Malukas picking up where Power left off at Team Penske

It’s a small grace note during the early portion of the new IndyCar Season, but Team Penske’s David Malukas has been impressively fast in the No. 12 Chevy Will Power used for so many years to become IndyCar’s all-time record holder for pole positions.

With Power’s departure for Andretti Global, Malukas has wasted no time demonstrating his natural speed in Power’s former car as the Illinois native earned his first career IndyCar pole position at Phoenix Raceway and has — at least through the four opening races — been Penske’s best performer in qualifying,

Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park was another demonstration of his potential as Malukas secured second on the grid, and so far, he’s yet to start outside the top 10 for Penske. Along with Barber pole winner Alex Palou, Malukas is tied for best in the series this year with an average starting position of 4.3.

“Super happy,” Malukas said. Obviously we had the opportunity to go for pole. It was actually my call to make a big setup swing change going into the Fast Six. Overdid it. It was a bit on me.”

If there’s a big indicator of his rapid progress at Penske, it’s in the ability to be justifiably disappointed by missing out on capturing pole.

“I’m satisfied for sure, but I think it still hurts because we could have gone for the pole,” Malukas added. “It was so close between me, Palou and Kirkwood, especially in that Fast 12; I couldn’t believe how tight it was. I wanted to be aggressive on the set-up. Overall, this Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet has been awesome. From Practice 1, we’ve been on such a good streak and really happy that we can start on that front row and keep this consistency we’ve had in 2026 going.”