MADISON, Ill. — At the site of his first two NTT IndyCar Series podiums in 2022 and 2023, David Malukas has every reason to smile ahead of Sunday’s (June 15) Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
After all, Malukas was third in Saturday’s (June 14) opening practice session, qualified fourth in the 27-car field and led the evening practice by over two tenths of a second.
“It felt really good,” Malukas said after evening practice. “I think in the beginning of the run we were not that quick, honestly, a little bit struggling, but it kind of was the plan. We wanted to make sure that the car is set up just throughout the run. So we tried a few things, got in the right direction and then kind of was just waiting for the track temp to drop. And it did, and I mean that thing just kind of took off.”
That kind of has become status quo for Malukas at WWTR ever since the Chicago native finished second to Josef Newgarden when IndyCar made its annual stop to the oval near St. Louis in 2022.
“It’s something that, I don’t know, it’s something with this track I just feel like I have full freedom,” Malukas said. “You know normally when it comes to an oval course, especially short oval, there’s always just one line that you take. And for me, I just feel like I could just take whatever line I want.
“I can just understand the track and read it well and know how to set runs up, get people going and know how to adjust to the way my car is. I don’t know, [there’s] something with this track that I just have clicked with.”
Malukas’s two-lap qualifying average of 179.079 mph put him in a Chevrolet sweep of the top five positions behind Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Pato O’Ward with Newgarden starting fifth.
“It was definitely sketchy for practice, but we still managed to do a good lap time, so we were happy,” Malukas said after qualifying. “We knew that we would get the car in the window. As soon as we went out for qualifying, that was damn near perfect.”
Saturday’s sessions marked the continuation of momentum for Malukas that started back at the Indianapolis 500. Malukas qualified seventh and was credited with a runner-up finish in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing after Marcus Ericsson‘s disqualification from second place.
The No. 4 A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet then qualified second on the streets of Detroit before a penalty for contact with Alex Palou dropped Malukas back to 14th place. All of this was after the first five races of the year where Malukas had no starts better than 10th (Long Beach) and no finishes better than 13th (St. Petersburg).
“We kind of had a little bit of a struggle with us in the beginning of the season,” Malukas said. “A lot of new people from all sorts of different sectors and things, and we managed to kind of get a good connection with all the guys. And I think it really showed in the month of May.
“People have two, three bad races and then they kind of jump to conclusions already. And I just told everybody, ‘Look, we need (the) month of May, we need to be with the guys every single day.’ And we built the momentum, and we understood what we need from the car. And obviously I think the results are starting to show.”
Malukas will have 260 laps around the 1.25-mile oval to show another result on Sunday.
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.