WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin – It was billed as the final dress rehearsal of IndyCar’s hybrid assist unit and a return to the Milwaukee Mile, but for 22-year-old David Malukas, it signaled a fresh start in the NTT IndyCar Series.
On February 9, during the offseason, Malukas fractured his left wrist in a mountain biking crash. He had surgery three days later and missed the first four races for Arrow McLaren’s IndyCar operation.
By doing so, Arrow McLaren terminated his contract on April 29 and the future appeared grim for the Chicago kid.
But another story was developing at Meyer Shank Racing as rookie driver and sports car star Tom Blomqvist was having a difficult time adapting to IndyCar. At the 108th Indianapolis 500, Blomqvist struggled to get into the starting lineup and never made it through Turn 1 before crashing on the opening lap of the race.
The team pulled Blomqvist from the car for Detroit and Road America, replacing him with team partner/driver Helio Castroneves for those two races.
Team owner Michael Shank and Malukas began to negotiate a deal and just over a week after initial discussions began, Malukas was signed to a deal.
He drove an Indy car at speed for the first time since his injury on the flat, 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile as 20 driver/car combinations rans laps with the new hybrid assist unit.
It was also the first time IndyCar has raced at the track since Sebastien Bourdais won the 2015 ABC Supply Wisconsin 250.
In Wednesday’s first test session, Malukas was the leader for most of practice before four veteran drivers knocked him down the list.
Malukas finished fifth in the opening round of the test with a best lap at 159.293 miles-per-hour. He ran a total of 74 laps in the first session.
He finished eighth in combined practice speeds and ran a total of 111 laps in the morning and afternoon test sessions.
For Malukas, his long season of recovery finally showed some promise for his future.
He had been waiting for this day all year.
“Honestly, so, so long to the point where all these bad things were happening to me to where I could not get back in the car,” Malukas told NBCSports.com. “From these past two days, I have driven safer than I ever have on the roads, walked safer and looked at everything, made sure I took my time. I really needed to get back in this car.
“Then, I got back in the car and IndyCar said, schedule change, we’re going to wait another 30 minutes.
“Please get me in this car!
“It felt amazing and I’m so, so happy.”
Will Power was the fastest driver at 161.521 miles-per-hour in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin followed at 160.759 mph in Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet and 160.639 mph in McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevy.
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was fourth at 160.137 mph in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda with Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward rounding out the top five at 159.993 mph.
The 20 drivers ran a combined 2,403 laps in the two sessions. Counting the simulated races, there were 3,563 total laps turned at the Milwaukee Mile in the test session.
“Of course, at the end, we had a few people put some new sets of tires on and we went down,” Malukas explained. “In the end, still very, very strong. From the team wise, we have very good cars. We have good chemistry. The team welcomed me like family here. Our performance is immediately there.
“I did a few laps on the first set and after that, I felt like I was right back at home. All good on my side.”
The remainder of the late afternoon was set aside for simulated races, featuring starts behind a pace car, caution laps and pit stops so IndyCar and its teams could collect more data on the hybrid assist power unit.
It will be on all cars beginning with the July 7 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, the for the rest of the 2024 season and into the future.
The intention of the hybrid assist unit is to increase horsepower through a rechargeable system that stores up energy through braking or throttle position or manually through steering wheel paddles or buttons.
“I really like it,” Malukas said. “It adds a lot of play on deployment stages and when to do it, whether you want to do one shot or two shots. I enjoy it. I did a lot of testing with the hybrid with Arrow McLaren in the offseason but coming into it, it feels very similar.
“Now, I’m picking and choosing the differences between Honda and Chevrolet.”
Arrow McLaren General Manager Brian Barnhart told NBCSports.com earlier in the test that one thing teams were learning is how the balance of the car is affected when the hybrid assist is deployed. Malukas was asked if he experienced that during his time on track.
“In some ways, yes,” he said. “It depends on the state of the tire. We were doing some deployments early on coming out of Turn 2 on very old tires and it put pressure on the right rear to let it slide. Overall, it adds another little toy the drivers can play with.
“It will come pretty quick. All the Honda drivers and the Chevy drivers are all working together in unison to make sure it is ready, and the information is shared. I think it will be pretty soon.”
Malukas is in the unique position of driving the hybrid assist device with both a Chevrolet and a Honda. When he was at Arrow McLaren during the offseason, he did hybrid testing for the team in a Chevrolet.
At Meyer Shank Racing, Malukas is driving a Honda.
