David Malukas exclusive: Living his Indy 500 dream with Penske
- Archie O’Reilly
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
There was a lump in David Malukas’ throat as he watched on.
Injured and dealt the torturous hand of viewing his peers living his dream from the sidelines, such a watching brief was cruel. But having been engulfed by the welcome rigours of his young driving career for so many years, it reignited his appreciation for the great race.
“To come there as a fan and experience what makes it so special, there’s so much that you don’t get and pick up off when you’re in the car,” he says. “And that was just the energy of over 350,000 people screaming in unison or cheering.
“This place is huge and it’s shaking the entire facility. It’s outrageous. I’ve never had an experience like that. It gave me goosebumps. I almost started getting tears in my eyes.”
The first time he had been in the position of a genuine fan since his childhood, it took the Chicagoan back to his formative days attending the Indianapolis 500. Only back then, a youngster ahead of his racing days, tears flowed for a different reason.
“I was a little bit of a complainer and I didn’t really like it because it was so loud,” he laughs. “I remember I was just crying because my ears were in pain. As a kid, I was like: ‘I just want to go home and play with my Hot Wheels. I just do it myself.’
“But growing up, now being older, it truly is a special experience.”
Malukas is speaking to DIVEBOMB in the media centre at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), which he frequented in 2024 after a pre-season mountain-biking accident left him with a wrist injury that resulted in the termination of his new Arrow McLaren deal ahead of May.
He knows the setting well, having served as a temporary part of IndyCar’s content team that month. Alongside runs to Turns 1 and 2, he watched much of the 2024 race from the media centre, fixated on the many screens, radio coverage and engaging his racing brain by attempting to decipher IndyCar’s typically convoluted strategy game.
“I was there with my friend betting who’s going to be in the battle in the end,” he recalls. “It’s so much fun. Last lap, everybody was like: ‘Woah!’ It was so much, I didn’t know what to do. I was out here at the media centre and I was just sprinting back and forth on the balcony. I’m like: ‘What’s going on? Where are we going? Why are we screaming? Oh my gosh!’
“I just had so much energy from it. I’m like: ‘Wow, this is why this race is so special. This is why people always come back every single year.’ There isn’t an experience like it.”
Malukas watched on from the media centre’s balcony - to the right side of the iconic Pagoda building - as, beneath him in Victory Lane, Josef Newgarden celebrated his second Indy 500 crown in as many years. It was a visceral experience - one hard to gauge when strapped into a land-bound fighter jet with a roaring engine directly behind.
A free agent, even if reluctantly so, a 22-year-old Malukas was able to experience the world’s most-attended single-day sporting event from the complete opposite perspective.
“I could feel the vibration of the stands and hear the people. That was a very different experience and I felt very grateful to actually have that opportunity to be there as a fan. It was my favorite Indy 500 because I wasn’t stressed out of my mind.
“I was able to experience everything and just have a couple of glizzies, have a cheeseburger and really truly live that Indy 500 feeling. I even went to the Snake Pit at 8 [o’clock] in the morning so had a good wake up call. I experienced all of it. It was a good time.”
Plenty has changed in the two years since. Returning to the Indy 500 with AJ Foyt Racing last year, Malukas added a runner-up finish at the great race - promoted from third after an infraction on Marcus Ericsson’s Andretti machine - to his résumé.
For the first time, after a best Indy 500 finish of 16th place in his two seasons with Dale Coyne Racing, a driver regarded as an oval supremo was able to fight for 500 victory.
“What was massive for me was the pace change going into the race,” he admits. “That was a big learning curve for me, my first two years in the Indy 500, trying to get used to that pace drop. Then as of more recently, it’s been going into that last stint.
“After experiencing last year, it’s a completely different race. It’s a different ball game and I’m going to take all of that learning I’ve done going into this season because I’ve watched that tape over and over again.
“What could have I done differently? It’s been haunting me ever since. Now I know: ‘Okay, this is what not to do and this is what we’re going to strive to do.’”
This year, he has the chance to go the critical step further with Indianapolis’ most successful team, 20-time winners Team Penske. From watching him drink the milk from above while out of action two years ago, Malukas is now competing alongside Newgarden. Considering he thought the injury may end his career, it has been a staggering turnaround.
Impressively, after some scepticism around Penske’s decision to replace 17-year veteran Will Power, Malukas has already emerged atop the team’s three-car squad in the early knockings of the 2026 season. Through six races, he sits third in the standings, compared to Newgarden 23 points behind in fifth and Scott McLaughlin 44 points adrift in eighth.
Since finishing 13th owing to a tyre delamination in St. Petersburg, Malukas has finished no worse than seventh - including third place from pole at Phoenix Raceway and, most recently, a first road-course podium with second in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
“It just goes off of pre-season,” Malukas assesses. “[Penske] have so many resources that any overthinking I do… the amount of times I wake up in the middle of the night having some stupid thought, thinking ‘this is going to make it or break it’, I write all of it down.
“In the morning, I send it to the engineers over there and they give me all the answers. Most of the time, they’re like: ‘You’re losing your mind. There’s nothing there.’ Sometimes they’ll be like: ‘Okay, you could try this or something.’ But it helps clear my mind so that when I actually go to the track, I feel at ease.
“And that’s been the situation from the beginning of the season. I come into it having my worries but they give me all the answers and I’m like: ‘Oh, okay. The car’s good, I feel confident, I know what I need to do. So let’s go get it done.’ And that’s been showing here.”
He has found reliability as a driver that he has scarcely achieved so far in his young career. The streakiness from race days with Foyt has, thus far, largely dissipated.
Many a time, he has made no secret of the fact that he is living his dream by racing for Penske. One would think that comes with pressure, yet rather than becoming awe-struck, he has almost leant into the weight of expectation of replacing one of the sport’s greats.
“The pressure stays the same because I have that pressure on myself that I always want to win, I always want to be there,” he asserts. “We’ve had this consistency; now we need to [be] the first one across the finish line.
“Trying to manage that, it’s been hard because I keep having these moments; anytime I’m sitting in the grid, even [in Indy 500 practice], you just start dreaming about winning the Indy 500. Or even the last race of the Indy GP, while I’m driving, I’m thinking about: ‘Okay we’re about to get this first win across the line.’
“And it’s still not over and there’s still a lot of race left and we ended up not getting it. But it’s just telling myself: ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ I’m going to keep pushing it.”
His next shot at claiming that elusive victory comes in the biggest race of all, for which he again rose above his teammates to qualify third. And starting from the front row, he has scarcely been in a better place.
“It’s interesting because for the first time ever I actually feel so calm going into the 500. Knowing I have good material and everything that I need to get this win done behind me, it brings my confidence up.
“And now it has to come down to hopefully this track chooses me as its winner. Because it is a lot about that. You can have everything go your way, but right at the death the Indy 500 could say: ‘No, we’re not going to choose you this time.’ So as long as it chooses me, we’ll be there. If not, we go at it again next season and we’re going to keep pushing.
“We want to get that win and how special would it be to get that first win at the Indy 500?”
