WHEATLAND, Mo. (March 28, 2026)—Tanner Mullens took command just past the halfway mark and dominated the rest of the way to earn the crown at the United States Modified Touring Series King of America XV on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

“I just can’t believe it, man,” Mullens said in victory lane after claiming the $15,000 victory in a race that eluded him a year ago - when he faded at about the same time he began to dominate this time.

Mullens, of Wichita, Kansas, beat Reece Solander by 2.5 seconds. Gabe Hodges, who like his teammate Solander won preliminary night features, finished third for a strong showing by the Hodges Brothers Racing team.

Mullens sailed around race-long leader Tyler Stevens on lap 35 and that was all she wrote. He was up to the challenge on multiple restarts the rest of the way, but wound up pulling away.

Mullens said he was motivated by his failure to close the King of America a year ago, when he pushed too hard in the first half of the race and his tires went away.

“That’s about all I thought about,” Mullens said of last year’s failure to close after leading 40 laps. “Tyler got out there and Reece set the pace. I tried to be as patient as I could. Once I got by Reece, I kind of maintained and then I knew it was about time to get going.”

The feature started with 10 rows, three wide and it was Stevens setting the early pace ahead of Solander with Tyler Davis third. Stevens was able to carve out a .696-second lead over Davis through 10 laps.

Tanner Mullens moved from ninth to fourth by lap 12 and the top four were separated by 1.5-seconds. Davis continued to ride the high side and maintained a lead of just under one second after 20 laps.

Caution on lap 24 eliminated Stevens’ 1.2-second lead over Davis with Mullens in third. Mullens took over second on the restart and wasted no time pressuring Stevens for the lead as the race approached the midpoint.

Just one lap past halfway, another caution flew, taking away a .901-second lead for Stevens. On the restart, Stevens staved off Mullens - but only briefly. Finally, on lap 35, Mullens went around Stevens on the outside in turn two for the first lead change.

Mullens took off from there and distanced himself from Stevens by a half-second by lap 40. Mullens’ lead stood at .801 seconds when a lap-45 caution bunched the field with 15 to go, but he had a terrific restart and extended the lead to one-second over Davis in just two laps.

One more caution, on lap 54, erased Mullens’ race-high 1.7-second lead. That gave Davis, Solander and Stevens, running second, third and fourth, one more shot at running down the leader.

Mullens quickly dashed their hopes. With a flawless restart, the 33-year-old dominated the rest of the way and prevailed by 2.5-seconds over Solander.

Mullens’ weekend didn’t start well as the team had to replace a motor after a poor practice session on Wednesday night.

“Practice was horrible and I don’t know what we had going on (Thursday night) but about 20 laps in it started cutting out and we didn’t finish,” Mullens said. “Last night it started again. We changed everything we could imagine.”

Six-time USMTS champ Rodney Sanders finished fourth and Brandon Davis was fifth.

Solander, of Emporia, Kan., said he just couldn’t keep up with Mullens while doing the best he could at conserving his tires for the final portion.

“I saved until the end and I tried to push there with 15 or 20 to go and my brake pedal went to the floor,” Solander said. “Tanner was really, really good tonight. Congrats to him and it was a good weekend.”

Former Lucas Oil Speedway track champion Bobby Williams of Hermitage picked up $1,000 with his win in the Non-Qualifiers special - a bonus event for those who did not qualify for the main event.

"We've had a miserable week. I'm glad we could pull the non-qualifier off because we couldn't do anything else," Williams said.

For further event information, including more info on tickets and camping for any event at Lucas Oil Speedway, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or by email at Nmcmillan@lucasoilspeedway.com.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (March 28, 2026)
15th annual King of America Modified Nationals
Summit USMTS Modifieds

A Feature - 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[9]; 2. 5-Reece Solander[1]; 3. 7G-Gabe Hodges[4]; 4. 20-Rodney Sanders[10]; 5. 50III-Brandon Davis[5]; 6. 21K-Kyle Brown[16]; 7. 65-Tyler Davis[2]; 8. 87H-Harley Dais[20]; 9. 2SS-Mark Smith[27]; 10. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[29]; 11. 24C-Jim Chisholm[11]; 12. 127-Paden Phillips[14]; 13. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[28]; 14. 712-Trevor Hughes[17]; 15. 2S-Stormy Scott[7]; 16. 2-Tyler Stevens[3]; 17. 58X-Gary Christian[15]; 18. 56-Shadren Turner[19]; 19. 75-Terry Phillips[13]; 20. 10M-Talan Willis[6]; 21. 25C-Joe Chisholm[18]; 22. 87-Darron Fuqua[21]; 23. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[12]; 24. 91-Joe Duvall[25]; 25. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[24]; 26. 17-Henry Chambers[22]; 27. 55H-AJ Hoff[26]; 28. G17-Fito Gallardo[23]; 29. 16H-Chris Henigan[8]

