Malukas walks back criticism of Chevrolet

David Malukas spoke with more candor than he felt was fair after airing his frustrations about Team Penske engine provider Chevrolet following the hiccup that allowed Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to slip by and win Sunday’s closer to IndyCar's Milwaukee Mile doubleheader event.

Speaking with IndyCar Radio after losing what could have been his first win when his 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 Chevy engine appeared to stumble while leading the return to racing from a late caution period, the Penske newcomer was forthright in his opinions on the topic.

“Race 1, Race 2, Chevy just... they let us down,” Malukas said.

Asked for an official explanation on the source of the issue, Team Chevy replied on Tuesday and declined RACER’s request for insights on the matter.

Malukas, however, attributed the temporary loss of power to a “plenum event,” which is when the air and fuel mixture in the intake plenum catches fire before it reaches the combustion chamber and leaves the motor with a brief but costly absence of what it needs to make power. It was frequently cited throughout the 2024 Indianapolis 500.

 “I mean, we're (having) plenum events; every time I leave pit lane, I got to be lifting (in) first gear, second gear (to resolve the problem)” he said. “I mean, it's ridiculous. And the team did such a good job. That car was unreal. It was already so good in Race 1, and then they worked it on it and got it to where it needed to be for this race. We were so fast, faster than the rest, and just got let down on that restart. Look, I don't want to go into details. We just got let down today. We should have won that. I don't know. We're just cursed.”

With a night to sleep on his upbraiding of Team Chevy, Malukas took to social media to apologize to the manufacturer and correct a few responses.

“Welp, not proud with what I said yesterday,” he wrote Monday morning. “It was childish and speaking out of frustration. Chevy has done great things for me this year and I wouldn’t be getting the results I have been without them. I apologize for what was said, immature from me.”

A few commenters suggested Malukas was instructed to apologize by his team owner Roger Penske – the co-owner/founder of Ilmor Engineering, which builds Chevy’s IndyCar engineers – to which he offered multiple replies.

“I didn’t, I woke up and felt guilty and wanted to apologize,” he said. “It’s unlike me and I know what it feels like to be put down even when you are putting 110% of your effort. It’s a crappy feeling and unnecessary.”

“No one told me anything,” he added. “Chevy did own up. It’s how I reacted and what I said that was wrong. I crashed in the previous race and owned up to it. However, when I crashed and forced Chevy to build a new engine for me they didn’t put me down they supported me.”

RACER understands Chevy could be preparing a formal statement to share in the coming days on the cause of the problems cited by Malukas with the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy.