Paddock Buzz: David Malukas Produces Gritty Drive to Third

From last to nearly first. That was David Malukas’ impressive afternoon Monday at Nashville Superspeedway.

The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet appeared exhausted following the 225-lap Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls and for good reason. He had to battle and battle through the steamy summer conditions to get in position to earn his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory, and he nearly pulled it off. The only two drivers to beat him were four-time series champion Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden, who is the winningest oval driver of this generation.

“The hardest race of my life,” Malukas said with a cold towel draped around his neck.

At least Malukas (photos, top, above) could smile about it. Four laps into Saturday’s first practice, his loose race car slammed the Turn 2 wall. His right knee bore the brunt of the impact, hitting the steering wheel so hard it knocked the mechanism off its mount.

Malukas missed qualifying while getting the badly bruised knee examined at a local hospital, but he returned to the 1.33-mile track in time for the evening’s final practice. Proving the car was fast, Malukas turned the fastest lap in the session, setting the stage for a dramatic run when the race was held a day late due to Sunday night’s torrential rain.

Malukas went long on the first pit cycle, taking the lead on Lap 33 as the front-runners pitted during the race’s first caution. Malukas continued to yo-yo through the running order out of pit sequence, totaling 59 laps at the front. Only Palou led more laps with 97.

Malukas nearly became the first driver since Simon Pagenaud at Iowa Speedway in 2020 to win from the last starting position. Scott Dixon also did it at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2014.

“I’ve never driven so hard in my life,” he said after finishing behind Newgarden and in front of Scott McLaughlin as the Team Penske drivers finished second, third and fourth, respectively. “I felt like I needed to do a proper recovery after that (Turn 2) incident I made on myself.”

Malukas thanked everyone who helped him get back in the car, including his physiologist.

“Any time I (wasn’t) in the car he was massaging me, making all my muscles start working again after they all cramped,” he said. “It’s so cool when you have all these people work on a collective project, then you see it come to fruition.

“What a result. We needed that.”

Malukas climbed from fourth to second in the standings, 83 points behind Palou.

Like Malukas, McLaughlin was on the charge late in the race. The caution for rookie Dennis Hauger’s Turn 3 contact on Lap 181 forced him to restart in the 12th position, and he got all the way to fourth in what seemed like a blink. Ultimately, his alternate set of Firestone Firehawk tires couldn’t keep its wear amid his torrid final push.

Newgarden Again Strong on Oval

Newgarden continued to show well on ovals, scoring his third top-two finish of the season. But he clearly wasn’t happy with this result, using some variation of “it is what it is” five times in the post-race news conference.

“You're in front, you're in front (until) you go the distance on a stint,” he said. “Unfortunately, we just didn't have a stint there at the end.”

Newgarden (photo, above, right) won the oval races at Phoenix Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway earlier this season. He has won three of the past five oval races and 11 of the past 25.

Rossi, Dixon Have Bizarre Contact

On Lap 123, ECR’s Alexander Rossi was leading Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dixon down the backstretch when the two came together approaching Turn 3. Dixon’s car plowed into the back of Rossi’s as the latter slowed dramatically.

Rossi was dumbfounded by the surprising contact.

“I was coming in (to the pits),” Rossi said. “(Dixon) misjudged it or didn’t know I was pitting or whatever. It blindsided me. (He) hit (my car’s) attenuator, and that’s about it.”

The contact spun Rossi’s car into the grass before it slid back up the track.

That was one of three caution periods during the race that was shortened from its intended 300-lap distance. Rookie Caio Collet of AJ Foyt Racing also drifted into the Turn 4 wall. Yes, the high line was slippery amid accumulating tire rubber, but the Brazilian blamed himself.

“Since the beginning (of the race) I was a little bit loose,” Collet said. “It was a stupid mistake from my side. I should have just waited for the first (pit) stop to make an adjustment. I tried to correct (with the tools) in the car. I should have been more patient.”

Odds and Ends

• This was the 150th INDYCAR SERIES victory for Chip Ganassi Racing (photo, above).

• Palou celebrated his victory with a replica of the World Cup and the Spanish flag on his car in Victory Lane. His native Spain won the FIFA World Cup on Sunday for the second time.

• Mid-race, Newgarden was overheard on his team’s radio speaking to the hot conditions he and surely all of the drivers were dealing with. He was later asked why Palou seemed unaffected. “He’s Spanish,” he said, smiling. “Probably doesn’t sweat as much.”

• Mick Schumacher, oval ace? Well, the son of the seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher turned in another strong oval performance in just his fourth career circle-track race, scoring his best result of the season in eighth place. His previous best was 16th at World Wide Technology Raceway, and he qualified fourth at Phoenix Raceway before the crew had a slow pit stop that dropped him off the lead lap.

• Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood was positioned for a top-three finish before pitting just ahead of the final caution, an unfortunate predicament that dropped him to 11th. He finished 10th. The combination of that result and Palou’s victory dropped him 87 points out of the series lead.

• McLaughlin and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay also were negatively impacted by the timing of Hauger’s caution. Like Kirkwood, they had just pitted under green.

• McLaughlin led 32 laps, the race’s third-highest total behind that of Palou and Malukas.

• Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson had another strong Nashville outing. Last year he finished fourth; he finished ninth in this race.