Detroit, MI (Saturday, June 4, 2022) – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports rookie David Malukas impressed with his qualifying performance on Saturday making it into the Firestone Fast 6 by dominating the two previous rounds. The highest finishing rookie at this year’s Indianapolis 500 will be starting a career best of sixth in Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix.
Starting: 6th
Firestone Fast 6 – 6th
Best lap: 1:16.6104
Fast 12 – 2nd
Best Lap: 1:14.8251
Group 2 / Round 1 – 1st
Best Lap: 1:14.8833
- Malukas impressed right from the start of qualifying, immediately jumping up to P1 with his first timed lap.
- He improved with each lap in Round 1 of qualifying and topped the 10-minute session, making it to the Fast 12 with ease for the first time this season.
- In round 2, Malukas once again took over first place early on and was sitting second by the end of the session.
- His performance sent him to the Firestone Fast 6 for the first time in his young career.
- Malukas registered his best NTT INDYCAR SERIES start by placing sixth in the final round of qualifying.
- So far in six races this season, he has a best finish of 11th at Texas.
- The rookie finished third in Detroit in the second race of the doubleheader Indy Lights weekend last season.
David Malukas – #18 HMD Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports
“I feel like this whole start of the season we’ve always been close to finding the car right before qualifying, but we’d always miss it at the last second. For the first time now, we finally put it all together. I remember the first two laps and I thought ‘wow, the car is just spot on’. I came in and they asked me if I wanted any changes and I said do not touch it, this is very good! I’m so happy. Takuma and I had a friendly competition. I kept hearing that Takuma made it and kept asking for the times and that made me push even harder. I think it was very good for the team. I was this close to those walls!”