Editor’s Note: After this piece was published, IndyCar officials disqualified the car of runner-up Marcus Ericsson, which elevated Malukas to second-place in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.
INDIANAPOLIS — Make no bones about it, David Malukas was a bit disappointed with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
That’s because he thought he had the fastest car on the track and a legitimate chance to win the 109th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, but there was also tremendous satisfaction for the A.J. Foyt Racing driver following the latest chapter in his NTT IndyCar Series career.
Malukas led the race twice and ran in the top five throughout the day, but he felt that two lapped cars (David Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco) hurt his chances of challenging leaders Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson during the closing laps.
“Yeah, all those yellow flags, seeing our position of the car and how good we were, I mean, we had it at the end there,” Malukas said. “Definitely picturing it, and man, we gave it our all in those last — I think it was about 15 to go, and we turned it up and I was just hanging on for dear life trying to get something out of it. Those two lap cars kind of came in and ruined the fun for us and chose this winner. That’s just kind of how this track goes.”
Malukas was deeply satisfied with his team’s performance.
“You’ve got to look at it from a positive standpoint. The guys did an incredible job from start to finish. And that’s not speaking about the race, it’s speaking about this month,” Malukas said. “As soon as we unloaded the car, we’ve put the car in the right direction, and never took a blindside. Our path was clear, and it kind of led to getting this P3 finish. That comes down to them. It was from the engineers and mechanics, just an incredible job.
“And I think we needed it,” the Chicago native said. “If I look at it from a championship standpoint and the season as a whole, we got a little bit of a rough start. So I think this has been a very good month for us to boost morale and lead us for the rest of the season.”
The result may also have been a turning point in Malukas’ career. Last year he lost his ride with Arrow McLaren after suffering a non-racing related wrist injury.
“This past year that I’ve had has been the toughest year I think of my life really,” Malukas said honestly. “It was a lot of different emotions, roller coasters. And if I look back one year ago today, I wasn’t even in IndyCar anymore. I didn’t have a left hand and I was up here in the media center just being a fan. And I could say one year later that I’m back in the 500 and not just back but I’m fighting for the win, which is incredible to say.
“It’s been an insane year. It’s always going to be a year of maturity for me,” Malukas said. “I’ve aged — although it was a year, I feel like I’ve aged 10. Everything happens for a reason and I’m taking all this knowledge and everything I’ve learned in the past year and all the hardships and going to put it into more success in the future.”
