“Over the moon” Malukas feeling like complete IndyCar driver
- Archie O’Reilly
- 7 minutes ago
- 3 min read
David Malukas is starting to view himself as a truly well-rounded IndyCar package as he moves into the second half of an impressive first season with Team Penske.
The fifth-year driver achieved his fifth front-row start of the campaign - inclusive of third at the Indianapolis 500 - with second place in qualifying at Road America on Saturday. He has qualified inside the top five on eight occasions inside the first 10 rounds.
“I’m actually over the moon because here I am P2 on another road course,” he said after his latest front-row result. “It feels really good. I feel like before this season, it was ovals only. I worked so hard the off-season, even in between the races - the amount of simulator, looking at video, data… I look at video until I just get sick of it, learning, gain what I can.
“Now I can say road courses, street courses, ovals… it feels good that I’m always there on all three.”
Malukas’ latest second-place start matches his career-best road-course qualifying result from Barber Motorsports Park in late March, as he continues to search for a second pole position following his qualifying success at Phoenix Raceway earlier that month.
On this latest occasion at Road America, there was a marked turnaround from finishing only 12th in opening practice on Friday. Malukas stepped forward to fourth in Saturday’s practice session before topping each of his first two rounds in qualifying.
“Going from practice yesterday to today, we flipped this car upside down overnight,” he said. “It was not in the window yesterday. Coming into today, so much better. We got it right where we needed it to be. Qualifying, P1, P2, put some laps together.
“This track is so long [at 4.014 miles], it is so hard to put a lap together. You’ll see the splits of other drivers in between sessions, it’s so drastic. You have these long straightaways; come out of Turn 3, long straightaway, you’re thinking, thinking by the time you get to the next corner. Q3, missed out a little bit. I know the mistakes I made.”
Malukas ultimately fell 0.2927s behind Chip Ganassi Racing’s Álex Palou in the Fast Six, as the Spaniard claimed his fifth successive pole position and sixth overall this season.
Palou has been the pole-sitter for each of Malukas’ four front-row-starting races since his P1 Award at Phoenix. But this is no cause for deflation, rather cause for Malukas to continue his constant development early in his still-young career as he strives to reach the level of the four-time overall, three-time-defending series champion.
“For my sake, I always put a lot of pressure on myself, no matter the situation, to keep getting better and looking at what you can do differently,” Malukas said. “You learn more from your losses than you do your wins.
“Every day, man, I feel like I’m changing so much. If I even look at myself now to one month ago, I feel like I’m a completely different driver. If I compare to last year, it’s not even relatable. Keep learning, learning. Twenty-four years old, we’ve still got time.”
Malukas is third in the IndyCar standings at the midway stage of the 2026 season, trailing Palou by 68 points and sitting 19 points adrift of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.
Leading the way for Penske, he has three podium results and has only twice finished outside the top seven in races this season. But from 70 starts since making his IndyCar debut for Dale Coyne Racing in 2022, the search goes on for an elusive first race victory.
“If the situation’s there, then great, we can go and get that win,” he said ahead of his latest front-row start. “At the end of the day, it’s trying to get points, trying to have a good race. You don’t want to make stupid mistakes or a stupid move to be like: ‘I need to get this win so bad.’
“I know the time will come. If this race is going to be the one, we’ll go for it. If the situation doesn’t arise, you have to keep the mind calm and collected, get what we can.”
