Team Penske’s David Malukas reached a pivotal moment of his IndyCar career, as he has secured his first ever Indy 500 front row start for the upcoming Sunday race. The young American-Lithuanian driver had a striking performance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, setting an average speed of 231.877 mph. He was consistently among the fastest drivers throughout all the Qualifying segments.
A brilliant performance from Malukas ahead of the Indy 500
Malukas is the best placed Team Penske driver, with Newgarden setting a rather suboptimal display in P23 and McLaughlin failing to advance to the Firestone Fast 6. He admitted he was aiming for such a starting position ahead of the most famous motorsport race, as he expressed his emotions in the post race conference.
“Yeah, very happy. That was the goal. We wanted to be on this front row. To be honest, in this race everybody always says that you can get the win from wherever you start. Last year we qualified seventh, and we were fighting for the win very early on throughout the rest of the race.
“It feels good. This team did a fantastic job at getting the car where it needed to be and making me feel comfortable in it. Yeah, it feels good, front row.”
Variable weather paid a toll on his performance
The ever changing weather and track conditions definitely heightened the difficulty encountered by the 2021 Indy Lights runner up while trying to secure the coveted starting grid spot. In particular, the very changeable track temperatures as well as the severe Saturday rain which reshuffled the entire Qualifying programme all summed themselves up with the still recent introduction of the hybrid system.
“It was tough. It was brutal. I mean, you come out of turn four, and you get the headwind, and all of a sudden it puts you in the front nose, down cars all over the place. Then you try to come out of turn two, and if just feels good, and then all of a sudden you lose all front.
“Now it feels like you’re going into the wall. No, it was really hard, and you have to be so busy on the tools, and you have the hybrid strategy. That was, for sure for me, the toughest qualifying I can remember in a while.”
An oval connoisseur in spite of his young age
Malukas, formerly a Dale Coyne man, has a brilliant track record on ovals, having secured his first ever podium at Gateway and being the runner up in last year’s 2025 edition of the Indy 500 behind Palou. Nevertheless, he has shown quite a significant amount of consistency thus far in 2026, as well as two podium finishes, in Phoenix and at the Indy road course.
Malukas highlighted how important it is for him to perform so well at such a historical and well known track, leading the way for an iconic team too.
“It feels amazing. For me coming in and Team Penske, I hear it’s the 50th front row start, and it’s cool to have that 50th under my name. There was a lot of pressure going into preseason, just even for this race, but also all the races.
“It’s just been an incredible start. I’m just so thankful, so grateful, and every single day I show up to the track a little bit more confident, a little bit more happy to just to be here and be a part of this Team Penske family.”
A special team, and a special bond with his crew
Additionally, Malukas recounted the main highlights of his first season with the championships and Indy 500 winning team, expressing his gratitude for having the chance. Even more so, he was joyous while comparing his current position and situation especially against May 2024, when he didn’t have a seat and was nursing a rather severe wrist injury.
“It feels really good. For me, like I said earlier, it was a lot of pressure offseason, but with this team, the amount of resources that I have, and this leadership, coming from JD and Dave Faustino, James Schnabel, Fernando, Mustafa, it’s the best crew I’ve had. I’ve been on a fair share of teams, especially since 2024 from the wrist injury. Coming in now, this is the best team I’ve had.”
The hard work of Team Penske and the crew of his car no.12 definitely got noticed by the young fellow, who also took the opportunity to praise and single out all of its components.
“The chemistry is so high. Everybody is having such a good time, but we’re all very competitive, when you have a whole crew pushing 110%. But I get to go and sleep and get a full night’s rest, when those guys are working their butts off, and I see the Notes app is getting updated at 1:00 in the morning.
“ It feels good. I get to come back, and I have all these notes and information to feed off of that by the time practice, qualifying, or the race comes in, I’m a lot more calm. There’s no sense to overthink since I have all the information I need in front of me.”
