It was the final race of the 1997 Indy Racing League season and the small-budget Nienhouse Racing team put a 31-year-old driver from Columbus, Ohio into its car for the final race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The driver's name was Mike Shank. He started 28th and raced his way to 16th, collecting a whopping $13,000 for his efforts.

Shank, who was the 1996 Player’s/Toyota Atlantic C2 champion, decided his racing interests were better served as a team owner. He joined forces with another Ohio racer, a teenage driver named Sam Hornish, Jr., to compete in the 1999 Formula Atlantic Championship. Hornish was rookie of the year.

During his time in Formula Atlantic, Shank was twice named team owner of the year. Hornish would go on to become perhaps the greatest driver in the Indy Racing League's era of the IndyCar Series with three championships and 19 victories, including the 2006 Indianapolis 500.

In 2004, Shank's team made the switch to sports car racing. Ever since, it has chased a series championship.

Last Saturday night at Michelin Raceway at Road Atlanta, Shank’s 15-year search for a championship was finally realized. With three pole positions, one win and four podiums, the Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) No. 86 AutoNation Acura NSX GT3 of Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher captured the IMSA GT-Daytona Championship at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.

Since 2017, Shank has also been a team owner of the part-time Meyer Shank Racing team that competes in the NTT IndyCar Series with Jack Harvey as his driver.

This past season, Harvey and MSR competed in 10 races and finished third in the INDYCAR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. Shank intends to become a full-time entrant in IndyCar as he adds races each season to the team’s schedule.

As for his Acura sports car team, he can finally be called a champion.

“There is a lot of relief -- a lot of relief,” Shank told NTT INDYCAR Mobile. “This is the third year with this program. We started with them in 2017 and did OK, almost won (the season title) in 2018 and to finally get it done this year is glorious and deserved of everybody at (Honda Performance Development), Acura and this team to get it done as a team.”

Shank and his team devised a successful strategy of building a points lead large enough that it wouldn’t depend on where it finished in the 10-hour race that closes the season at Michelin Speedway. They led by 32 points entering the race.

“We have learned having done that race now for four or five years, you do not want to have to race for that championship in a 10-hour race,” Shank said. “You don’t want to do that. That is goal No. 1. We strategized to get it done before that. We entered the race with a 31-point lead so all we needed to do was start the race. That was completely strategized.

“We knew what kind of points we needed to pull out of all of the races leading up to that, we tested at those tracks and we did not test at Road Atlanta. We focused on getting this point thing carried over to where we needed to be.

“I’m very proud of that, that everyone stepped up and recognized what we needed to do and really made that happen. I’m just really proud of that. We executed really, really well. The only thing that stood in our way was a rock that went through the radiator during the race.”

Farnbacher and Hindman are the team’s two full-time drivers. Justin Marks was the third driver in the four long races with former IndyCar Series driver and race winner AJ Allmendinger racing for the team in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Shank believed it was important to get Acura its first IMSA champion in the GTD division as a reward for the company’s loyalty to his operation. Team owner Roger Penske also got Acura its first IMSA championship in the DPi category.

“They really stepped up and took a chance on me in 2017,” Shank said of Acura and HPD. “It’s been my goal in life the last 13 or 14 years to be a factory-manufacturer-supported team. I did everything in my power to become that. We won the Rolex overall in 2012 with Ford and that was great, but we didn’t get the job and Chip Ganassi did. I wanted to find another place where we could get something done with them.

“The first part is loyalty, absolute loyalty. I’ve worked really hard on relationships there to give them what they need and want, and I think they recognize that. I’m loyal to them. I do exactly what I say I’m going to do, and I do it on budget. I’m really proud of that. We hope to carry forward with them for a long time.”

Shank has some ambitious long-term goals for Acura and for his IMSA team. But he also had chance to reflect on the long journey it took for him to become a championship team owner.

“It was really tough because I felt like our program was good enough to win championships, but all through the prototype phases we were a pro-am team,” Shank said. “We were funded by people who could offered to race and drive, and we paired them up with a good pro. Sometimes we did well and sometimes we didn’t, so it was hard to be consistent.

“In 2016, we finished fourth in prototype with a pro-am driver lineup and won two races that year. I was extremely proud of that. It was very difficult to do that in the prototype category.

“On the GT side, we’ve had great driver lineups all three years. The first year was getting the car developed, the second year was about being consistent and not make mistakes. Between the second and third years, we did an EVO kit for our car that improved it greatly. In combination with the EVO kit and strategizing correctly, we were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and get the championship done.”

Now that Shank has his first IMSA championship, how does he parlay that relationship into his NTT IndyCar Series program?

“A lot of this stuff happens fairly seamlessly,” Shank said. “They (HPD and INDYCAR) have a level of trust with us. They understand what we are doing.

“We’re the new guys, right? We have to prove ourselves. Not just me, but our driver, Jack Harvey. We have stepped up every year in performance, not just for me but for our team and Honda and for our sponsors. We are expected to contribute to their top fives.

“We are freshmen right now. We are trying to step up and be sophomores and juniors. It’s going to plan, but we have to show them we deserve to be in IndyCar racing.”

Shank continues to finalize his IndyCar effort for next season and is close to announcing which team he will share an engineering alliance with in 2020. For the past two years, Shank’s team has been aligned with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports utilizing HPD technology. But next season, that team is joined by McLaren and will be aligned with Chevrolet.

That leaves Shank looking for a new engineering alliance, and he is close to announcing a new partner.

MSR at Indianapolis

“Everything is looking good,” said Shank, shown here with his team after qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in May. “As I keep saying, we hope to announce very, very soon. We have to do it on the timing of our partners. We’re not quite ready to do it yet. We are still looking very, very good. Stand by on that shortly. It’s the No. 1 thing on my list to get finished so we can go on with our lives right now.

“We are close. Not there yet, but we are going to get it done. We are going to announce everything – car, driver, team, technical partner, sponsors, everything all in one deal. That is the other thing, we want to announce everything at one time.”

What does it say about a guy growing up in Central Ohio that wants to get involved in racing, doesn’t come from a family of wealth, had to work hard and earn it to be able to get to this point with a championship IMSA team and getting closer every year to a full-time IndyCar team?

“It is so cool to be able to do all those things that you just listed there,” Shank said. “I want people to respect us. I don’t think we get the respect that we deserve sometimes with this group that have been with me for a very long time. We’ve always been considered this little team that could and I’m fricking tired of that.

“We’re a big team with a moderate budget, that’s what we are. We spend wisely and have smart decision making. I think that shows to the world, people who want to follow in our footsteps that anything is possible. It’s the cheesiest line in the world, but if I can do this, anyone can do this. You have to be able to take huge chances and risk everything multiple times and always have your house on the line, which I do all the time financially. It can potentially pay off for you.

“The key for everything we do here is timing. When we make the right decision. When do we go to multiple Toyota Atlantic cars back in the day? When do we make the switch from open wheel, to sports cars.? The timing of when we get into IndyCar racing.

“All of it is correct timing decisions. With the right amount of asset put to it and convincing people we are the one, don’t be afraid to spend money with us, we will take care of you – those combinations have put us where we are today.”

And today, Meyer Shank Racing can be called a champion.