By Noah Poser, Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the disqualification of car No. 28 driven by Marcus Ericsson which failed post-race technical inspection, elevating David Malukas from third to second place.)
In the past year and a half, David Malukas signed a contract to drive for Arrow McLaren, suffered a wrist fracture and ligament tears in a mountain biking accident leading to his release from the team and watched his replacement compete in last year’s Indianapolis 500 as he himself was forced to sit on the sidelines.
“This past year has been the toughest year of my life,” Malukas said. “It’s had a lot of different emotions and roller coasters, and if I look back one year ago today I wasn’t even in INDYCAR anymore, I didn’t have a (functional) left hand and I was in the media center just being a fan.”
Sunday, Malukas returned to the media center not as a fan, but as a full-time INDYCAR driver who had just achieved a top three finish in the Indy 500.
“Now I can say one year later that I was back in the (Indy) 500, and not just back, but I was fighting for the win, which is incredible to say,” Malukas said. “It’s always going to be considered a year of maturity for me because although I’ve only aged a year, I feel like I’ve aged 10.”
Despite feeling as if he had aged a decade, in terms of experience, it’s easy to forget Malukas entered Sunday’s race with just three seasons of INDYCAR experience to his name and just two starts in the sport’s most prestigious race, neither of which resulted in a finish better than 16th.
So for Malukas, achieving his third career podium, this one coming on motorsport’s biggest stage while driving for one of motorsport’s biggest legends in A.J. Foyt, might constitute as a breakthrough performance.
But only a minor one if you ask Malukas.
“I mean, it’s a little bit of a breakthrough,” Malukas said. “But I think on top of it all, it was just an incredible car. I think we’ve always had the maximum success we could get out of the cars but everything just lined up for us (today). From the team, to the guys, everybody just did a perfect job.”
May in general was kind to Malukas and his No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing team, as Malukas consistently showed top 10 speed throughout the numerous practice sessions leading up to the Indy 500 and qualified seventh before coming home in the top three on race day.
The finish wasn’t a fluke either, as Malukas was one of just a handful of cars that were in contention for the win throughout the race, regularly battling with eventual race winner Alex Palou and Indiana’s own Conor Daly for the top spot, along with Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marcus Ericsson.
Ultimately it came down to a strategy race, and Ericsson on the alternate strategy was able to come out ahead of Palou and Malukas following the final series of pit stops. Ericsson would hold the lead until Palou passed him for the race win with 14 laps to go. Meanwhile, Malukas settled for a hard-fought third on track before eventually being promoted to second place after Ericsson was disqualified for his car failing post-race inspection.
Aside from having to overcome the various fast cars he found himself racing against, or a chaotic start that saw numerous contenders have their day end early, the biggest challenge Malukas faced on his way to a career day was overcoming his bladder.
“Before the race even started, I had to pee so bad,” Malukas said with a laugh. “All these delays made it so much worse because I just kept thinking about it. Then, finally the green flag dropped and I was able to focus on the race.
“And immediately there was a caution again, so I was like we need to just go because I’m going to piss myself in this car.”