David Malukas Determined to Prove He Belongs on IndyCar Grid

• Since finishing a season-high fourth at Texas in the second race of the season, IndyCar driver David Malukas has spiraled downward with five consecutive finishes of 19th or worse.

• He’s driven all 24 of his IndyCar races to date (2022 and 2023) with Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports, the latter part owned by Malukas’ father, Henry.

• Malukas is not under contract for 2024 and admits that he's talked teams other IndyCar teams about his future.

Pity David Malukas’ poor punching bag.

The speed bag has taken quite a beating of late, as the 21-year-old Chicago-area native has taken out his frustrations on it after having gotten beaten up in the last three IndyCar races, having crashed out each time.

Even worse, after finishing fourth at Texas in the second race of this season (his best finish since a podium showing at Gateway last season), putting him sixth in the standings, Malukas has plummeted to 19th in the IndyCar standings heading into this weekend’s race at Road America.

“We made a few major changes in the team when it comes to engineering and a couple of new people and new positions (heading into this season),” Malukas said. “At the start, we still had a very similar setup to what we had last year, and we were able to continue bringing in the good performances. But it kind of seems like as the season went on, it started to catch up to us. We couldn't really find our way and we've kind of started to get into a struggle.

“Normally, you want to stay with the same team and kind of work with that team and get better with them. We know when you change somebody you know it's kind of starting from scratch again, you have to start from the beginning.

“Yeah, it's tough. We're in a tough situation with the team. … We’ve made mistakes and I’ve made mistakes. In general, we're really trying to find a car that can have some pacing. And hopefully, this is a weekend where we can rebound.”

Since finishing a season-high fourth at Texas in the second race of the season, Malukas has spiraled downward with five consecutive finishes of 19th or worse.

The biggest problems have been qualifying and race pace. In the first seven races this season, Malukas has qualified 20th or worse on the grid for four times, with a season-best qualifying effort of just ninth at Texas.

As for race pace, “we are missing quite a lot of game, and we're trying to kind of find it, and click it and bounce back and try to rebound,” Malukas said. “Thankfully, we tested at Road America last week and it was pretty good for us.

“I think our hopes are a little bit better. It is our home track, and we’ve had success there in the past, so I 'm really hoping that this is gonna be our week where we kind of bounce back, go away from this midseason slumber and end the season strong.”

If there ever was a place for Malukas to make a season turnaround, the 14-turn, 4.048-mile track in central Wisconsin is the perfect venue. It’s where as a six-year-old, he saw his first race of any type—his father was campaigning a Corvette in an amateur series. Not only does the younger Malukas consider Road America his home track, he’s had significant success there, including several wins on the IndyCar development ladder, including the former Indy Lights, now known as Indy NXT.

“I grew up there at Road America,” Malukas said. “We’ve had a lot of success there and I just love the environment, the people and I feel my performance on-track relates to that.”

This weekend’s race at Road America has potential to impact more than just a turnaround for Malukas’ fate. He’s driven all 24 of his IndyCar races to date (2022 and 2023) with Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports, the latter part owned by Malukas’ father, Henry.

But that could be changing for 2024. The younger Malukas told Autoweek that he has yet to begin contract negotiations with Coyne, and also admitted he’s had talks with several other teams about potentially making a move for 2024.

“For next year, we’re fluid, free and open, definitely,” is the way Malukas described his availability for next season. “We'll definitely be talking to other teams or talking to Dale and maybe continuing something here. We are very much open and yes, we are talking to teams and I am not locked in for next year. We are still very much in the market.

“I have not reached out to Dale yet on a renewal. But we're kind of in talks with other teams and then kind of being open on that, but nothing is firm.”

Much of that could potentially begin to change if Malukas gets the bounce back he’s hoping for at his favorite racetrack.

“Mentally it's been tough,” he said. “You start getting these doubts, start getting these questions. Is it the team? What can we do to fix these things? Is it something that's out of my control or is it in my control? But at the end of the day, I just remind myself, ‘Look, I've made it this far and I've had many moments where I've been doing very poorly or maybe with the team we just haven't been succeeding, but I know at heart my performance, my talent is still there. I've made it this far, it’s not just because of luck, I have the talent and just remind myself that we’re going into a new weekend and I reset.

“After Detroit I went home and I beat the crap out of the boxing bag. I just know at some point it will rebound, it’s going to happen. Things just haven't been our way, we haven’t had the luck, but things will click and we'll be back on course, and I have a good feeling that Road America is going to be the one. You just keep punching and keep punching John Wick-style.”

Follow Autoweek correspondent Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski