I re-watched the exchange between he & Ferre a couple times.
At first they were shaking hands & talking, then as they parted Ferre said something that lit Torrence off.
Bearing in mind the death of a crewmember's kid and the pressure of the Countdown, I suspect Torrence's fuse was quite short.
He did apologize on camera later and subsequently had a much friendlier discussion with Ferre.

Folks upset with that deal have probably never been to a Sprint Car race
Not defending it, but I also don't get too bothered when some steam escapes...

I was more bothered by the Starter sending Beckman downtrack on a full run with Hight's car parked mid-track.
But that's a separate topic for a separate thread.