NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Over the last two-plus seasons, Steve Torrence has owned zMAX Dragway. The deed may say that Bruton Smith actually owns “the Bellagio of Drag Racing,” but Torrence has occupied the winner’s circle so often that he ought to be granted residency at least. He’s won the last three races at zMAX and four of the last five dating back to the 2018 Four-Wide Nationals and he enters raceday as the No. 1 qualifier.

He won the 2018 fall race here en route to an unprecedented, perfect six-for-six Countdown sweep then returned earlier this year and won the Four-Wides again. And now he's looking to chart another record.

Throughout NHRA history, on tracks that have hosted multiple races in one year, only Pro Stock drivers Greg Anderson and Erica Enders have swept those events in consecutive seasons, both doing it in Las Vegas –- Anderson in 2003-04 and Enders in 2104-15. Torrence is poised to be the first to do it in Top Fuel, an odd stat since he won just one round in his first five starts at zMAX dating back to 2010.

“To be honest, I don’t know what it is that makes us run so well here lately,” he admitted. “We're trying to figure it out I hope we can take it other places.

“I just think that Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana have a good handle on the car. This track is so good, but it's got a tricky starting line. You get a lot of wheel speed free here -- it gets going fast on its own -- and if you have too much early you can't control it further out. That's happened to a lot of cars on Friday.”

One thing that Torrence –- and everyone else –- knows is that he won’t repeat that perfect Countdown from last year. That question was answered early when he was upset by Clay Millican in round one of the Countdown opener in Reading, Pa.

“We stumbled in Reading,” he agreed. “I think we had a little bit of a lax attitude coming in there. We’d been trying some things through the Western Swing and in Brainerd, then didn’t have the success we’d hoped for in Indy, so maybe we had relaxed a little too much. We redirected our focus, and everyone got back on the same page and back to the drawing board and went back to what had gotten us to that point and we turned it around in St. Louis. You don’t want to do anything different in the last six than what you did in the first 18.

His mentality is also well forged now from the fire of the Countdown battle in 2017 -– where he lost the lead after crashing in Dallas and, ultimately, the championship to Brittany Force -– and last year’s sweep.

“I handle the whole situation a lot different after ’17,” he said. “You can’t allow yourself to succumb to the pressure or look at the situation for what it is. You can’t lose focus on what you’re doing and don’t get distracted by all the hoopla and the drama that surrounds the championship chase.”