SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Drag-racing dynasties are a bit like fireworks, which amaze us with a burst of vivid color and delight us over and over with the same bold power and bright sparkle — only to fizzle into the night sky and vaporize, as though we never really witnessed them at all.
Longtime NHRA fans know they saw John Force turn his ragtag Funny Car program into the best the sport has ever seen with 16 championships, including 10 in consecutive years. And they watched Bob Glidden rule in Pro Stock from 1974 to ’89. Tony Schumacher put on a show in the early 2000s with six straight titles among his eight in Top Fuel.
Now comes the challenge for Steve Torrence, Top Fuel’s current king.
Torrence is seeking his fifth straight crown, but this season hasn’t been a breeze.
The 51-time winner has said many times this year that with a number of teams stepping up their performance levels to intensify the competition, his Capco Contractors team wants to elevate its own, as well.
“The thing about this sport is that you can’t just stand still,” Torrence said. “You have to change or get left behind. Everybody we race out there is constantly trying to do something to get just a little quicker, a little faster. So, really, our biggest enemy is our own success, because when you get too comfortable, you start to lose your edge.”
The downside of upgrading is that it takes time. And with growth comes growing pains. In Torrence’s case, crew chief Richard Hogan and the team are experimenting with tune-ups for various conditions, parts and other variants.
“We didn’t win four championships and just forget what we were doing,” he said. “We’re trying to build a better set-up for ourselves.”
That seems like an easy enough concept to understand.
But by the 10th of 22 events, Torrence expressed his frustration in an interview with FOX.
“Every time you interview me, it’s always something negative, asking about what we’re not doing or what do we have to do to win,” Torrence said. “We’re doing what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to build our program. I’ve got all the confidence in these guys. We’re still in a good place. We’ve still got a great team. Everything’s going good. Just get tired of the same old questions every day.”
Indeed, Torrence is “in a good place.”
He hasn’t been lower in the standings than fourth. Overall, he has won 65.9 percent of his elimination rounds. And even this year, with no victories in the first half of the season, he still had a winning record and has been a top-three driver. Those are results that full-time racers and multi-time champions Antron Brown and Schumacher — who were not qualified for the Countdown at the halfway point — would be thrilled to have.
Once the six-race Countdown starts in mid-September, NHRA adjusts the points, bunching the top 10.
First- and second-place Top Fuel and Funny Car racers will be separated by 20 points, while the second- through 10th-place contenders will be separated by 10 points.
So it wouldn’t have mattered if Torrence had led the standings and opened up a 300-point lead over his closest competitor — the system would have erased his advantage. He’s an intensely focused racer, so he wants to win every race he enters, just because he wants to win, not because he has a Countdown strategy.
Torrence never has been a fan of the sanctioning body’s manipulation, but he understands the business of working smart instead of simply working hard. (And the oil-and-gas pipeline digger from east Texas knows all about hard work, too.)
That means Torrence knows his chances for a fifth championship in a row aren’t damaged if he doesn’t win a sizeable chunk of the first 16 events in the “regular season.”
Is he sandbagging? No.
He has been transparent about what is going on with his team and it’s no more or less than what he has said. The Countdown will reveal whether his uncharacteristic showing so far has handed momentum or hope to Mike Salinas, Brittany Force or anyone else.
What does it take to forge — and maintain — a dynasty in NHRA nitro racing?
No one really has answered that question.
Don Schumacher Racing all but dissolved last fall after ruling the sport for two decades, so building and sustaining a dynasty clearly is difficult. Force, with his organization of champions, has had its tough stretches with finances, personnel and performance.
Kalitta Motorsports, for all its human and economic assets, hasn’t had ideal results, either.
It’s just what happens when drag racing collides with life and the harsh realities of business, plus the unpredictability of sports in general.
Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher reigned in Top Fuel for almost a decade, then the era of Antron Brown began. Just when Brown looked to have a stranglehold on the Top Fuel class, Torrence came along with his take-no-prisoners mindset and the best of all resources to thoroughly dominate in a way none of the previous dominators had done.
So who will the fireworks celebrate at the end of this season? Is Torrence’s grasp on the crown slipping?
Or did he just loosen his grip momentarily in order to get a tighter hold?