Joey Jensen has his sights set high for this weekend, and for good reason.

"If we can come out of there with three top-five finishes, I'd be pretty happy," Jensen said.

Judging by the success the Modified driver from Forest Lake has already had in southeastern Minnesota this summer, the odds are good that Jensen will find the top five consistently this weekend.

He'll be racing against some of the top Modified drivers in the country, as the United States Modified Touring Series makes its annual Labor Day weekend swing through the area. The USMTS brings its Hunt for the Casey's Cup series to Chateau Raceway in Lansing tonight (7 p.m. start), Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley on Saturday (5 p.m.) and Dodge County Speedway in Kasson on Sunday (7 p.m.).

Jensen, with a new motor and a new-found confidence, has been as good as any driver at tracks in this area this summer.

He has finished in the top five in all six of his starts at Deer Creek this summer, including a pair of feature wins. He finished fourth in his lone start this year at Dodge County — the USMTS special on Memorial Day weekend — and 11th in his lone start at Chateau, on July 6.

His two victories at Deer Creek this year were both in USMTS races, including his first-ever USMTS victory on June 27 and a preliminary feature victory in the World Modified Dirt Track Championship on July 26.

"The track just seems to fit us," Jensen said of his success at Deer Creek. "It's always in great condition and they have one of the nicest facilities in the Midwest. You know you're going to have a good, racy track, it's going to be four-wide and you're going to be able to pass."

Jensen's worst finish at the track this summer, a fifth-place feature finish, came in a weekly points show on May 19.

"That's some of the toughest competition you'll see in a weekly show," Jensen said. "It's just a bunch of guys who are extremely fast."

Jensen, driver of the No. V2 GRT Chassis/Tim's Automotive Machine engine, has two cars in his shop. One he sets up for Wissota and NASCAR-sanctioned races, the other for USRA and USMTS races. His top two highlights this year have come in the USMTS car and both have come at Deer Creek.

On June 27, he won an early four-wide battle for the lead and he led the final 35 laps of a 40-lap USMTS A Main and pocketed $5,000 for earning his first-ever USMTS victory.

"The caution came out with a few laps left," Jensen said, "but the car was running really good and I knew I didn't have to block. We were in a pretty comfortable position and (when he won) it felt like my first win all over again."

About a month later, on July 29, he finished second out of a field of about 100 cars in the World Modified Dirt Track Championship. He took home $13,700 for finishing one spot behind defending USMTS national champion Ryan Gustin. Jensen started on the pole after winning a preliminary feature.

"We were hoping just to start at the front of the B Main," he said, "but we started at the front of the A, then I just kind of relaxed and things worked out great."

He'll have a chance to pocket more money this weekend, as each of the shows are $3,000 to win. Jensen said he didn't assume he was going to have as much success in southeastern Minnesota as he has this year.

"We've raced a lot of bigger shows with the USMTS guys and we didn't have the motor, so we had to work on handling and other things with the car," he said, "but now we have the motor and the car's working good.

"We expected to run well this year, but not this well."