INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, May 20, 2023) – David Malukas (#18 HMD Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports) described it as one of the craziest days of his racing career after qualifying 23rd on Saturday for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
Starting: 23rd
Lap 1: 232.433 mph
Lap 2: 232.046 mph
Lap 3: 231.508 mph
Lap 4: 231.094 mph
Average: 231.769 mph
- Malukas was the 26th driver to take to the track for qualifying and while his initial attempt placed him 20th on the provisional grid, he found himself 26th once all cars in line had made their first attempt.
- However, with cars going back out for another attempt, Malukas was bumped from the guaranteed field of 30.
- The sophomore driver went back out but didn’t improve on his second try.
- The team didn’t give up and made some more changes. While his third try was his best up to that point, it still wasn’t fast enough to secure spot in the field.
- Malukas took to the track with less than 30 minutes remaining in the qualifying session and put in four stellar laps to register a four-lap average of 231.769mph and lock in his position.
- So far this season, the #18 HMD driver has a best starting position of ninth and a best finish of fourth (both at Texas Motor Speedway).
- In 2022, Malukas started 13th and finished 16th as the highest finishing rookie in the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500.
- Malukas has a career best starting position of fifth (Toronto, 2022) and a best finish of second (WWTR, 2022)
- The 2023 Indianapolis 500 goes green Sunday, May 28 at 12:45pm ET and will be broadcast live on NBC.
David Malukas, #18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda
“We just finished up qualifying and that was the most emotionally pact, stressful, awesome day that I’ve ever had in my life. The team and I worked so hard. The only thing we had was a little bit of hope. We thought we weren’t going to make it and we managed to come up with everything we needed. On our second to last run everything was great, I just had to adjust my driving to accompany all the changes we made. I told the team to give me just one more run and that we’d get it done. Our last run was perfectly executed, from myself, the team and Honda. We managed to not just make it, but to qualify 23rd. I’m so, so happy. Today is going into the books as the craziest day I’ve had in racing.”