By Ben Deatherage
MCGREGOR, N.D. (June 23, 2026) — The pressure had been building for weeks.
Every race night seemed to bring the same question.
When would win No. 100 finally come?
Travis Hagen tried not to think about it, but as the milestone drew closer it became harder to ignore. Every near miss felt a little bigger. Every opportunity carried a little more weight. By the time he unloaded his No. 14T Karl Kustoms IMCA Modified at Nodak Speedway on June 14, 2026, the number was impossible to escape.
A few hours later, fittingly on the 14th day of the month and behind the wheel of the No. 14T, Hagen celebrated his 100th career Karl Kustoms IMCA Modified feature victory.
The weekend had already tested the team. Transmission trouble at McLean County Speedway two nights earlier left Hagen scrambling, forcing him to borrow a transmission just to stay on track. But when Sunday arrived in Minot, everything finally seemed to fall into place.
“I won the heat, and in the feature we got the lead,” Hagen said. “I just kept running the bottom and made them go around me.”
Nobody could.
When the checkered flag waved, Hagen had secured the 100th IMCA Modified victory of his career.
The milestone made him the 62nd driver in IMCA Modified history to join the Century Club and only the third North Dakotan to accomplish the feat, joining longtime standouts Joren Boyce and Marlyn Seidler.
For Hagen, the accomplishment carried extra meaning because those were the same drivers he grew up watching race against his father.
“When I started racing Modifieds in 2010, it took about four years to win a feature,” Hagen said. “To get 100, I couldn’t have dreamed it.”
Boyce and Seidler have long been considered two of the benchmark drivers in western North Dakota Modified racing, making the company Hagen now finds himself in even more difficult to comprehend.
“Those are great guys,” Hagen said. “I grew up watching them both race against my dad. I would consider both of them to be the best to do it around here.”
Boyce and Seidler have long been considered two of the standard-bearers of Modified racing in western North Dakota. Boyce’s 130 career victories rank among the most in state history, while Seidler’s consistency and longevity have made him one of the most respected competitors of his generation.
“Joren has accomplished so much, and even now he’s still involved in the sport,” Hagen said. “He’s transitioned into announcing, serves on the board in Underwood, helps with scheduling meetings, and has become a real ambassador for racing. He’s done even more for the sport beyond just driving race cars.”
Seidler remains equally admired with his 116 triumphs.
“Marlyn was always the guy you had to watch out for,” Hagen said. “Whenever he showed up, he seemed to be the guy to beat. Even today he’s still a force at Dacotah Speedway. To be able to do it at his age and still be that competitive is pretty remarkable.”
To find his name alongside theirs in the record book remains something Hagen is still trying to process.
“I can’t put it into words,” he said. “To be the third guy from North Dakota and be in the company of those guys is exciting. I never expected it.”
Yet as meaningful as the milestone was, there was a time not long ago when Hagen wasn’t thinking about 100 wins at all.
He was thinking about surviving.
Surrounded by family, Travis Hagen celebrates his 100th career Karl Kustoms IMCA Modified feature victory on June 14, 2026, at Nodak Speedway. The milestone made the North Dakota driver the newest member of the IMCA Modified Century Club. (Photo by MAK’n Photography)
Learning the Hard Way
For Hagen, racing was never really a choice.
By the time he climbed behind the wheel himself, he had already spent years at racetracks across western North Dakota watching his father Mike compete against some of the region’s best drivers.
“I grew up as a young kid cheering on my dad racing against both Joren and Marlyn,” Hagen said. “I would consider both of them to be the best to do it around here.”
Hagen began racing Hobby Stocks in 2008 at the age of 14 and quickly found success, winning a track championship at Williston. The move to Karl Kustoms IMCA Modifieds two years later, however, proved far more difficult.
“We took our fair share of butt kickings in those first few years,” Hagen said with a laugh. “After having some good years in the Hobby Stocks, it was really humbling.”
The adjustment taught valuable lessons.
A top-10 finish often felt like a victory. Experienced veterans routinely exposed mistakes. Progress came slowly.
Looking back, Hagen believes those difficult years helped shape the driver he would become.
“I don’t think it matters if you’re 16 or 36, there’s going to be a learning curve in the Modifieds,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to do it when I was young because I think it’s really paying off now.”
The breakthrough finally came during Memorial Day weekend of 2014 at Nodak Speedway.
