WHEATLAND, Mo. Just a few days after earning a career-defining financial haul in the Dirt Modified world, Jim Chisholm knows its time to turn the page and focus on the King of America XIV at Lucas Oil Speedway.

The three-night United States Modified Touring Series show opens on Thursday with a $3,000-to-win feature and picks up momentum with a $5,000 prize to Fridays winner. Of course, all eyes will be on the $20,000-to-win prize in Saturdays grand finale.

For the 22-year-old Chisholm, who broke through in 2024 to win the USMTS National Championship, confidence is running high. The Osage, Iowa, native took command with a couple of laps remaining to capture $100,000 at last Saturdays XR Dominator at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor, Okla.

Monetary-wise, the biggest for sure, Chisholm said of where the win ranks on his career list. Definitely one of the biggest races of my career going forward and might ever be. Just a really cool thing to have them put on shows like this and race for that kind of money.

The confidence is definitely there. Its a short turnaround, but we have short turnarounds a lot. You always come back to the shop and regroup. What happened last week is last week and you really cant take that into consideration this week. You just go at this next race like its another big one and try your best to win it.

Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, Minn., is reigning champion of the USMTS portion of the King of America with a win in 2023 as last years event was rained out at Humboldt Speedway. There have been 11 different winners over the years as the best of Modified racing gather for the early season showdown.

The event will include USRA Stock Cars paying $1,000-to-win Thursday, $2,000-to-win Friday and $3,000 to win Saturday. USRA B-Mods will be paying $1,000 to win Thursday, $2,000 to win Friday and $3,000 to win Saturday.

For Chisholm, the move of the King of America to Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time seems particularly timely. The south-central Missouri oval is a place that Chisholm never cared for until last summer when he swept USMTS features on back-to-back nights at Wheatland. The opener saw him prevail over veteran Terry Phillips in a back-and-forth duel over the last half of the race. That one was named Lucas Oil Speedways 2024 Race of the Year.

Chisholm said he doesnt have a good answer for why his fortunes suddenly took a positive turn at Wheatland, though a new dirt surface for the 2024 season could have played a factor.

It definitely drove like it was new dirt and reminded a lot of what we run at home, Chisholm said. Its stuff you cant push your stuff that hard. If you push, you go slower. It kind of fits into my driving style. Just finding the limit of the car you can run it at and not overstepping that boundary.

It raced super good last year. We were luckily able to start up front some of those shows and have good runs. Thats kind of the goal were setting for ourselves this time as well. Im super-excited to come back there.

Chisholm returns as the defending USMTS champion after edging out Jake Timm for his first championship. The title meant a ton for a youngster who grew up watching the USMTS stars visit nearby Deer Creek Speedway in family outings to the track.

It was one of those deals you watch them do the four-wide salute and youre like one of these days I want to be able to do that. To be able to go out and win a couple of shows and be a contender in the points was huge, but to win the championship Im still pretty speechless about that, Chisholm said.

There are a bunch of guys that are super fast and really tough to beat week in and week out. Its always a lot of fun to run with a group of guys who run so well together. You kind of know what to expect from them. They run you really hard and you run them really hard. At the end of the day, you go over and talk to them and go on to the next win.

Which is exactly what he will try to do, putting that six-figure pay day behind him.

As marquee events go this King of America kind of ranks with the Fall Jamboree, Chisholm said. Its the two original big Modified races. Its one of our biggest races of the year with the USMTS Series. Were gonna come out trying to win it, just like everyone else.

With only three events in the books so far on the USMTS schedule, Chisholm is a mere nine points behind five-time series champ Rodney Sanders. Not only is it way too early to talk points, Chisholm said he despises points racing any time of the year. Winning is the sole focus in his mind.

To be honest, I think points racing is dumb and to act like youre racing for points will only end up hurting you, Chisholm said. Every time youre at the race track your goal is to win. If you keep that in mind, the other stuff just kind of works out. Our goal every time is to try and win the race. If we come up short, we come up short and well try again next week.