NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

After finishing the 2018 season with an unprecedented six-race win-streak sweep of the Countdown to the Championship, world champ Steve Torrence is winless through five Top Fuel races this season. Is he worried? Hardly.

“Honestly, you look at the deal and see that we haven’t done that good and we haven’t won, but we’re still third in the points, so obviously we’re not doing that bad,” he noted. “It’s just not the performance we had for the last six races of last season or most of the year last year. 

Torrence entered the 2019 season riding a 24-round win streak, just seven shy of eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher’s record, set in 2008, and quickly added three more at the Winternationals, and it looked like for all the world the rampage would continue, but he was  stopped in the final round by Doug Kalitta and hasn’t been back to the money round since then.

Again, no reason for panic in Camp Capco. Their early-season malaise can be attributed to one thing: testing.

“I won’t say we’ve changed our mindsets because we’re still out here but we’re taking this opportunity right now to figure some things out with the car and try a few things to make it better,” he explained. “We think there’s room for improvement; this sport is always evolving.

“This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. We learned that the hard way in 2017. I’m not concerned at all. These guys have got a handle on it and we’re moving in the right direction. It’s not the time to be consistent right now; it’s the time to figure things out.

“The biggest thing that got us to where we were last year was hard work and consistency. I think we still have that, we’re just trying to go a little quicker. I feel like we’re still the same old Capco boys from last year; we just haven’t flexed our muscles yet. We haven’t absolutely hit the nail on the head yet but we’re getting pretty close.””

After a first-round stumble in Phoenix –- where his father, Billy won -– Torrence lost in round two at Gainesville but then went to the semifinals at the four-wide event in Las Vegas and again two weeks ago in Houston. 

And even though he knows the needed testing is the main reason behind his winless season, that doesn’t mean that the champ isn’t still champing at the bit to get back to the winner’s circle, fueled by the whispers of some of his opponents who no doubt are relishing his absence from the podium.

“At Vegas I changed my mindset from out there having a good time to all enemies, no friends,” he said. “There’s a couple of guys who are making that easy for me right now, just hearing some things that are being said.”

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Fans on TV may have seen Torrence go through a very particular ritual before each run. Once his helmet is on and buckled, he’ll walk up to the smoked rear-side window of his crew vehicle and stare at his own reflection.

We had to know: What’s going on there, Steve?

“That’s a little Steve Torrence time right there,” he confessed. “That’s where I try to get my focus and direction of what I’m doing and then get in the car. From that point right there, I don’t talk to anyone. That’s where I zone in. Sometimes it’s a good conversation, sometimes it’s a bad conversation. But I’m that crazy guy who talks to himself in the mirror."

How does that good conversation go?

“I know what to do; I’ve been in some pretty high-stress situations the last couple of years and been able to show that I know what I’m doing, and sometimes I just need to remind myself of that.”

And the bad conversation?

“Get your head out of your ass, dude.”

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One thing that stats keepers have noticed is an obvious drop in Torrence’s reaction-time stats, which he says is not a direct reflection on having his head where it doesn’t belong, but an understandable by-product of their clutch testing.

“There are some races this year that we should have won, whether it was me or the car,” he allowed. “My lights haven’t been what they were last year. I haven’t had the clutch hit when I need it to, but I haven’t forgot how to do it. Some of the things we’re trying have adversely affected the traction time of the car, but we’re still at the drawing board. There are some things we can do to pick it up but we have to work on getting the car to run quicker. We’ll probably stay here and test Monday with Dom [Lagana] driving.”

And with victories at three of the last four-wide events on the schedule, including the last two at zMAX Dragway, the cowboy is still sitting tall in the saddle.

“We’ll be fine,” he said. “We haven’t won a race, but this is a good place to start. No one has done better than us at four-wides lately.”