David Malukas is the youngest driver in the NTT IndyCar Series this season, and is one of six rookies that are competing against a field full of talented racers.
His efforts have served him well at the halfway point in the season, and the 20-year-old has been able to outperform his expectations on account of how well his Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports team is working together.
The HMD Motorsports portion of his team came with him up from Indy Lights, and has provided some consistency as he comes to grips with the more powerful cars and tougher competition.
In Friday’s practice session from Mid-Ohio, Malukas led the timesheets for a time, and ended up placing in the top 10 as the highest-placing rookie.
Speaking to media after the strong showing, he relayed that his form is getting better every race, and that he was not expecting to be doing well enough to be talking to the media as often as he has.
“Yeah, I mean, everything has gone better than I was expecting to be honest,” said Malukas about his year so far. “I’ve been in here [the post-session media briefing], and I wasn’t expecting to be in here at all for this season.
“The fact that we are and being more consistent, it’s making me very happy, and honestly from start to finish it’s gone better than I was expecting.
“The connection [within our team] just keeps getting better every race. We love everybody from the team, everybody gets along very well. From my end it makes everything very easy, and we’re all just having a very good time.
“Every race weekend we are getting better and better, and I think that’s partly me being a rookie and getting used to the whole IndyCar deal. But I think we’ll get there. We’re getting closer, and every time we can we practice the pit stops, making sure we don’t lose any time there. I think it’s not long from now where we’re going to be competitive in the races.”
Malukas has yet to score a top 10 finish, although he has finished in 11th position twice already. He also sits second in the Rookie of the Year standings, and is only 17 points away from Christian Lundgaard.
He is also nearly even on points with his veteran team-mate Takuma Sato, showing just how well he is performing in his rookie season.
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