David Malukas exclusive: “This is going to be my own legacy”
- Archie O’Reilly
- 2 hours ago
- 9 min read
He thought it was all over. His dreams were shattering before his eyes and his life descending into turmoil.
David Malukas had the IndyCar world at his feet. He was gearing up to debut for Arrow McLaren - to live out this lifelong dream of racing for a team which would allow for him to compete for IndyCar championships and Indianapolis 500 crowns.
But two years ago this week, less than one month before he was supposed to debut for one of motorsport’s most famous names, 22-year-old Malukas’ entire future was cast into doubt.
It was a freak accident. Ironic, in many ways, that it happened away from a race track, on which drivers participate in such an inherently dangerous sport. As adrenaline junkies, it is not uncommon for them to combine off-season fitness with higher-octane fun during their extended time without racing, as Malukas enjoyed doing with mountain biking.
But fatefully on 11th February, with only 28 days until the 2024 St. Petersburg season opener, Malukas fell while out on a ride. The consequences were far-reaching; surgery was required on a dislocated left wrist and ligaments were torn.
But it went plenty further than that, even. Within three months, Malukas had nothing.
As May rolled around - supposed to bring Malukas’ first major shot with a leading outfit at the Indy 500 - this prodigious young American talent, with such a promising future ahead, had been released by Arrow McLaren and was left living in the abyss of free agency.
In a matter of weeks, his whole world had been turned upside down incomprehensibly.
“It was a tough mental period of my life,” Malukas reflects, speaking to DIVEBOMB two years on. “With the injury, it was a lot of unknowns on how I was going to recover, if it would recover. So just trying to deal with all that, it was tough for me to try to figure out, battle the thoughts in my mind. It was a lot of sad days.”
After his late-April release, when he should have been piloting a car with race-winning capability in the most eagerly anticipated on the IndyCar calendar, Malukas was instead confined to frequenting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s media facilities. He was left torturously watching his peers live out his dreams on the biggest, most fabled stage.
But while he could have shut himself away, he wanted to be present and to stay relevant. With distinct fear surrounding his long-term prospects already top of mind by this point, he opted to join IndyCar’s content team for the Month of May.
“Hey, well I’ve got to get my face out there,” he thought. “I just want to be a part of IndyCar in any way possible. And if I’m not in the car, then I’m going to just do content, do media, be on the broadcast. I just love the sport so I want to be connected and be there.”
It was a fitting role for Malukas given his entertaining presence on social media - but one which simultaneously caused much anguish. It was good fun and a handy distraction, but how could he really enjoy it given the prospect of what could have been? And with the thoughts of what might not be in the future, at the location of his greatest fantasies…
But while thoughts of doubt were so rife - thoughts that he may never race again and that the sacrifices taken by himself and his parents for 22 years of his life would be for nothing - he somehow kept conscience of what might still be. That never quite left the back of his mind.
Which brings Malukas to the vastly different setting of the Pacific Northwest, 15 months later. To Portland International Raceway and the foothills of Mount Hood.
In those darkest days, it would have been hard for Malukas to have envisaged how that intervening year or so was going to pan out. Or hard for anyone to imagine, for that matter.
Even now, it feels like something of an impossible story. A fairytale, almost.
But just as quickly as his life had taken that rapid change of course in February 2024, a remarkable chain of events took force. One to give the injury more than just a silver-lining.
On-site at the Speedway while sidelined, as gut-wrenching as it may have been in many a way, Malukas was indeed in-sight, in-mind. A completely calculated move. And at the same time, it just so happened that the Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) team were left unenamoured by the start made by IndyCar rookie Tom Blomqvist.
The Briton was promptly cut from their lineup after the 2024 Indy 500. In his place, Mike Shank knew the man he wanted - and he was willing to wait.
Hélio Castroneves filled the vacant seat for two races as Malukas’ recovery continued, until a point of race-readiness at Laguna Seca later in June. And having made his driving return for them at a test at the Milwaukee Mile earlier that month, Malukas was Shank’s man.
All considered, while still not at full fitness, he made a blistering start, incredibly qualifying in the Fast 12 on his return and going on to start third at Mid-Ohio the following weekend. This set a precedent which was followed, with two more third-place qualifying results on ovals and an eight-from-10 record of starting inside the top 12.
“Being at the Indy 500 and doing all that content, the reasoning for that was to show myself out there, keep seeing my face,” Malukas explains. “And I think it definitely helped because Shank gave me that miracle ride to go out there and show who I am and give me an opportunity. Everything happens for a reason. And that was one.”
Regardless of only converting for an unrepresentative two top-10 race results, Malukas was on the map again. And this was him at 80 percent, still requiring another surgery at the end of the year to clean up scar tissue and further improve his wrist’s mobility.
MSR saved his career. And not only that; they gave a platform which raised him to something he could seldom have foreseen mere months prior.
Shortly after season’s end that September, Malukas was announced to be joining AJ Foyt Racing for 2025. But given the team’s alliance with Team Penske, it was speculated from the very start that it was not necessarily a solely Foyt-orchestrated move - as was seemingly validated by the presence of Penske sponsors on Malukas’ No.4 car throughout the year.
As he impressed, particularly with his third-in-field average qualifying result across the season, plus the highlight of a runner-up finish in the Indy 500, questions intensified. Questions about a possible future at Team Penske, replacing the great Will Power.
