Top Fuel ace Steve Torrence has left no doubt that he never has cared for four-wide drag racing.

And Torrence left no doubt Sunday at the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Concord, N.C., that despite his disdain for it, he has been completely in control with the novelty format.

For Torrence, it was his third straight four-wide victory and third victory in five races. He took sole possession of the points lead when tire-smoking Tony Schumacher failed to advance from his first-round quad.

The Capco Contractors Dragster driver won the final quartet in 3.813 seconds at 326.56 mph, leaving runner-up Doug Kalitta about 84 feet in his wake on the 1,000-foot zMAX Dragway course. Kalitta ran 4.010 seconds at 278.12 mph in the Mac Tools Dragster.

However, Torrence didn’t talk like a dominator.

“It’s pretty unbelievable. We didn’t do the best through qualifying. We haven’t had the best car all year,” Torrence said. “We’ve been working on some stuff. I think that we can easily go back and run what we did at the end of the year last year and just stay consistently there. But you’ve got to constantly evolve your program. You’ve got to change, try to go quicker. It’s just something you’ve got to keep working at.”

He said crew chief Richard Hogan “gas been trying things. And there’s no better time to try than in qualifying.” Torrence started fourth on the 16-car grid.

In spite of his enviable performance so far this season, he spoke like a hard-luck racer trying to crack the top 10: “Even though it’s frustrating, I know there’s some light at the end of the tunnel and the car’s doing really well. We went back to our generic set-up, with a few minor changes for today. The car performed flawlessly and did what it was supposed to do. I’ll put Richard Hogan up against anybody out here when the track gets greasy. Some of these guys can go out and outrun us pretty good when it’s cool and the conditions are mineshaft. But when it’s tricky and not everybody can go down it, that guy can go down a wet street. He’s the guy. And I’ve got a lot of faith in my [crew]. They’re the reason for every bit of the success. Everybody says it, but that is the true story right there. I just drive the race car and make sure I don’t run over anything or do anything real dumb. But they cover my butt a lot.”

Torrence said that in the final round, “I had my money on Doug. But I knew that we could go down through there. We spun the tire a little bit in the semifinal, and they went right down that same racetrack, so I thought we might have our hands full with those guys. Any way you look at it, a win is a win. It may not have been the prettiest, but it’s fun, and we need those Mello Yello points.”

Torrence denied Kalitta his first four-wide victory and back-to-back triumphs here. A victory would have been Kalitta’s 45th, which would keep him in the No. 5 all-time spot in Top Fuel history but put him just four behind Antron Brown for No. 4. Most of Kalitta’s success at this track has come at the fall race, which he won last September from the No. 1 starting position. Two of his three previous final-round appearances were at the fall event, and he has led the field twice here in the Countdown race. He did reach the spring race final in 2010.

“We were so close to our first four-wide win but came up short,” Kalitta said. “But still a solid race for our team. We picked up some valuable points, and I feel confident about our chances going into Atlanta."

When the tour shifts this coming weekend to Atlanta Dragway for the NHRA Southern Nationals Powered by Mello Yello, Pomona winner Kalitta will be seeking his 50th No. 1 qualifying performance.

Terry McMillen and Clay Millican completed the Top Fuel class’ final-round quad Sunday.

McMillen, in the Amalie Oil Dragster, defeated Torrence by .0027 of a second, or about 14 inches, to win their semifinal grouping and advance to his second straight final round. Millican, driving the Parts Plus/Great Clips Dragster, is a multi-time IHRA Top Fuel champion who was seeking only his second NHRA victory and first in nearly a year (since the June 2017 Bristol race). The two-time top qualifier this season also set low elapsed time at three of the first five races this year.

In this third quad grouping with Torrence, McMillen finished third with a 4.361-second pass at 235.72 mph. Millican, who lost traction, trailed McMillen by about 100 feet by the finish line at 5.295/129.97.

Torrence shared the winners circle with Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock), Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Jose Gonzalez (Pro Modified).  And he said he’s going back home to Kilgore, Texas, with a trophy to present to his father Billy, who turned 60 years old Saturday.

Torrence said he had no idea what the formula for success at a four-wide race is.

“Sometimes my focus and concentration isn’t the best. And I have a tendency to overthink and over-analyze and go up there and just not do my job. It’s super-cliché to say it over and over because Tony has worn the phrase out, ‘being a machine,’ but you can’t be a thinking part of this vehicle. You have to be in it and be mechanical,“ he said. “When you’re thinking about anything other than that yellow light comes on and you hit the gas, then you’re typically late. I wasn’t the best on the Tree this weekend. Last year I was crushing it pretty solid. Final round, I’m looking at the wrong side of the Tree and I end up double-bulbing everybody. I had to get out and apologize to all those guys real quick, because I did not mean to do that. But end of the day, it was a much-needed win. The Good Lord looked after us, and we had a safe, successful weekend. We need to continue this momentum.”

By contrast, Schumacher, who lost his grip on the points lead, needed to find his momentum. However, he said he’s not panicking.

“My U.S. Army [Dragster] crew is as good as anyone, and we’ll get it figured out,” he said. “We are all adjusting to the traction NHRA is providing. I’m not surprised with how unpredictable things went today in the first round. We knew it going in that there were going to be changes. It’s not like 20 crew chiefs became idiots last night. We just have to get used to it and bring the cars to it. When the track warms up, it becomes a little more predictable. The first quad there was an oil down. The second quad there was an oildown. When there is that much span in between runs, the track is just not good. You want to go one pair after the other, but we didn’t get that opportunity because of the oildowns and the blow-ups. That didn’t help us today.

“Hat’s to off to Steve Torrence and his team. They went out and won the race. We make no excuses,” Schumacher said. “I am a firm believer there is a reason. We had too much power. We missed it. That’s the reason. I wouldn’t want to race against our car right now. We are bad to the bone and looking forward to showing in Atlanta.”

That’s where Torrence’s eight-victory 2017 season gained traction, propelling him to a second-place finish in the standings.