Close, But No Cigar for Torrence

The stars seemed to be aligned Sunday for four-time Top Fuel World Champion Steve Torrence, which made his second-round exit from the Carolina 4Wide Nationals at ZMax Dragway especially frustrating.

Racing in a discipline in which he had proven himself a master, winning more four-across races than anyone else in the sport, the 42-year-old Texan sped to a first quad win at the wheel of a resurgent CAPCO Contractors Toyota that stopped the timers in 3.754 seconds.  

That would prove to be the quickest time of the day and it gave him and crew chiefs Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr. their choice of lanes for the second quad.

They went right back to the well, opting to return to the same lane in which they won the first quad and in which they posted the third quickest qualifying time of 3.720 seconds.

However, third time proved not to be a charm for the 56-time Mission Foods tour winner.  Although he left the starting line first against Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican, he was last to the finish after his 12,000-horsepower hot rod lost traction early on..  

That result puts his longshot title bid on life support as the tour moves this week to St. Louis for the 29th NAPA Midwest Nationals.

Starting ninth in the playoffs after opting to bypass four of the 14 races leading up to the playoffs, Torrence will begin qualifying Friday in eighth place, two racing rounds behind Millican, who currently occupies the No. 5 position.

“We had a shot today,” said the only driver to sweep the races in the Countdown (2018), “but there’s still a lot of racing ahead on tracks where we’ve had success, like St. Louis.  We’re just gonna do our program the way we do it and see what happens, but it’s fun being back in the hunt, I’ll tell you that.”