When David Malukas crashed during practice on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, it appeared his season was heading in a negative direction.
But with the NTT IndyCar Series race at the 1.33-mile track delayed until Monday the Team Penske driver turned things around.
Malukas started 25th and led 59 laps en route to an unlikely third-place finish, which moved him into second in the championship race, 83 markers behind race winner Alex Palou.
“Yeah, that was, wow. Man, this whole week, what an incredible weekend,” Malukas said. “This is definitely not going to be one I’m going to forget for a very long time. Just super, super happy. Obviously exhausted. But just so happy.”
Tire strategy helped Malukas get to the front.
“We just wanted to go on a different strategy to the rest of the field since we were all the way in the back. Big kudos to Travis Law,” Malukas said of his race strategist. “Absolute genius, madman. Always seems like he knows what’s going to happen. Put us in the right call.
Honestly, the one concern was are these tires going to hold. Thankfully we went through the different pit cycles, Power was behind. They said they’re on a different strategy.
“If you lose position, you lose position. We ended up maintaining and going forward.
Incredible car, good strategy. Yeah, we went forward.”
Malukas was emotional about the group of people that came together to give him the chance to race after Saturday’s crash during, which he injured his knee.
“I mean, it was massive. This race, like I said, I’m not going to forget this race from everybody involved. It’s cool to see when you have so many people all on a collective opportunity,” Malukas said. “Like, I would not be in this car, I would not be racing without all the support and people that were behind me, from the team, to the medical team, the local hospital here.
“Everybody just worked so hard, managed to get me back into an operating form, getting the car into an operating form. Here we are.
“Last to third. It was an incredible thing. Incredible story just to think about when humans come together what we can accomplish. Super happy. So much to remember. A lot of good memories.”
Malukas knows his chances of catching Palou in the championship race are slim.
“Look, he’s at the peak right now. He’s doing so good year by year. Again, people thought he was going to run away earlier on in the season,” Malukas said. “Had a few unlucky ones. See how it plays out. You never know how things are going to happen. Thankfully I was able to recover a mistake from this one, all the support I had.
“We have to keep trying, keep pushing hard. Maybe it will come down to the end. If not, I’m so happy with this race, this season. Life is good.”
