NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Things will only get tougher for Steve Torrence in 2020. The Texan won his second championship in 2019, narrowly keeping Doug Kalitta from lifting the Top Fuel trophy at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, culminating a three-year stretch of unprecedented dominance. That incredible run has inspired challengers to come for the throne in 2020, and it includes familiar faces.

Shawn Langdon returns to Top Fuel after a two-year dalliance in Funny Car, Antron Brown and Brian Corradi are back together after the tuner spent two years tuning John Force Racing Funny Cars, Austin Prock returns after a one-win rookie season as the reaction-time leader, and Justin Ashley will run at least half a season after obliterating the Christmas Tree in limited action in 2019. 

READ MORE: Antron Brown set to form AB Motorsports / Brian Corradi rejoins team

And that’s just the start of the list, setting the stage for what figures to be one of the greatest Top Fuel fields of all time when the 2020 Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com begins in February. Brittany Force and David Grubnic get another season to work together after a top-three finish, Kalitta returns for another shot at glory following a narrow miss at the top, and Mike Salinas comes loaded for bear with Alan Johnson to run down a title. 

Torrence and the Capco Contractors teams faced tough competition in each of their title-winning seasons but not quite to this degree. Don Schumacher Racing posed the biggest threat to Torrence in 2017 until the Countdown to the Championship rolled around, and Force stormed to her first title. She entered the playoffs as the No. 6 seed and went 15-3 with three Wallys to upset Torrence in her Alan Johnson-tuned dragster. 

This will still be a category dominated by those with the quickest cars, make no mistake, but reaction time has never mattered so much in a nitro category. The average reaction time over the past three seasons has been .074, .078, and .074; the middle of the three numbers a high-water mark for the decade while 2013 (.070) represents the best the 2010s had to offer. 

What makes the 2020 field so promising is the combination of terrific drivers with competitive cars. Brown is the best Top Fuel driver of all time, and he has been paired back with the crew chief that helped him win all three of his world championships. 

Kalitta came three points away from winning his first world championship in 2019 and averaged a .065 light, Prock led the class in reaction-time average and will get a second shot with Mike Green and Joc Barlam on board, Ashley cut nothing but great lights in his limited audition on the big stage, and Langdon is a former world champion who has cut down the Tree every time someone has handed him an axe. 

Torrence must always be considered a plural threat based on the team’s excellence in 2019. His father, Billy Torrence, averaged a .077 reaction time and drove a car nearly identical to his son’s while making the Countdown and finishing fifth. The new points system means everyone who makes at least two qualifying runs at all 18 regular-season events, or finishes in the top 10, gets a shot at the title. That means an even wider open field once the playoffs begin in September following the NHRA U.S. Nationals.

NHRA Top Fuel hasn’t looked this promising from top to bottom since the 2013 season when Force was a rookie and Langdon became a Top Fuel world champion. 

The Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals will set the tune for the 2020 season, and based on the Top Fuel entry list, it sounds like it’s going to be on key.