STEVE TORRENCE
We’ve seen some pretty noteworthy interac-
tions on social media and certainly on televi-
sion, and it just feels like there’s a great infu-
sion of energy. Would you agree with that?
I think it makes it not so vanilla. I think that
FOX has done a really good job by coming in and
doing some of these spotlights on different drivers.
When you have a perception of someone
based on a 15-second interview at the top
end, you don’t really get to know that person.
I think that FOX has done a really good job
showcasing individual personalities, letting
you get a more inside glimpse of who the
driver is and who the team is. That’s what
our sport is. You’re based on what (the fans)
see, so I’m proud of what (FOX) has done.
I don’t want to completely take credit for
it, but I’ve noticed a lot more people saying
stuff since I started opening my mouth. It
kind of opened the door for other people to
say some things and, you know, it’s fun. I
talk so much shit to my best friend and he
talks so much shit to me, whatever we’re
doing, and it’s fun. If I can’t do that to
you without you getting mad, that’s you’re
problem. You just ha ve just as much right
to talk back to me. Some people just get a little
more pissed off about it and try to get personal,
and then it’s like, ‘Here we really go, this is even
more fun.’
You’ve been through so much off the track,
overcoming cancer and suffering a heart at-
tack last year. With that said, has it been im-
portant for you to just be yourself at the track
and enjoy yourself through all the ups and
downs of the season?
I don’t want this to seem like I’m taking this or
anything I do at the racetrack lightly. At the end
of the day, this is a legitimate race team business,
and that’s the way that we treat it and that’s what
it is. But people play football for a career, people
drive race cars for a career. Though that’s not
what pays my bills, it is a business and I treat it
that way. With that being said, it’s way more fun
to go drive that Top Fuel dragster than it is to
dig a ditch and put a piece of pipe in it to make
money. So, when you put it in that perspective it
changes your whole mindset.
On Friday through Sunday, I get to get in a
race car and go 330 mph and I just have to drive
this thing the best I possibly can, and I’ve got the
best guys working on it. How can you not have a
good time doing this? It took some time for me to
think about it that way. I guess if I had to depend
on my next deal coming from how I performed it
might be a little bit different, but I still approach
it with that intensity. I approach my driving and
success, and just the will to win with that same
intensity. I think there’s other things that motivate
you just as much and that’s to be successful at the
pinnacle of your chosen sport.
Being in this position for the first time in
your Top Fuel career and having that target
on your back, how do you approach the rest
of the season, including the Countdown to
the Championship, as you try to win a world
championship?
I won a championship in Top Alcohol Dragster
in 2005 and we clinched the championship at
Dallas that year, so before the season was even
over. There’s a lot of similarities in what happened
then and what’s going on now to me, and it’s made
me reflect and think back to those situations and
those particular rounds when there’s a lot on the
line. And you don’t do anything different.
You do what you did to get there and you
continue to do it, because nothing changes
in those last six races that we haven’t done
in the first 18.
We’re there to win rounds and win races,
and at the end of the day the points will
completely take care of themselves. We
don’t need to worry about them, we don’t
need to look at them. Somebody else is
counting them and they’re going to be ac-
curate, and I don’t have to worry about it.
It’s not like I’m playing golf and I have to
keep my own score. The only time it’s going
to matter to me is at the end of Indy and at
the end of Pomona. I just gotta go out there
and do the best I can and so does everyone
else on the race team.
We’re not going to change anything. We’re
going to continue to do the same thing we’ve done
all year, and if you feel like you’ve got to come
into that situation with a different outlook or a
different plan, then you’re missing the boat. We’ve
had a lot of success doing what we’re doing and,
right now, it’s working better than anybody else.
We don’t want to change that and that goes for my
guys. As far as me, the last few races I couldn’t tell
you who was in the other lane because it didn’t
matter. I knew what I was going to do. I had a
plan when I went to the starting line every time,
just being calm, confident and relaxed. That’s
when you perform at you’re highest and your
peak, when you go in there and you’re not cocky,
you just know what you gotta do and you do DI it. DI DI
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