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 By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Four-time defending NHRA Top Fuel champ Steve Torrence hasn't always been a fan of the Countdown to the Championship format that adjusts the points at the start of the playoffs, placing an enormous importance on the final six races of the year.

Four-time defending Top Fuel world champ Steve Torrence will chasing a fifth straight title in the upcoming NHRA Countdown to the Championship. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

But this is one season that the Countdown format could pay dividends for the 39-year-old Texan, who is trying to become just the fourth driver in NHRA pro drag racing history to win as many as five straight series championships.

Torrence, who is competing in this weekend's NHRA Menard’s Nationals at Heartland Motorsports Park, saw a huge points lead erased by the Countdown format in 2017, with Brittany Force going on to win the Camping World Drag Racing Series championship.

But Torrence is one of the drivers in chase mode this season and having the points re-set in three races could be a benefit.

“We’re just trying to use the Countdown to our advantage, like Brittany did,” Torrence said in a team release. “Whether you like the rules or not, if you’re gonna play the game, you have to play by whatever’s there.  That’s the lesson we learned.”

After the disappointing end to 2017, Torrence made history when he in '18 when he swept the Countdown races to win the first of his four straight titles.

Now, Torrence and his Capco Contractors crew chiefs, Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr., are trying to make sure the car is at his best when the playoffs start on Sept. 15 at Maple Grove Raceway.

“We’re just using the races before the Countdown to work through some issues,” Torrence said.  “We haven’t been the dominant car all season but we’re trying to see if we can be the dominant car the last six races  I feel confident (in the changes we’ve made) even though it hasn’t paid off in wins. I think that you just have to stay the course. You don’t get to be on top of the mountain by not having to overcome obstacles. 

"I think we're getting there. I'm starting to see some consistency, which has been the hardest thing to get back to.  I know what these Capco boys are trying to do and I know what the car is doing and it’s aligning itself very closely.  We’re just picking away at it a little bit at a time.  It’s a mental game.  We had a plan and to be successful, we know we have to execute that plan to the end.

“We’ve got three more races to fine tune everything before we really have to kick it in gear for the Countdown. We’re a solid fourth in points and could gain a spot or two.  When Brittany won, she started sixth.”

Torrence has gone to the semifinals or beyond in his last five appearances in the Menards Nationals, winning a family feud with dad Billy to reach the winners’ circle in 2019, the only time he has started the race No. 1.

The first round of Top Fuel qualifying is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, followed by a pair of qualifying sessions at 3 and 6 o'clock on Saturday.

Eliminations will begin at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

MENARDS NHRA NATIONALS PRESENTED BY PETARMOR

At Heartland Motorsports Park

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