Nitromater

TORRENCE LOSES ANOTHER CLOSE ONE
Reigning Champ Falls to Antron Brown in Semifinals at Houston Raceway Park

HOUSTON, Texas – Off the drag strip, Reigning Mello Yello Champion Steve Torrence and three-time former champion Antron Brown are best friends.
Together, they host a bible study group at races like Sunday’s 32nd annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Spring Nationals, they compete as Chocolate-and-Crème Racing teammates in off-road events like the Mint 400 and, without a doubt, they are each other’s biggest fan.
However, when they line up against one another, as they did in Sunday’s semifinals at Houston Raceway Park, all bets are off.
“There’s nobody I’d rather beat more than Antron and nobody I hate losing to more,” Torrence said after dropping another narrow decision to his racing nemesis, this one by a razor-thin .005 of a second. It was a doubly painful exit because the outcome was decided at the starting line where Brown’s .063 reaction time was ever-so-slightly better...

MOPAR Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil
Event 5 of 24 (Houston)
Houston Raceway Park
Baytown, Texas
April 12-14, 2019

DSR Houston Friday Highlights:

• Leah Pritchett powered the Pennzoil Top Fuel machine to the third quickest run of the second qualifying session to earn the provisional No. 3 spot
• Jack Beckman banked two bonus points for making the second quickest pass of the opening Funny Car round
• Matt Hagan raced to the third quickest pass of Funny Car Q2
• Beckman, Capps and Hagan will start Saturday from the top half of the Funny Car field

Driver Information:

Top Fuel:

ANTRON BROWN
Driver of the Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster

Q1: 7.022 E.T. at 99.44 MPH
Q2: 3.782 E.T. at 320.74 MPH

Provisional Qualifying Position: No. 12...

...

NHRA® Team Report
NHRA® Spring Nationals – Houston
Pre-Race Report

Cruz Pedregon and team are heading to the Lone Star State and bringing with them the momentum of five very consistent runs and some personal successes aced in Las Vegas last weekend. "Now that I'm back as the tuner, it felt so great to have hit that 3.91 run. That’s the quickest run of my tuning career," Cruz said. "We're all holding our heads high, and we're excited to get to Houston Raceway to keep the positive energy moving forward with this Snap-on Dodge."
"We had the quickest quad of cars, and we could have taken 11 other cars on race day. So we're feeling good about the way things are coming together for the car and the team" says Glenn Huszar, Cruz's crew chief.
The Snap-on Dodge "El Incursor" aka "The Raider" body will be sporting a franchise-focused paint scheme for Cruz's primary sponsor over the next three races. Emblazoned with an "Own It" logo on the hood, it's a highly visible Snap-on...

CHAMP LOOKING FOR FIRST WIN AT SECOND HOME

HOUSTON, Texas – Steve Torrence, the reigning Mello Yello Champion and the Top Fuel favorite in this week’s 32nd Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, has become an inspiration to a new generation of professional drag racers, not so much because of what he has done but because of how he has done it.
In an era in which conventional wisdom suggested that no one could succeed at the sport’s top levels without being part of a multi-car team capable of producing proprietary components including engine, chassis and cylinder heads, Torrence has dominated with one primary race car outfitted with “off the shelf” parts.
"We’re not some big powerhouse that’s building our own parts," said the 36-year-old native Texan. "It’s all about the boys that put these things together and the guys that are making the calls to tune it. It’s the guys that are doing the work and these Capco Boys, they just pay so much attention to...

TORRENCE OUT IN 2ND ROUND AT VEGAS

World Champion’s Four-Wide Victory Streak Ends at Three Straight

LAS VEGAS, Nevada. – The streak ran out Sunday for world champion Steve Torrence whose domination of NHRA four-wide drag racing ended in the second round of the 20th annual Denso Spark Plug Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 36-year-old Texan had driven his Capco Contractors dragster to three straight four-wide wins over the last two seasons but a brief loss of concentration in Sunday’s second round duel with Top Fuel rivals Brittany Force, Doug Kalitta and Richie Crampton cost him a shot at number four.
Force, the 2017 series champion, and Kalitta, the Mello Yello point leader, advanced to the final quad even though Kalitta’s track time of 3.790 was a tick slower than Torrence’s (3.783). The difference came at the starting line where Kalitta forged an .021 of a second advantage in his reaction to the starting signal.
“Doug’s really good on the lights,”...

NHRA® Team Report
NHRA® Four-Wide Nationals – Las Vegas
Pre-Race Report

Cruz Pedregon's Snap-on Funny Car will have a new look when it takes to The Strip this weekend. The team has been in the shop getting the car ready to race in the second annual four-wide at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a Snap-on franchise-themed paint scheme. "I'm very involved with Snap-on franchisees and spend time riding along or hosting events with them before almost every NHRA race," Cruz said. "These are incredibly hard-working professionals. Many of them turned wrenches for a living before they became Snap-on franchisees, and others were in office and management jobs and love the tools just like I do. They are so committed to the brand they take to shops in their routes that it's fun to spend time talking tools and racing with their customers. It's even better that so many of them are racing fans who enjoy coming out and bringing folks with them to the track, so we're proud to have the...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Torrence Aims to Keep Streak Alive
MELLO YELLO CHAMP HAS WON LAST THREE FOUR-WIDE RACES

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – When they go four wide this week (April 5-7) at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, don’t bet against Steve Torrence.
En route to claiming last year’s Mello Yello Top Fuel Championship, Torrence not only won nine traditional events, those in which drivers race as God intended, in pairs, tournament-style, until only one survivor remains, he also swept the two races contested in the four-wide format that has been championed by Speedway Motorsports president Bruton Smith.
In fact, when racing begins Friday in the 20th annual Denso Spark Plugs Nationals, Torrence will be seeking his fourth straight four-wide victory and his third straight trip to the LVMS winners’ circle at the wheel of a Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster in which he dominated the NHRA series the last two seasons.
The 36-year-old cancer survivor won his first four-wide trophy at...