“I gave the information that I told to Honda about all of it but so far it’s very similar because, at the end of the day, it’s different engines but they both collaborated on the units are the exact same,” Malukas said. “From the hybrid standpoint it’s the same unit.”
Malukas still has scars from his wrist surgery and needs to apply a cream ointment as his skin is now out of a cast, but he had no issues with his hand or wrist driving around the flat, one-mile oval.
“The hand feels perfectly fine, but coming down the pit lane is a little bit interesting,” Malukas said. “I’m having to do a new way with the steering but on track especially here in an oval there’s you don’t even feel any difference.”
Malukas was asked if jumping into the race car was similar to “riding a bike” until he pointed out it was riding a bike that created his predicament in the first place.
“Riding a bike? Oh boy,” he laughed.
“Overall, what I did today helped a lot. In this off-time, I’m still human at the end of the day. You still have those thoughts of, I’ve been out of the seat for a long time, how is this the injury going to affect me? How’s the performance?
“But it feels good to be back in the car and the performance is there.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Pietro Fittipaldi (30) and Meyer Shank Racing driver David Malukas (66) drive down the front straightduring the NTT IndyCar Series hybrid test Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin.
Pietro Fittipaldi (3) and David Malukas (66) during the June 11 IndyCar test at The Milwaukee Mile — Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
“From a pressure standpoint, I feel honestly very little pressure. There’s no pressure from my side. I just want to go out there and perform. And it’s just a good team. I mean, I think the way the chemistry is with the team, where they are very family oriented, I think is kind of the perfect environment for me to not really have much pressure and just go out there have a good time and show some performances.”
Malukas believes his injury will be tested further when the series resumes at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on June 23.
He believes the short oval at Milwaukee was a perfect place for him to ease back into racing because it doesn’t put as much strain on his wrist.
“I think there’s definitely more performance to show when it comes to road courses, but I think that’s another reason why it’s very good from a hand standpoint is the hand has no effect on ovals,” Malukas said. “Laguna is going to be more interesting seeing how the hand is going to handle but on ovals yeah, it’s going to be a piece of cake.
“When it comes to ovals it’s going to be equal performance to where we last left off.”
As one of the younger drivers in the IndyCar paddock, Malukas has never competed at the Milwaukee Mile, but he will get his chance on Labor Day weekend with a full race on Saturday evening and another race on Sunday.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Malukas predicted. “The inside line, on the black asphalt, there is less grip there, so it is going to be interesting to see how it does from a racing view.
“But so far, running and doing laps, it’s something I am comfortable with on the short oval, although it has its own characteristics with the banking being very, very small.
“It’s interesting, but so far I like it.”
As for his return to the IndyCar starting lineup, Malukas detailed his thoughts since his departure at Arrow McLaren.
“This came very much as a surprise,” he admitted. “After the whole Arrow McLaren deal happened, I said, at least now I don’t have to rush, and I can make sure this hand is healed.
“The way we did everything with the doctors, we slowed it all down. Then, after the 500, all of this happened and I was like, ‘Hey, by the way, can I be back in a few weeks here?’ We worked with the doctors, everything healed very well, and they said we could get back in it. We did the release and here I am.
“A few days after the Indianapolis 500 is when the talks happened. Once the announcements came online is when I started talking to Mike Shank.
“From pen to paper, it was probably seven to 10 days.”
He is impressed with the exuberance and enthusiasm of team owner Shank, who has invested much of his personal worth into his racing operation located near Columbus, Ohio in the community of Pataskala.
“He is incredible,” Malukas said of Shank. “He is always right here with the guys. We did seat fit at Road America until 9 p.m. and he was there with everybody supporting the team. You can tell from his team; he wants to be competitive. He wants the team to perform, and he is very much involved in everything, and it feels very good to have that from the boss. He is very intelligent on everything he does, too, giving us insight on the stand.
“I’ve had a really good relationship with him and I’m excited to go racing.”
Malukas is now part of an operation that includes 32-year-old Felix Rosenqvist as the proven veteran and 22-year-old Malukas as the potential star of the future. The mentor is four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who at 49, has the exuberance of a teenager.
Together, they hope to get the team owned by Shank, Jim Meyer and Castroneves back on a winning track.
“It’s really good the way it is all connected,” Malukas said. “With it being family oriented and having good chemistry is something I’m used to, so it already feels like I’m at home.
“Having Felix and Helio, it’s a really good group of guys and a good trio for me because I’m only 22. Having Helio on my stand, he has raced here, he knows this track, things like that are already massive.
“All of that has added to our performance today.”
Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500
