Paley Breaks Through for Race 1 Win at Road America

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Sam Paley broke a four-race win streak from Robert Noaker Racing to put Southern Paley Motorsports into victory lane in the first Mustang Challenge race of the weekend at Road America.

Paley took his No. 26 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to the win over pole-sitter Jeremy Fletcher in the No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing entry, in Saturday’s 45-minute contest, which ended under yellow following an accident for the No. 5 KohR Motorsports entry of Rod Randall in Turn 6.

It came after clash between the No. 9 Automatic Racing Mustang of Rob Ecklin and the No. 94 KohR entry of DJ Randall at Canada Corner that led to a lengthy full-course caution and restart with four minutes to go.

The race, however, ended behind the Mustang Dark Horse safety car due to Rod Randall’s accident moments later.

The first yellow came out for a heavy accident by Tom Tait, who slammed his No. 8 MDK Motorsports Mustang into the wall at the Kink on the third lap, with all three incidents leading to limited green flag run time.

All drivers involved in accidents walked away from their Mustang race cars.

Paley took over the lead from Fletcher on the opening lap and withheld pressure from the MMR entry for the breakthrough win.

Points leader Tyler Maxson came home third in the No. 74 RNR Mustang after passing teammate Robert Noaker on the first restart on Lap 5.

Reid Sweeney completed the top-five in the third RNR entry, with Brandon Gdovic finishing sixth in his No. 46 Precision Performance Motorsports Mustang and Max Opalski in seventh.

Zachry Lee, meanwhile, claimed his fourth consecutive win in the Dark Horse Legends class, with a flag-to-flag run in his No. 48 MMR Mustang. Lee finished eighth overall in the race.

The No. 33 Spark Performance Mustang of Alex Bachoura came home second in class, with Paolo Salvatore completing the DHL podium in his Torre Racing entry.

Race 2 gets underway on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. CDT, 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