During Sunday’s IndyCar race at Road America, David Malukas was the first driver to find trouble.
He touched the grass under braking into Turn 3 on the first lap, and spun into the gravel trap as the rest of the field roared past.
After bring pulled out of the gravel, Malukas set about making up for lost ground. He climbed back through the field over the race’s 55 laps to finish right where he started in seventh position.
His recovery, as good as it was, placed him behind his team-mate Santino Ferrucci, who had a strong drive of his own and finished on the podium in third.
It was the best team result on a road course since 2015 at Belle Isle, Detroit. In the second race of that double-header weekend, Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth finished second and seventh respectively.
Every race in the decade since then has seen at least one Foyt driver finish below seventh position apart from this year’s Indianapolis 500. Now that streak has been broken on a road course as well.
“I had an incident at the start of the race that put us in the back, but, man, I couldn’t believe it,” said Malukas. “That was probably one of the most chaotic races I’ve ever been a part of, and it was a lot of fun.
“I had no idea what was going on. I was really hot, and around lap 35 I was hallucinating from the heat and seeing bears in the carousel.
“I’m just joking, maybe not, but yeah, it was a lot of heat, a lot of fun, a lot of passing, and we finished right where we started.
“So good recovery, really good job from the team and the entire crew at the # 4 Clarience Technologies Chevy.”
Lots to love
Team President Larry Foyt was thrilled to have both cars finish so high up the order.
Just a few weeks prior at the 109th Indianapolis 500, Malukas and Ferrucci finished second and fifth. Their performance this past weekend nearly matched those results, and made a statement in the toughest weather conditions of the season.
“It was definitely an up-and-down day with the 4 car spinning on the first lap and having to go to the back of the field,” said Foyt.
“Then we had the stall in the pits on the 14 car and it looked like at the halfway point that it just wasn’t going to be our day. But what I love about this team right now is nobody gives up and we just keep fighting!”
Ferrucci now sits ninth in the points, while Malukas is 12th at the halfway point in the season.
If both drivers finish in the top 10 in points, it would be the first time in the team’s 45-year history that it places two drivers in the top 10 of the championship standings outside the incredibly short 1996 IRL season that marked the beginning of ‘The Split’ from CART.
