DETROIT — A week after earning a runner-up finish in the 109th Indianapolis 500, David Malukas qualified second for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
The No. 4 A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet went around the nine-turn, 1.645-mile street circuit in 1 minute, 0.6492 seconds to average 97.643 mph. Malukas will start alongside polesitter Colton Herta, who was .17 seconds faster than Malukas.
“Felt really good,” Malukas said of his car. “Everything just clicked. Like I said after practice, we were very comfortable with the car, very happy and it’s kind of chaos with the practice sessions figuring out who’s fast and who isn’t and where we are, because you’re getting one lap after every 20, 30 minutes of a clean lap, so it’s all kind of just a guessing game.”
Malukas was in the second group of the first qualifying round as qualifying began. After the 10 minute session ended, Malukas was third-fastest, which was enough to advance to the second round of qualifying.
The Chicago native was also third-fastest in the second round of qualifying, which was enough to advance him to the Firestone Fast Six alongside Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, Alex Palou and Graham Rahal.
In the six-minute final shootout for pole, Malukas laid down the gauntlet for pole position that led to him pitting earlier than the rest of his competitors. Only Herta was able to top his time, as Kirkwood and Lundgaard will start on the second row of the grid ahead of Palou and Rinus VeeKay in the third row.
Rahal will have a six-position grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and will start 11th.
Malukas and Lundgaard were the only Chevrolet representatives in the Fast Six as the series races on a track laid out around General Motors’ world headquarters. Malukas will be doing what he can to prevent another Honda 1-2-3-4 like what happened in last year’s race.
“It was mentioned pre-briefing and before the weekend from last year, seemed like Honda had a little bit of an advantage, and it seems like Chevy has done an incredible job this year on the drivability side of things and the tools,” Malukas said. “And me and Derek (Miller) from Chevy have been working on a lot of different items, and the driver options are extensive. It feels good, and I feel like we’ve found a really good mix of what I like and really showed the true power of Chevy today.
The last time Malukas started on the front row of an IndyCar race was at Milwaukee in 2024 in the first of the doubleheader races.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.