Ironically, the night that delivered his first Modified victory also marked the beginning of another important chapter in his life.
“My wife Makenzie and I officially started dating the night I won my first Modified race,” Hagen said.
After spending four years chasing that elusive first victory, the pressure finally disappeared.
The following weekend he won again at Estevan in Saskatchewan.
“It took forever to get the first one,” he said. “Then it didn’t take long to get the second one once we got the monkey off our back.”
The wins began coming more frequently after that.
So did the championships.
Over the next decade, Hagen built one of the most impressive résumés in the Northern Plains, collecting the 2014 North Dakota State championship, nine Williston Basin titles, two Nodak Speedway track championships, and two Estevan Motor Speedway crowns.
His best season came in 2023 when he recorded 13 feature victories while winning championships at Williston, Estevan, and Nodak.
Among the victories that stand out most is his Dakota Classic Modified Tour triumph at Dacotah Speedway in 2023.
“We had gotten so many seconds with the tour,” Hagen said. “To finally break through and get one was awesome.”
He also treasures his appearances in the Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s Big Dance at Boone Speedway.
One memory, in particular, remains special.
After sweeping all three nights of Nodak Speedway’s Motor Magic Labor Day Weekend in 2023, Hagen followed through on a promise he made to Makenzie.
“I told my wife if we won all three we’d go to Boone,” he said.
They did.
Hagen qualified for the Big Dance and charged from 33rd to 14th, earning hard charger honors in one of his favorite races despite never reaching Victory Lane.
The Fight Nobody Saw Coming
By the fall of 2023, life seemed to be moving in all the right directions.
The race team was thriving. Hagen had just completed the most successful season of his career, collecting 13 feature victories and championships at Williston, Estevan, and Minot. At home, he and Makenzie were raising young children, and life felt busy in all the right ways.
Then things started to feel different.
At first, the symptoms didn’t seem alarming.
Bruises appeared more easily than they should have. Fatigue became harder to explain. Simple tasks seemed to require more energy than normal.
Hagen blamed life.
With young children at home and a demanding racing schedule, being tired seemed like part of the deal.
“I didn’t think too much of it,” he said.
That changed after the Estevan banquet in November.
Originally, Hagen and Makenzie planned to spend the night while the kids stayed with grandparents. At the last minute, they decided to bring the children and drive home instead.
Sometime around midnight, Hagen realized something wasn’t right.
He could only take shallow breaths.
“I told Kenzie I didn’t think I could breathe well enough to go to sleep,” he said.
Concerned, he drove himself to the emergency room in Tioga.
Doctors initially suspected a blockage or another respiratory issue and ordered blood work.
About 30 minutes later, a physician returned carrying a clipboard and paperwork.
The conversation immediately changed.
“She asked me if I was feeling alright,” Hagen recalled. “I said, ‘Other than not being able to breathe very well, yeah.'”
Then came the news.
“A normal person’s white blood cell count is between 6,000 and 11,000,” Hagen said. “Mine was between 300,000 and 400,000.”
The doctor didn’t mince words.
According to Hagen, she told him his blood work was “absolutely crazy off the charts” and warned that he faced a significant risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, or another serious medical emergency.
Within hours, he was on an ambulance headed to Minot.
A week of chemotherapy followed.
Travis Hagen travels each month to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where doctors continue monitoring his leukemia through an ongoing clinical trial. The treatment has delayed the need for a bone marrow transplant while allowing Hagen to continue racing and spending time with his family. (Photo by TenBuzzFeed.com)
Then a bone marrow biopsy that was sent to Mayo Clinic for review.
Then a second opinion at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The diagnosis was leukemia.
What followed became a battle far more difficult than anything Hagen had ever encountered at a racetrack.
Several medications initially worked before eventually losing effectiveness, causing his blood counts to rise again. Each setback brought doctors one step closer to recommending a bone marrow transplant.
The possibility remains daunting.
Beyond the procedure itself, a transplant carries significant risks, including complications such as graft-versus-host disease, a condition where donor cells attack the recipient’s body. Recovery can be lengthy and life-changing, making it an option Hagen and his doctors have hoped to postpone as long as possible.
“We’ve been trying to keep that as a last-resort option,” Hagen said.
His younger brother Tyler has already been identified as a potential donor if the procedure becomes necessary.
