Four-wide foe becomes fan after Funny Car win
Weekend sellouts show success with new layout
It was billed as twice as wide and twice as loud but it was 10 times the fun for DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Four-wide Nationals winners Steve Torrence, J.R. Todd and Vincent Nobile.
Their smiles on the victory platform were wider than the new track at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
One said Todd might even be taking a shine to this crazy thing called four-wide drag racing.
“The format — I’ve been saying all along I’m not a fan of it,” Todd said after notching his third Funny Car victory in 14 starts since switching from Top Fuel, where he was a ninetime winner. “But it’s definitely cool to be the winner of the first fourwide here in Las Vegas. So I guess I’ve got to somewhat like it.”
The Kalitta Motorsports driver got the holeshot in a final that included Jack Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr. and No. 1 qualifier Courtney Force.
“I’d say it’s just the traditionalist in me,” Todd said about his aversion to the four-wide style. “But it’s new and it’s exciting and it draws a huge crowd, and that’s what our sport needs if we’re gonna keep it going.”
Torrence, who seemed destined to win last year’s Top Fuel championship before finishing runner-up to Brittany Force, started 2018 strong with a victory in Phoenix during the second race meeting. He said he didn’t expect to win at LVMS on four lanes, two lanes or any other combination of lanes.
“We rode the struggle bus all the way through qualifying,” said the second-generation driver who defeated his father, Billy, in the first round Sunday and an all-star final quad that included multitime champions Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown and always formidable Doug Kalitta.
“You go up there in the final and you’ve got (Brown), you’ve got Tony Schumacher and you’ve got Doug —