WHEATLAND, Mo. — A few hours after winning a day-time preliminary feature, Trevor Hughes visited victory lane in the biggest race of the week at the 13th annual Summit USRA Nationals in the Modified division.
Hughes, a 28-year-old from Westville, Oklahoma, took over on lap 15 and dominated the rest of the way to pick up the $5,000 victory.
A total of 289 entries were on hand for a double-dose of Saturday racing, with a program in the afternoon making up a Thursday-night rainout, plus the regularly scheduled grand finale culminating with features in all five divisions.
Hughes was up to the challenge in the finale, overtaking early leader Keith Foss and never giving up the lead, despite some late cautions that made him earn it on restarts.
“I’ve been terrible here,” Hughes said of Lucas Oil Speedway. “It’s nice to finally get ahold of a place that’s been our kryptonite more often than not.”
The son of four-time USMTS national champion Jason Hughes, Trevor Hughes started third. Foss, already with two preliminary feature wins this week, started up front and set the early pace over Alex Williamson and Hughes. By lap six, Hughes moved into second.
Foss and Hughes drove away from the field with third-place Williamson more than three seconds behind the leader. Hughes made his move in lapped traffic to take the lead on lap 15.
“Foss got out there ahead of me and we were running about the same speed,” Hughes said. “I got him in lapped traffic. I was a little nervous a few times and really didn’t want that last caution (on lap 45), but it worked out in my favor.”
Hughes was able to gradually build his lead to a second over the next 10 laps, reaching the halfway mark of the 50-lapper. As action continued caution-free, Hughes kept on building separation between he and Foss, with the margin 2.1 seconds with 15 to go.
The caution-free action ended the next time around when Williamson, pressuring Foss, spun to a stop in turn two after breaking something on his car. Another caution on lap 39 slowed Hughes’ pursuit of the win, as he was leading Foss by two seconds and Bobby Williams by nearly three.
The seventh-starting Willams, of nearby Hermitage, moved into second after the restart on lap 40. Hughes’ domination then kicked back in and he cruised to his fifth win – even with another caution on lap 45 – of the season.
Hughes’ margin at the finish was 2.1 seconds over Williams. Foss, Brandon Givens and Kyle Slader rounded out the top five.
Reigning USRA National points champion Dan Hovden of Decorah, Iowa, held off Springfield’s Ryan Gillmore in a thriller of a finish in the Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods main event.
Victory No. 18 of the season earned Hovden, 33, the $4,000 prize.
“You come down here every year, just hoping to make the show,” Hovden said in victory lane. “I thought we had something (but) I didn’t think we had something to win. It feels awesome to beat the best B-Mod racers who are out here. It feels awesome to be able to run with them and compete with them.”
Pole-starting Cody King had a 1.3-second lead by lap five over Hovden. But the big early mover was Jon Sheets, navigating his way from 16th to fourth in just seven laps.
King’s lead doubled to 2.7 seconds by lap 11 when King tapped the lapped car of Tyler Burnett entering turn two to bring out a caution. Officials sent King to the back of the field. Hovden inherited the lead followed by Gillmore and Sheets.
Sheets charged past Gillmore on the restart, but Gillmore got the spot back the next time around as Hovden maintained a 1.1-second lead. Meanwhile, Kris Jackson was fourth after starting 12th.
On lap 18, Sheets dropped out of the top five as the 35-lap race settled into an extended green-flag run, Hovden continued to lead by one second by lap 25. Gillmore sliced the lead to under a half-second with five to go.
Gillmore caught Hovden by lap 31 with lapped traffic all around the leaders. But despite repeated bids, Hovden was able to hang on and prevail by .068 seconds – or a half-car-length.
Jackson was right behind in third with Coty Tupper fourth and Shadren Turner fifth.
Derek Green, a multi-time USRA Stock Cars national champion from Grenada, Minn., led all 40 laps to take the $4,000 O’Reilly USRA Stock Cars feature as he held off Brandon Hare.
“It feels pretty awesome,” Green said after his 13th feature win of 2026. “The track, in three and four I was having the best time of my life. I felt like Bobby Pierce up there (on top by the wall). I was having a blast.”
Green set the early pace and it took him only eight laps to build a 2.3-second gap over Garner and it was up to 3.1 seconds by lap 15.
With no cautions to slow him, Green continued to thread his way through lapped traffic maintaining most of his three-second margin through 25 laps. Behind him, 10th-starting Brandon Hare took second away from Garner with Harley Dais in fourth.
Caution flew for the first time on lap 28, erasing Green’s 2.5-second lead with 12 to go. Green, running the high grove, was able to hold off Hare, clinging to the bottom, as the laps clicked away.
“I could see (Hare) getting out of four every time and I made sure I scraped the wall down there the last couple of laps,” Green said.
The wire-to-wire win went to Green by .977 seconds at the checkers over Hare. Garner was third with Jason Schlangen fourth and Jeremy Vaughn fifth.
Joshua Monson of Clear Lake, Iowa, charged from seventh to the win – outlasting the field in a caution-flag-filled USRA Hobby Stocks feature. The 20-year-old earned $1,500 for his 21st overall feature win of the season.
For more than half the race, Dustin Gulbrandson appeared to be on his way to a repeat win. He took the lead at the start from his third starting position and was a car length clear of Scott Dobel when caution slowed the action on lap seven.
Monson grabbed away second on lap 14, just before the fourth caution of the race slowed the field and took away Gulbrandson’s race-best one-second lead.
After the sixth caution on lap 17, Gulbrandon’s bid for a repeat ended when he jumped the cushion on a lap 15 restart. Dobel inherited the lead – but could only hold it for two laps. That’s when Monson went to the front on lap 20.
But it wasn’t over as caution No. 7 on lap 22 set up a three-lap finish with Monson, Dobel and Gavin Grier running as the top trio.
Monson had the finish line in his sight when a caution for two spinning cars in turn four on the white-flag lap made him execute one more restart.
Using the high groove, Monson held off Dobel by a half-second. Gavin Bartel was third with Grier fourth and Carter Coop fifth.
The race took 33 minutes to complete 25 laps.
Sean Leasure of Mansfield, Texas, took the lead on lap four and held off two late challenges for the $1,000 USRA Tuners victory.
Rhett Edgar led the first three laps before losing his line on a lap-four restart. That propelled Leasure to the front with James Carter following. Caution flew again on lap eight with Leasure leading Carter by a car length.
Dillon Riehle took second from Carter on the restart with Leasure leading him by a half second at the halfway mark on lap 10. Riehle was on the leader’s bumper by lap 14 wth Carter lurking in third. The event’s third caution came on lap 17, leaving three laps to settle the outcome.
Edgar made a bold move on the restart to shoot from fifth to second, but that allowed Leasure to drive away to more than a second lead. There was no catching him from there as Leasure beat Edgar by 1.6 seconds.
Carter, Riehle and Alex Boyden rounded out the top five.
