Lucas Schott won the USRA Modified main event at the Humboldt Speedway's Halloween Hangover on November 1 to seal his 2020 USRA Modified national title.

Four years ago, Lucas Schott captured his first USRA Modified national championship. Much has changed for the 24-year-old Chatfield, Minnesota, native since then, but one thing hasn't: He can wheel a race car with the best of them. Schott did that this summer, wrapping up his second national championship.

Schott ended the 2020 racing season on November 1 the same way he started it on Jan. 10: In victory lane. In between were 59 more races, 15 more feature wins, 40 more top-five finishes and 51 more top-10 finishes.

Schott was focused throughout the season on the smaller picture—attempting to win every race he entered. That narrow focus and concentration paid off in the big picture in the best way possible.

“We went out, set a goal and achieved it,” said Schott, who won 19 USRA Modified feature races en route to his first national championship in 2016.

The 2020 national championship came down to Schott’s last night of racing, on Sunday, November 1, at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt, Kansas. Schott entered that night’s race—the $5,000-to-win Halloween Hangover—with a slim 10-point lead in the national standings over Jake Gallardo of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Stars seemingly aligned for both drivers that night. In a field of 50 cars, Schott drew the pole in his heat race and won it. Gallardo started third in his heat race and won it, putting both drivers in the re-draw for the main event.

Gallardo drew the pole, Schott drew the outside pole.

“The odds of that happening were pretty crazy,” Schott said. “We knew as long as we beat him we’d be fine. He had to beat us that night to win (the national championship). It was nerve-wracking, but we led the first lap then every lap after that.”

Gallardo had car trouble early in the race and fell back, never seriously challenging Schott.

In a way, that knowledge put even more pressure on Schott to not make a mistake on a rough track. Schott had been to Humboldt often before, though. He won the prestigious King of America VIII there in 2018, so he knew how to handle the track and the pressure.

“After Jake broke, the pressure was on us to stay up front and win the race,” Schott said. “The track was a little rough and there were a bunch of cautions, which was fine because I didn’t want to get into lapped traffic too early. You’re kind of in control as long as you don’t mess up too much.”

Schott didn’t mess up. He didn’t lose the lead or the $5,000 winner’s check. And he didn’t lose his second national championship, one that—even though he didn’t acknowledge it at the time—he’d began chasing 10 months earlier when he won his season-opening feature at Arizona Speedway in San Tan Valley, 50 miles southwest of Phoenix.

“Picking up the first win down there… it definitely gets the momentum going for the year,” he said.

Much has changed for Schott since he won his first national title as a 20-year-old. He’s now married to his wife, Sidney. He’s had a taste of what it’s like to be a race car driver full-time, having run the entire schedule with the Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey's in 2018.

He then reduced his racing schedule in 2019 to focus on planning he and Sidney’s wedding, and spend more time helping with the family’s business, Schott’s Hardwood Floors.

Lucas Schott (69) battles some the the best USRA Modified drivers in the United States every Saturday night at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Vally, Minnesota. Here, he's the meat of the sandwich between 2019 Featherlite Fall Jamboree and Grant Junghans Memorial winner Jacob Bleess (21) and defending two-time USRA Modified national champ Brandon Davis (50).

Much is also still the same for Schott. He, his dad John, and his younger brother Levi do much of the work on Lucas’ No. 69 MB Customs race car during the week. His wife, mom Kara, and sister Lexi help too. Racing is the family’s second business.

“This year we got back in the swing of things,” Lucas said. “We got a new car and really focused on racing again.

“If you want to race up front with these guys, you have to race almost every weekend, you can’t just race when you want to. For the most part, it’s still just me and dad in the shop every week, but we have guys, Justin and John, who come to races with us and turn some wrenches. Anytime we go somewhere, someone is able to ride along.”

It took Schott until late July to figure out that he had put himself in good position to chase the national championship.

“We didn’t have a plan (to race for the national title) at the start of the year,” he said. “We never really have a plan for that when we go into a year, it seems.”

The national points standings take into account the points only from a driver’s 20 best shows. In late July, Schott only had 10 shows that counted toward the standings. So he and his team turned up the volume on his schedule and began finding more and more shows to race at.

By the time ‘Cool Hand Luke’ finished his 20th show of the season, he was in second place, just a handful of points behind Texas superstar Clyde Dunn Jr. After the Summit USRA Nationals at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa, in early fall, Schott and Gallardo had made the national championship a two-driver race.

Schott’s victory at Humboldt assured him he’d win that race, and another national title, too.

“This year it was a little more exciting, maybe because of how hard we had to work for it,” Schott said. “The late nights and all the miles we put on, they weren’t for nothing.”

Final 2020 USRA Modified National Points:

1. Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn. ... 4535
2. Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M. ... 4512
3. Clyde Dunn Jr., Rockwall, Texas ... 4388
4. Tyler Wolff, Fayetteville, Ark. ... 4319
5. Josh Angst, Winona, Minn. ... 4295
6. Fito Gallardo, Las Cruces, N.M. ... 4275
7. Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn. ... 4211
8. Jack Sartain, Terrell, Texas ... 4204
9. Jason Cummins, New Richland, Minn. ... 4203
10. Kale Westover, Blair, Okla. ... 4177
11. Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas ... 4170
12. Max Eddie Thomas, Quinlan, Texas ... 4163
13. Tyler Hibner, Chillicothe, Mo. ... 4083
14. Chase Ellingson, Iowa Falls, Iowa ... 3911
15. Jason Ingalls, Longview, Texas ... 3890
16. Mark Dotson, Cameron, Mo. ... 3875
17. Philip Houston, Odessa, Texas ... 3865
18. Joe Duvall, Claremore, Okla. ... 3857
19. Dustin Sorensen, Rochester, Minn. ... 3855
20. Devon Havlik, Iowa Falls, Iowa ... 3757

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