Noaker Wins Race 2 at Indy; Crowned Inaugural Champion

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Robert Noaker scored a dominant victory in Friday’s season-ending Mustang Challenge round, securing the inaugural Dark Horse championship along the way.

Noaker in the No. 13 Robert Noaker Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R led the entire 45-minute race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 8.322 seconds ahead of teammate and title rival Tyler Maxson in the No. 74 machine.

It marked Noaker’s third victory of the season and capped off an impressive year that saw the team owner/driver finish off the podium only once in the ten-race campaign.

Jeremy Fletcher completed the top class podium in third in his No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing Mustang after an intense battle between Maxson for second in the mid stages of the race.

The No. 31 RNR entry of Reid Sweeney, who finished on the podium in Race 1 on Thursday, appeared to be en route to a fourth place result but came into the pits on the final lap.

It promoted Max Opalski to fourth, with Sam Paley completing the top-five.

While Alfonso Diaz picked up top class honors in Dark Horse Legends, the class title went to Alex Bachoura after points leader Zachry Lee also failed to start Race 2 following his accident in qualifying.

Bachoura, who claimed his first class win on Thursday, took his No. 33 Spark Performance Mustang to a second place class finish, which was enough to take the title by surprise after Lee was unable to start both season-ending races.

It came in a frantic final lap in the DHL class that saw the No. 8 MDK Motorsports Mustang of Tom Tait had a driveshaft failure and Mike Stillwagon losing second at the line to Bachoura.

RESULTS: Race 2

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