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Four-Time Top Fuel World Champ Maintains Top Fuel Point Lead
CHICAGO, Ill. – Steve Torrence’s return to Route 66 Raceway didn’t go according to plan Sunday but, on a day in which the No. 11 and No. 12 qualifiers raced for the championship, the four-time Top Fuel World Champion still managed to leave with the point lead.
Soon thereafter, the massive rear tires on his 11,000 horsepower CAPCO Contractors entry began to lose traction and the 53-time tour winner could do nothing but watch Leah Pruett drive away for the win.
Although he left Sunday with his track record (3.677 seconds) still intact, the 40-year-old Texan never found the performance that carried him to victories here in 2017 and 2019.
In fact, his No. 8 starting position was his worst of the season and second worst in the last four years. Moreover, he failed to grab a single qualifying bonus point for just the seventh time in his last 51 starts.
Nevertheless, he will begin the qualifying process at the 10th NHRA New England Nationals two weeks hence leading reigning series champ Brittany Force by 17 points and her teammate, Austin Prock, by 27.
The fact that he has led the points after all but one race this year is the more remarkable considering the fact that he has not yet reached the winners’ circle. He’ll get his next chance to rectify that situation in a New England Nationals event he won in 2018 and 2019 contested on a track on which he set the record just a year ago (3.664 seconds).
“It’s been a frustrating season,” he said, “because we’re so close to being where we want to be but we just haven’t been able to put everything together. The good part is that we know it’s coming if we keep working at it and you know these CAPCO boys are going to keep working.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius hybrid and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota and Lexus brands. The company directly employs more than 48,000 people in North America, more than 39,000 of them in the U.S. Over the past 65 years, Toyota has assembled nearly 45 million cars and trucks in North America at the company’s 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, the company’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
Through our more than 1,800 North American dealerships (including nearly 1,500 in the U.S.), Toyota sold more than 2.4 million cars and trucks (more than 2.1 million in the U.S.) in 2022, of which, nearly one quarter were electrified vehicles (full battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell).
About CAPCO Contractors Inc.
Capco Contractors, Inc. is a family owned-and-operated construction company specializing in the oil and gas industries. A proud American company based in Texas with clients around the world, Capco was founded in 1995 by Billy Torrence and initially operated from a small office and one job-site trailer with a staff of only 12 employees. From those humble beginnings, Capco Contactors, Inc. has developed into a full-service pipeline company, capable of all aspects of pipeline work including site work, creation of compressor stations, mainline pipeline construction and pipeline integrity projects. It employs more than 200 people with main offices in Henderson, Texas.
