STEVE TORRENCE FINISHES SECOND IN HOME RACE
Father Billy reaches semifinals in Top Fuel; J.R. Todd semifinalist in Funny Car
ENNIS, Texas (October 15, 2023) – Steve Torrence came up just short of a third Texas FallNationals victory this afternoon at Texas Motorplex, his home race. The Texas native lost on a holeshot run by Leah Pruett in the Top Fuel finals Sunday afternoon. Torrence’s run to the finals included defeating his father, Billy, in the semifinals by a mere 0.018 seconds. Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta were the other Toyota Top Fuel racers to advance past the first round.
In Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsport’s J.R. Todd led the charge for Toyota by taking his DHL GR Supra to the semifinals. This was Todd’s fifth semifinals appearance of the season and his first since Indianapolis last month where he reached the Funny Car finals. His Team Toyota teammates, Ron Capps and Alexis DeJoria, were eliminated in the first round.
With two races remaining in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, Kalitta is now second in the Top Fuel standings, followed by Torrence (third), Justin Ashley (fourth) and Brown (fifth). In Funny Car, Capps sits in fourth, Todd is sixth and DeJoria is ninth as the series shifts to the Nevada Nationals at Las Vegas in two weeks.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Texas NHRA Fall Nationals
Texas Motorplex
Race 19 of 21
TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Steve Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Finalist | W 3.664 vs. B. Hull (3.739) W 3.684 vs. A. Brown (3.736) W 3.697 vs. B. Torrence (3.715) L 3.662 vs. L. Pruett (3.684- Holeshot win) |
| Billy Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Semi-finals | W 3.664 vs. T. Schumacher (5.326) W 3.713 vs. S. Massey (3.752) L 3.715 vs. S. Torrence (3.697) |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W 3.682 vs. A. Prock (5.861) L 3.736 vs. S. Torrence (3.684) |
| Doug Kalitta | Mobil 1 Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W 3.689 vs. J. Hart (9.918) L 4.319 vs. L Pruett (3.697) |
| Justin Ashley | Leatherwood Distillery Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | First Round | L 4.356 vs. C. Millican (3,789) |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | First Round | L No Run vs. L. Pruett (3.678) |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Semi-finals | W 3.882 vs. B. Alexander (4.164) W 3.928v s. T. Haddock (5.920) L 6.830 vs. J. Force (4.711) |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | First Round | L 5.238 vs. T. Wilkerson (4.416) |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | First Round | L 8.428 vs. A. Laughlin (4.237) |
TOYOTA QUOTES
STEVE TORRENCE, Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Torrence Racing
TF Final Result: Finalist
How would you describe your day and weekend overall?
“Well, bottom line is we wound up on the wrong end of a really good drag race. That’s the bad news. The good news is, we’re taking a bad ass race car to Las Vegas and Pomona for these last two races of the Countdown. I think we’re peaking at the very best time to win a championship. We know the game, it’s all about the last six races. Now, it’s about the last two. So, we’ll polish everything up and head out west. One round separates the three of us – me, Leah (Pruett) and Doug (Kalitta), so it all comes down to a two-race shootout and I wouldn’t want to go into it with anybody but these bad-to-the-bone Capco Contractors boys.”
J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports
FC Final Result: Semi-finals
Take us through your day and run there in the semi-finals.
“It was a good day overall going rounds and getting to the later rounds – that’s always the key. We were pretty tuned up there for the semifinals against (John) Force because that car’s been really good all weekend. We figured we had to make a really strong run against them, and we both went up there and threw up. I just hate it when I feel like I could have done a better job pedaling the car. I just hate to give those away. This is definitely the best race we’ve had in a long time. We qualified really well and made our best run there in the fourth qualifying session – it was the best run we’d made in a really long time. That definitely shows some promise going into the last two races of the year. The guys are working really hard for DHL, Revchem, SealMaster and Toyota and not giving up. We’re doing all we can to go out here, run hard and finish strong.”
About Toyota
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