Early season lessons paying off for Malukas

David Malukas is turning a corner in the IndyCar Series.

The Illinois native has never lacked the speed or potential to make an impact. Matching his talent with more experience and greater maturity was the next step, and it’s here where the AJ Foyt Racing driver is making strides in 2025.

A stellar run to second place at the Indianapolis 500 in May propelled Malukas to his first visit inside the top 10 Drivers’ championship, but it was a fleeting stay thanks to a couple of rough follow-up races at Detroit and WWTR.

Indy was also his top 10 finish of his season, but he's added to that of late at Road America, where he wheeled the No. 4 Chevy to seventh, followed by a fourth-place at Iowa and a ninth last weekend in Toronto.

Malukas’ recent form has propelled the 23-year-old back to 10th in the Drivers’ championship, a spot teammate Santino Ferrucci held three times this season, as well as ninth on one occasion, which speaks to the competitiveness of the Foyt program and its emerging stars.

“It's definitely been a good second half of the season,” Malukas told RACER. “We've had so many mistakes in the races that just end up getting unfortunate results in the end, but we’re learning a lot together in the first year and this team has changed so much throughout the year. We're still a pretty young team overall, just from the mechanics, engineers, and of course, I'm still 23, so we're a young crew.

"I've been making mistakes, we’ve made them, but one thing that we've been doing a really good job of is learning from every mistake and capitalizing off of it and pushing us forward ever since the 500.”