From early spring until early fall, everybody was chasing Darron Fuqua for the USRA Modified national championship in the Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series.

They never caught him.

Chalking up 18 feature victories and 29 top-five finishes in 34 starts, the 33-year-old from Mayetta, Kan., set sail with numerous wins early on and kept his foot on the gas all the way to the finish line in netting his first USRA national title.

"You know you're running good and everything, but you feel like the next week it's going to go the other way and then you run good again," Fuqua said. "I waited all year for it to go bad. Now the year is over and it never did."

Fuqua, who won the USRA Modified feature in 2015 at the Summit Racing Equipment USRA Nationals, added a track championship at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., this year en route to becoming the first driver from the Sunflower State to capture the USRA Modified national crown.

"Now that it's all said and done and has kind of soaked in, it was a lot of fun," Fuqua said. "It definitely was the season of a lifetime. It would be hard to top. Everywhere we went, we were the car to beat. I don't know. It was just pretty amazing."

Fuqua is the 12th different champion in the 14 years that the USRA has named a national champion in the division. Previous national champs include Jason Cummins (2010, 2018), Lucas Schott (2016), Jake Gallardo (2015), Fito Gallardo (2014), Matt Dotson (2013), Brandon Davis (2012), Johnny Bone Jr. (2011), Greg Skaggs (2009), Brad Waits (2007, 2008), Larry Herring (2006) and Ron Luitjens (2005).

He also topped the final points standings in the CP-Carrillo Central Region presented by MVT. The CP-Carrillo Central Region included track points earned at the Caney Valley Speedway in Caney, Kan.; I-35 Speedway in Winston, Mo.; Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo.; Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.; and Lucas Oil Speedway.

C.A. Nix had another strong season at his hometown track in Lawton, Okla., and the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore, Okla., as well as the Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) where he finished fourth in the series standings, but he had to settle for runner-up honors for second straight year.

Mount Ayr, Iowa’s Dennis Elliott parlayed a track championship at the I-35 Speedway in Winston, Mo., into a third-place finish in the national points after winding up tenth last season while Texans Troy Taylor and Wendall Bolden round out the top five points-earners. Two-time USRA Modified national champ Brad Waits wound up sixth in the standings, followed by Josh Angst, Clyde Dunn Jr., Ryan Gillmore and Jake Timm.

Fuqua will net more than $10,000 for his national, regional and track championships, plus thousands more in contingency awards from American Racer Racing Tires, Argo Manufacturing, CP-Carrillo, KSE Racing Products, MSD Performance, Summit Racing Equipment, AFCO Racing Products, Allstar Performance, Beyea Custom Headers, BSB Manufacturing, Edelbrock, Forty9 Designs, Genesis Racing Shocks, Hooker Harness, Integra Shocks & Springs, Keyser Manufacturing, Out-Pace Racing Products, QA1, RacerWebsite.com, Real Racing Wheels, Sybesma Graphics, Wehrs Machine & Race Products and Wilwood Disc Brakes.

Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series competitors battled throughout 2018 as dozens of USRA-sanctioned race tracks produced 58 track champions along the way. The following USRA Modified drivers earned track championships during the 2018 season: Darwyn Karau, Kasson, Minn. (Chateau Speedway, Lansing, Minn.; Nate Wasmund, Rochester, Minn. (Deer Creek Speedway, Spring Valley, Minn.); Clyde Dunn Jr., Sunnyvale, Texas (Devil's Bowl Speedway, Mesquite, Texas); J.D. Auringer, Evansdale, Iowa (Hamilton County Speedway, Webster City, Iowa); Dennis Elliott, Mount Ayr, Iowa (I-35 Speedway, Winston, Mo.); Ryan Middaugh, Fulton, Mo. (Lake Ozark Speedway, Eldon, Mo.); Mark Schafman, Edwardsville, Kan. (Lakeside Speedway, Kansas City, Kan.); Stanley Reed, Oklahoma City, Okla. (Lawton Speedway, Lawton, Okla.); Darron Fuqua, Mayetta, Kan. (Lucas Oil Speedway, Wheatland, Mo.); Keith Foss, Winona, Minn. (Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Fountain City, Wis.); Dee Gossett, Amarillo, Texas (Route 66 Motor Speedway, Amarillo, Texas); Wendall Bolden, Greenville, Texas (RPM Speedway, Crandall, Texas); Bumper Jones, Mesilla Park, N.M. (Southern New Mexico Speedway, Las Cruces, N.M.); Wesley Veal, Princeton, Texas (Southern Oklahoma Speedway, Ardmore, Okla.); Jody Tillman, Branson West, Mo. (Springfield Raceway, Springfield, Mo.); Mike Hines, Van Buren, Ark. (Tri-State Speedway, Pocola, Okla.); and Philip Houston, Odessa, Texas (West Texas Raceway, Lubbock, Texas).

The United States Racing Association will host its annual awards banquet on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, at the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City, and this year’s party will once again be a joint effort for both the USRA and United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS). A record crowd of nearly 300 people attended last year’s gathering. Fans and members of the media are invited to attend too.

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