The mission is simple for Steve Torrence win NHRA’s Top Fuel world championship, especially letting it slip away to Brittany Force.

Torrence, who pilots his family-owned Capco contractors dragster, got off to a great start in his quest for a world title this past weekend.

Torrence won the Dodge Nationals in Reading, Pa., the first race in NHRA’s six-race Countdown to the Championship.

Torrence clocked a 3.819-second elapsed run at 325.45 mph to edge Tony Schumacher’s 4.196-second run at 234.82 mph.

“We are not going to make any predictions, but we are not here to be second best,” Torrence said. “We were runner-up here (at Reading) last year and we were ahead, and the car just shut off. That was fresh on our minds and winning the championship is pretty fresh on our minds. We want to do everything we can to solidify that. I think these Capco boys have really hunkered down and even directed their focus more than last year. I couldn’t have done it without them. They saved my butt (Sunday) and I saved theirs and we paid each other back pretty quick.”

Torrence entered the Countdown first in the points standings and stretched his lead over second-place Clay Millican from 20 points to 50 points. Schumacher also is tied with Millican for second in the points.

This was Torrence’s 22nd career national event win and sixth this season, a class high.

“This was a great way to start the Countdown and I’m looking forward to it,” Torrence said. “We have five more races left and we need to win all of those. I’m naturally intense. As the year has gone I’ve been a little more relaxed and I have been able to enjoy the season. We have had fun racing, but (Sunday) and the rest of these races are not fun. We are here to win and that’s the only job we have.”

Schumacher, an eight-time world champ, was gracious in defeat.

“We got a lot better here this weekend and I’m happy about that. We’ve got a really good U.S. Army car right now,” Schumacher aid. “We still have some changes to make, but we are close. We were absolutely terrible in Indy. To come here and qualify No. 2 and then make good runs down the track all weekend is exactly what had to happen. In the final against Torrence, we were very aggressive in our approach. There’s a bump out there that goes across the track. We struggle with that one area, but a lot of cars did. We won some rounds today and leave here tied for second in the points. It’s time for a battle. We have five races to go. Those will all be monster battles coming up with extremely good cars. It’s time for the fans to show up. The drivers to show up. The teams to show up and the game to be played. I love it.”