Torrence on a 4-Wide Ride at ZMax

There was a time when Steve Torrence would have delivered a scathingly negative response to the NHRA’s decision to interject four-wide racing into its Countdown to the Championship, as it will this week with the 17th running of the Carolina Nationals at ZMax Dragway. 

This is not that time, however.  Since he became the Grand Poobah of four-across racing, winner of more four-wide events than anyone else on the planet, the four-time World Champion’s perspective has changed.

There’s no question about it,” Torrence said.  “I wasn’t a big fan, and I was vocal about it.  After a couple years, though, it was pretty clear that four-wide racing wasn’t going away, so we either had to get good at it or get out.”

To the dismay of his rivals, the 42-year-old Texas businessman found a way to “get good at it” and he now hopes to use that expertise to propel himself and his CAPCO Contractors Toyota back into the championship conversation after they started the Countdown in ninth place, the result of sitting out four events during the regular season.

After a strong performance in last week’s Countdown opener at Reading, Pa., where he reached the semifinals, Torrence hopes to gain more ground before the playoffs head west for an eventual “home race” at the Texas Motorplex, a track on which he has been a finalist six of the last 10 years during the track’s signature “Stampede of Speed.”

“It’s still a long shot,” he said of the championship, “but last week was encouraging.  The car was good and so was the driver.  Finally got everybody on the same page.”

The only driver to have swept the races in the Countdown, the 56-time Mission Foods tour winner will start the qualifying phase in eighth place, just 28 points behind Clay Millican and Shawn Reed, who share the No. 5 position.

Although he won four consecutive four-wide starts at ZMax from 2017 through 2021 (there was no race in the COVID-shortened 2020 season), Torrence started his four across career by advancing out of the first quad just two times in five starts.

The aforementioned attitude change reversed his fortunes, however, and when the four-wide phenomenon was expanded to include The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he won there in 2018 and 2021 and was runner-up on two other occasions.

“There’s no secret (to winning in the four-wide discipline),” he said, “but it’s a team effort.  Richard and Bobby (crew chiefs Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr.) and these CAPCo boys have to do all the work because they have to be able to make adjustments for four lanes instead of just two. For me, it’s just about staying focused.” 

Qualifying for the first four-wide race in the Countdown’s 18-year history begins with a pair of sessions at 3:45 p.m. and 6 p.m., Texas time, on Friday.  Two final qualifying sessions are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., Texas time, Saturday with final eliminations beginning Sunday morning at 10:30, Texas time.