors Toyota will be among the favorites in the 25th running of the Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals.
A two-time winner of an event that was not contested in 2020, 2021 or 2022, the four-time world champion is trying to win a Mission Foods tour event for the eleventh straight season and tie the mark set by reigning series champ and close friend Antron Brown, a Top Fuel winner every year from 2008 through 2018.
Torrence’s latest bid in pursuit of that milestone will begin on a Chicago track on which he is the record-holder for elapsed time at 3.677 seconds, a mark he established six years ago.
The just-turned-42-year-old rancher and businessman and his CAPCO Boys return to Route 66 in the midst of what, for them, is a significant victory drought.
Torrence hasn’t raised a trophy since last July when he beat Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon in the final two rounds to win the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Seattle. He’s been shut out of the winner’s circle in his last 13 starts.
Nevertheless, he is more encouraged about his chances of ending that frustration after a productive test session Monday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
The only driver to have won World Championships in both the Top Fuel and Top Alcohol categories (he was the 2005 Top Alcohol Dragster Champion), Torrence will begin his latest bid for a 56th Mission Foods tour victory in nitro qualifying sessions at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Texas time, on Friday. Qualifying continues Saturday at 12 noon and 2:30 p.m. Texas time and concludes eliminations begin at 10:30 a.m., Texas time, Sunday.
This story was originally published on May 15, 2025. 
