By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Capco Contractors Top Fuel Dragster pilot Steve Torrence is the provisional No. 1 qualifier in his class on Friday at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina. Torrence went 3.711 at 325.53 mph at the 2019 NHRA Carolina Nationals.
Torrence will attempt to pick up his third No. 1 qualifier of the season. If his time holds up, it’ll be his 23rd No. 1 qualifier of his career.
“It’s way too early to start counting points,” he cautioned. “If you even remotely start looking at them, you can allow that whole thing to get in your head and don’t want that there for this race or any of the next three races. As a team and a driver we do the best we can to keep that at bay and concentrate on the task at hand, which is to qualify well, and we had two good runs. Tomorrow we’ll work on our Sunday tune-up and, like I said last year, you need to go out and try to win all of the [rounds] and let the points take care of themselves.”
DHL/Kalitta Air Top Fuel Dragster pilot Richie Crampton is the provisional No. 2 qualifier. The Brownsburg, Indiana native went 3.742 at 328.06 mph.
Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster pilot Antron Brown is the provisional No. 3 qualifier. The Pittsboro, Indiana native went 3.758 at 328.94 mph.
Capco Contractors Top Fuel Dragster pilot Billy Torrence is the provisional No. 4 qualifier. The Kilgore, Texas native went 3.765 at 325.77 mph.
Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster pilot Doug Kalitta is the provisional No. 5 qualifier. The Saline, Michigan native went 3.777 at 326.48 mph.
The rest of the provisional field looks like this:
6) Mike Salinas, 3.793, 329.91 mph
7) Pat Dakin, 3.798, 320.28 mph
8) Terry McMillen, 3.806, 318.24 mph
9) Brittany Force, 3.829, 271.46 mph
10) Justin Ashley, 3.831, 319.67 mph
11) Clay Millican, 4.467, 173.14 mph
12) Chris Karamesines, 4.773, 163.93 mph
13) Cameron Ferré, 5.014, 147.79 mph
14) Austin Prock, 5.646, 122.60 mph
15) Leah Pritchett, 6.346, 95.64 mph
16) Smax Smith, 7.577, 73.07 mph
Not Qualified:
17) Todd Paton, 11.622, 89.25 mph
18) Lex Joon, 15.893, 48.20 mph