Malukas was impressively unflappable given all of the talk from outside, during which he had been in communications with Penske at different points. But nothing had ever been certain.
That was until that weekend in Portland. As Malukas was departing the circuit at the end of the weekend - funnily enough, immediately after Power had opened Penske’s account for the season, ending a 15-race winless run for the team - his phone rang.
“I remember it was leaving the track, all in the car and I get the phone call from The Captain [Roger Penske],” Malukas recalls. “There’s talks back and forth but I got the official call at Portland. He starts talking, he’s like: ‘Hey, you’ve got the offer to join the team.’
“And so I mute and I’m super pumped up. After he said that, I did not understand anything he was saying. I muted, I’m screaming, all excited. And then I unmute when he stops talking and I’m just: ‘Thank you Roger very much for the opportunity.’ I’m trying to act all serious.
“I was super ecstatic when I got that call, man. It’s a dream come true.”
Over six weeks passed before Malukas was officially unveiled as a Penske driver. Especially in the context of all he has endured in the past two years, it was quite the landmark day to, at still only 24 years old, find himself signing for the team with a joint-record 17 IndyCar titles.
Quite remarkably, there is a valid argument that without the period of doom in 2024, there is every chance Malukas would not have been in this position.
“It’s pretty crazy to look back and think about everything that’s happened and how I’ve ended up here,” he admits. “If you would have told me back [at the] 2024 Indy 500, I was just doing content with IndyCar. I was doing TikToks. I was having a good time; I loved working with that media crew. But man, I’m doing TikToks in Turn 2 at the 500.
“And then fast forward two years and now I’m signing with Team Penske. If you would tell me back then, I wouldn’t be able to believe it.”
Malukas has some of the biggest boots he could possibly have to fill in the form of a two-time series champion and former Indy 500 winner. Not to mention the fact Power has more wins than any other driver in Penske’s IndyCar history, with 42 of his 45 career wins - which places him fourth on IndyCar’s all-time list - coming at the team across 17 years.
Adding on the fact that Power is the sport’s greatest-ever qualifier with his 71 poles, there is an astronomical amount for Malukas to live up to. He is not necessarily thinking that way, though. Of course, he wants to replicate - and supersede - the Power’s success from over a decade-and-a-half. But he is not there to merely emulate his predecessor.
“I’m going into it as: this is going to be my own legacy, my own name,” Malukas asserts. “It’s Verizon No.12 Team Penske Chevrolet with David Malukas. This is going to be my path.
“It’s different times, different drivers and it’s a different world today. So I’m going to be doing my own path. I have my own goals and my own dreams and my own aspirations of being written across history and doing that with Team Penske.
“And as long as I can go to bed each night and say I gave it my all and I tried my best, then that’s the only way I’ll be happy.”
Naturally, there is a certain weight of expectation at an organisation of Penske’s calibre. And in what is a results-driven business at the top, Malukas will be judged on that in the long run. But if there is any pressure he feels, he is ready to rise to that, as he continues to take positives from the steel he has built within himself in recent years.
He knows there may be errant results, particularly early on. But having been through such a tumult and having shown such resilience to fight through that, he has forged the mettle to respond to whatever challenges he may face.
“It really changed my mind on the way everything is in life,” he says of the period sidelined. “Everything happens for a reason. All that stuff that’s happened with the injury and having to deal with all that, I think it mentally prepared me for me being here today at Team Penske.
“A lot of it was dealing with hardships. But I think it was all necessary. I was able to learn a lot from it and it really changed my mindset and made me mature and made me push forward and motivate me and have discipline on [the fact] there’s goals that I want to achieve and I’ve got to do everything that I can to get that and nothing’s really going to stop me.
“If there’s any problem that comes up to me now, I always have this mindset that I can find a solution to any problem. Because after that, nothing’s going to be as tough of a problem as what was 2024. So hit me with anything you’ve got and I’ll be able to find a solution for it.”
Malukas is unflappably driven to rise to the responsibility and succeed as a Penske driver. Widely supported by the team’s vast resources, has relished all the off-season has thrown at him and feels he has never been so prepared for a season.
Following on from Dale Coyne Racing, Arrow McLaren (albeit without racing), MSR and Foyt, Penske is a fifth IndyCar outfit Malukas has been involved with. With that prior experience of switching teams, he already feels his adaptation to Penske has been aided.
He will not panic if things do not immediately go his way, though he believes he can make a fast start, beginning with a race Penske drivers have won on a record 11 occasions.
“Consistency is always going to be very important,” he acknowledges. “The main thing is to be getting off to a strong start. Unfortunately I have a lot of experience of joining new teams in the past few years; I’ve joined pretty much half the grid almost with teams so I’m very comfortable with it. But I know the priorities of what it takes.
“And learning from all of that, from the previous teams, I can get to a better jumpstart on this year because it does take some time to get acquainted with the team, the crew, the car and understanding everything.
“So for this season, especially with Team Penske, obviously the car, the people that they are, the team that they are and the drivers that they have… St. Pete is a very good race for them so I think we have a good chance to be on a better jumpstart than I have with previous teams so we can get back to being up there and getting results quicker.”
At Penske, Malukas has been thrust into one of motorsport’s greatest gigs - where expectations are scarcely higher. But nobody expects more of him than Malukas himself.
After standing on the precipice of no longer having a career less than two years ago, there is now a sense that nothing is going to rock him. He has picked himself up from the turmoil and once again has the IndyCar world at his feet. And like never before.
