Seven races. Four top qualifier awards. Two wins. One Funny Car points lead.

That has been the season in a nutshell for veteran pilot Courtney Force in a tremendous run that has seen the driver of the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car dominate the early portion of the season - especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

In what is becoming the norm on the NHRA Mello Yello Tour, Force rocketed to the provisional top spot Friday in heading both qualifying sessions as she looks to earn her fifth No. 1 start of the season and third in a row if her time holds up for another day at the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at Heartland Raceway Park.

Force led the field after Q1 and then lowered her time even further in qualifying session number two to retain the top spot entering Saturday with a 3.911-second pass at 321.73 mph, good enough to hold off a hard-charging Jonnie Lindberg in the second position.

“After we saw Lindberg run that, that’s when you step it up and push a little bit harder,” said Force, who will look to secure her 22nd career No. 1 start on Saturday. “Obviously we had a decent run in Q1. It tried to spin down track and that is why our speed went down, so I knew that we had a little bit more, especially when you have (Brian) Corradi and (Daniel) Hood tuning your car. We went back up there and were able to lay down a 3.91 and get our top spot back for the Advance Auto Parts team.”

Lindberg fell in line just behind Force with a 3.962 at 316.23 mph as he seeks his best start of the year. Cruz Pedregon qualified third with a 3.983 at 314.68 mph, while J.R. Todd (3.996) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (4.008) round out the top five.

Force also led the pack after Q1 with a chart-topping 4.020 at 307.51 as she seeks an impressive third consecutive top qualifier award.

“When we went into the three (races) in a row, we said that we wanted to come out on top and hopefully start moving up in points. And during that stretch we were able to take over the points lead and that is huge,” Force said. “It is not by much, but it’s pretty important. We picked up three bonus points in Q1 and some in that run too. It is definitely a big deal to be running consistent like this.

“Obviously there is still tomorrow, so who knows if we can hang onto it, but it really is a job well done by every single guy on my team. It is a good start to my weekend in Kansas. We have a lot of good memories here and hopefully we can make some more.”

A number of strong runs dot the resume of the youngest of the Force family at Heartland Park in Topeka, chief among them being an incredible 2014 run that saw both she and her sister, Brittany, qualify first in their respective categories culminating with a win for the Funny Car team.

“When I come here I think about the time I was up here with my sister Brittany and hopefully we can seal the deal like we were trying to do at this track a few years back and both end up in the winner’s circle,” Force said. “A lot of great memories here at Heartland Park and this is a good start for us this weekend. But we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and, hopefully, another long one on Sunday.”