Last Chance 1 - 1. 17-Henry Chambers[2]; 2. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[3]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[4]; 4. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[1]; 5. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[7]; 6. 24-Charles Steinberg[6]; 7. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[10]; 8. 3B-Nic Bidinger[14]; 9. 85D-Mark Dotson[9]; 10. 211-Tim Eaton[19]; 11. 55H-AJ Hoff[11]; 12. 7-Al Hejna[12]; 13. 68-Dean Wille[5]; 14. 92-Tyler Grooms[15]; 15. (DNF) 5F-Drake Findley[8]; 16. (DNF) 06-Chad Taylor[17]; 17. (DNF) 29H-Joe Horgdal[13]; 18. (DNS) 29-Keith Hammett; 19. (DNS) 96-Chad Lyle; 20. (DNS) 24SR-Manuel Williams Sr

Last Chance 2 - 1. G17-Fito Gallardo[1]; 2. 91-Joe Duvall[2]; 3. 2SS-Mark Smith[4]; 4. 1B-Bobby Williams[5]; 5. 38C-Jason Pursley[3]; 6. J17-Jake Gallardo[8]; 7. 24M-Manuel Williams II[11]; 8. 18-Brad Johnson[7]; 9. 14W-Dustin Walker[13]; 10. 12-Hunter Sandy[9]; 11. 88-Sam Osman[6]; 12. 25-Kale Murphrey[12]; 13. 32-Ryan Murphy[14]; 14. 33-Ben Stockton[16]; 15. 17B-Lee Beemer[15]; 16. 17P-Peyton Gallardo[17]; 17. 15WX-Alex Williamson[10]; 18. 10B-Brandon Givens[19]; 19. 7D-Davis Givens[18]

B Main 1 - 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[2]; 2. 127-Paden Phillips[1]; 3. 25C-Joe Chisholm[5]; 4. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[6]; 5. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[4]; 6. 68-Dean Wille[8]; 7. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[7]; 8. 85D-Mark Dotson[3]; 9. 55H-AJ Hoff[13]; 10. 29H-Joe Horgdal[10]; 11. 92-Tyler Grooms[9]; 12. 06-Chad Taylor[12]; 13. (DNF) 211-Tim Eaton[11]

B Main 2 - 1. 24C-Jim Chisholm[2]; 2. 58X-Gary Christian[1]; 3. 56-Shadren Turner[4]; 4. G17-Fito Gallardo[6]; 5. 38C-Jason Pursley[3]; 6. 1B-Bobby Williams[8]; 7. J17-Jake Gallardo[10]; 8. 15WX-Alex Williamson[5]; 9. 25-Kale Murphrey[7]; 10. 32-Ryan Murphy[9]; 11. 33-Ben Stockton[11]; 12. 7D-Davis Givens[12]; 13. (DNF) 10B-Brandon Givens[13]

B Main 3 - 1. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[1]; 2. 21K-Kyle Brown[3]; 3. 87H-Harley Dais[2]; 4. 17-Henry Chambers[5]; 5. 22H-Dustin Hodges[7]; 6. 24-Charles Steinberg[10]; 7. 5F-Drake Findley[8]; 8. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[11]; 9. 7-Al Hejna[6]; 10. 3B-Nic Bidinger[4]; 11. (DNF) 24SR-Manuel Williams Sr[13]; 12. (DNF) 29-Keith Hammett[9]; 13. (DNF) 96-Chad Lyle[12]

B Main 4 - 1. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 2. 712-Trevor Hughes[3]; 3. 87-Darron Fuqua[6]; 4. 91-Joe Duvall[2]; 5. 2SS-Mark Smith[5]; 6. 18-Brad Johnson[10]; 7. 12-Hunter Sandy[7]; 8. 24M-Manuel Williams II[8]; 9. 14W-Dustin Walker[4]; 10. 17B-Lee Beemer[11]; 11. 17P-Peyton Gallardo[12]; 12. (DNF) 88-Sam Osman[9]

Non-Qualifiers Special - 1. 1B-Bobby Williams[2]; 2. 3B-Nic Bidinger[7]; 3. 38C-Jason Pursley[4]; 4. 22H-Dustin Hodges[1]; 5. J17-Jake Gallardo[6]; 6. 68-Dean Wille[15]; 7. 24M-Manuel Williams II[8]; 8. 88-Sam Osman[16]; 9. 29H-Joe Horgdal[23]; 10. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[3]; 11. 17B-Lee Beemer[24]; 12. 92-Tyler Grooms[17]; 13. 85D-Mark Dotson[9]; 14. 24-Charles Steinberg[5]; 15. 211-Tim Eaton[11]; 16. 7-Al Hejna[13]; 17. 14W-Dustin Walker[12]; 18. 06-Chad Taylor[21]; 19. 33-Ben Stockton[22]; 20. 25-Kale Murphrey[18]; 21. 18-Brad Johnson[10]; 22. (DNS) 5F-Drake Findley; 23. (DNS) 32-Ryan Murphy; 24. (DNS) 12-Hunter Sandy

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