About six months ago, Hagen began participating in a clinical trial involving an investigational medication. The treatment has produced encouraging results and, for now, has allowed doctors to delay a transplant.
Each month, however, still brings another trip to Houston.
More blood work.
More testing.
More waiting.
And more hope.
“I’m really thankful for my wife wanting that second opinion at MD Anderson,” Hagen said. “If not, I would have had a transplant already, and life would look a lot different.”
Life in McGregor
Home these days is McGregor, a tiny community in northeastern Williams County.
“There’s not a lot here,” Hagen said with a laugh. “There’s a church, a post office, and a bar.”
For Hagen, that’s more than enough.
Named for early settler and postmaster William McGregor, the community traces its roots to the early 1900s when homesteaders settled the area and the Great Northern Railway expanded across northwestern North Dakota. Today, McGregor remains a quiet rural outpost surrounded by farmland, ranches, and the energy-producing landscape of the Williston Basin.
The nearby McGregor Dam provides opportunities for fishing and outdoor recreation, while the surrounding countryside offers a welcome contrast to the busy pace of racing and work.
Hagen moved to the area in 2016 after growing up in Williston and spending much of his youth helping on his father’s farm near Fortuna.
Long before there were race cars, championships, or Victory Lane celebrations, there were afternoons spent racing four-wheelers with his dad around the family farm.
Moving to McGregor took some adjustment.
Now, he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“It’s great out here,” he said. “We are blessed.”
An abandoned schoolhouse stands as a reminder of McGregor’s early history. The small Williams County community has been home to Travis Hagen and his family since 2016, providing the quiet rural lifestyle they have embraced away from the racetrack. (Photo courtesy of Ghosts of North Dakota)
Away from racing, Hagen works in sales for T&A Tong and Indicator, serving customers throughout the oil industry. The company provides equipment, fabrication services, hydraulic systems, rig support products, and a wide range of specialized tools used throughout the energy sector.
The work keeps him busy during the week.
Family occupies the rest of his time.
Alongside McKenzie are their children, Revvin, Ridge, and their youngest daughter, Kerzie, who recently celebrated her first birthday.
One of Hagen’s favorite recent memories came when Kerzie attended her first race at just 8 days old and watched him win at Williston.
Racing Through the Storm
For all the championships, victories, and milestones, Hagen knows none of it happens alone.
The list of people who have helped him reach 100 wins is a long one.
His wife, Makenzie, has been there through every stage of the journey, from the night they started dating after his first Modified victory to the uncertainty that followed his leukemia diagnosis nearly a decade later. Their children have given him even more reason to keep pushing forward.
His parents, brother Tyler, Darren and Joan Gohrick, Alan and Aaron Roness, Barbie Frisinger, Cory McIvor and McIvor Farms, Darren Schatz and D&B Storage, Brandon Beeter and DARN TV, Austin Caruthers and everyone at T&A Tong and Indicator, Chad and Taylor Brown and family, Dan Orne, Ian Ferrell and Hollen Autobody, Modern Machine, Green Flag Getaways, Keith Overland, Keith Thomte, Kyler Jeffrey, Andy at Precision Performance, Justin at Rage Chassis, and countless others have all played a role in helping keep the car on the racetrack.
“It takes a lot of people to make something like this happen,” Hagen said. “I’m thankful for my whole family, friends, sponsors, colleagues, and all the people that help us out because it takes all those people to make it happen.”
That perspective has changed over the last few years.
There was a time when race wins, championships, and points battles seemed like the biggest things in life.
Then came leukemia.
The diagnosis didn’t take racing away from Hagen, but it changed how he viewed it.
The weekly grind.
The long drives.
The late nights in the shop.
The victories.
The defeats.
None of it feels quite the same anymore.
The accomplishment placed him alongside drivers he once watched from the grandstands as a kid and among the most successful Modified racers North Dakota has ever produced.
Yet if you ask Hagen what matters most, the answer isn’t found in a trophy or a statistic.
It’s found in the people standing beside him.
The family waiting at home.
The crew in the pits.
The friends who continue to support him.
And the opportunity to climb into a race car one more time.
Every month, doctors draw blood and wait for numbers.
Every month, Hagen waits for answers.
Then the weekend comes.
He climbs back into the No. 14T.
And he keeps doing what he’s always done.
Fighting to win.
