Maxson Scores Thrilling Win; Lee Takes Points Hit With DNS

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Tyler Maxson claimed victory over teammate Robert Noaker in a four-wide near photo-finish in a thrilling conclusion to Thursday’s first Mustang Challenge race of the week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Noaker, who started on pole by virtue of being the Dark Horse class points leader in an abandoned qualifying session, appeared to be en route to his third career victory but was caught up in traffic on the final lap of the 45-minute contest.

Maxson took advantage, having got alongside the No. 13 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R on the front-straight to edge out a 0.059-second win at the line.

Reid Sweeney made it a RNR podium sweep in his No. 31 entry.

After finishing second, Noaker has seen his Dark Horse class points lead reduced to 50 points to Maxson entering tomorrow’s title decider.

Max Opalski finished Race 1 in fourth, with the No. 22 Southern Paley Motorsports entry of Sam Paley completing the top-five.

Alex Bachoura, meanwhile, picked up his first career win in the Dark Horse Legends category for Spark Performance.

It came after Zachry Lee, who headed into the event with a commanding 440-point class lead, took a significant hit as the MMR driver failed to start the race after suffering a sizable accident in qualifying on Thursday morning.

Lee, who was on a seven-race class win streak, provisionally still leads the championship but could be done for the weekend due to the extent of the damage, giving Bachoura the potential advantage heading into Friday’s season finale.

Race 2 gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Friday with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA.tv and Ford Performance’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John