It was a family affair Friday night at the 30th annual Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at Topeka's Heartland Motorsports Park as the father and son team of Billy and Steve Torrence traded the top spot in Top Fuel, ultimately leading to a one-two finish for the Capco teams.

Billy Torrence held the top spot after the first qualifying session Friday afternoon, but Steve Torrence battled back in a head-to-head showdown between the two in the final pairing with Steve taking the provisional top spot with a 3.770-second pass at 325.92 mph, holding off Billy’s 3.796 at 320.97 mph.

“The main thing is we went out there, both cars were in the back of the pack running each other and that makes for a perfect photo op for all of the guys at Capco. And then to go up there and run low ET and put the Capco cars on top, you couldn’t script a better end to our day,” said Torrence, who is looking for his first top qualifier award of 2018. “The conditions, they came around to us. The track was a little bit sketchy for some of the guys, but Richard Hogan, Bobby Lagana and all of those guys over on my dad’s car, they seemed to figure it out really well and that is what it is going to take.”

Doug Kalitta followed the Torrence duo in third with a 3.798 at 321.81 mph, while Terry McMillen (3.809) and Tony Schumacher (3.836) round out the top five.

If his time holds on Saturday, Steve Torrence will earn his 17th career No. 1 qualifier award, while his father will equal the best qualifying position of his career. Although it is no secret that the eldest of the Torrence pair would love to earn that first-ever green hat.

“I am sure he would have liked to have been number one and I would have liked that for him,” Torrence said. “Although I told the guys in the tow vehicle that, whatever happens, I have to take off first. I can’t let my dad leave on me. That is the only thing we really have control of is whether or not I leave the starting line first.

“So I went up there and did my job. I was able to talk a little trash to him on the top end. But at the end of the day, any day you can go one and two, put your whole team on top, that is a good day in my book.

“That is a part-time team and then he comes out and runs as strong or stronger than the rest of these guys. I am proud of him. He is really doing a good job driving and I am proud of that whole team because they don’t work together week-in and week-out like my boys do, but you can’t tell the difference.”

While a one-two start is certainly promising, Torrence knows that a number of variables stand in the way of a green hat - for either of the Capco cars.

“I don’t know what the conditions will be tomorrow, we just need to build off of what we did here today,” Torrence said. “I heard Tony say earlier in the day in an interview that we really like to have conditions that are closer to Sunday, but at the end of the day, we deal with what we are given.

“For now we will take this which is a great way to cap off the end of the day with the two Capco cars going number one and number two in front of all of these fans.”