David Malukas crossed the line in Monday’s IndyCar race from Nashville Superspeedway in third place, earning his fifth podium of the year.
He finished near the front despite starting at the very back of the field due to crashing hard in practice and missing qualifying on Saturday.
Still not fully recovered by time the race began, Malukas was assisted by the series’ decision to shorten the race from 300 laps to 225.
The reason for the adjustment was severely high temperatures, which still affected all drivers during what ended up being a 1 hour, 51 minute race.
Malukas was at the point of exhaustion when he climbed from his car, and then had to complete podium ceremonies in the blazing sun. He talked to media afterwards about how much of a toll it took on his body.
“After the race we knew it was probably going to be a thing,” said Malukas, describing the exhaustion.
“I felt really good. The adrenaline started to wear off, things started to get a little spinny there. Got fluids, picked me up on a little bit of sugar. I’m good now.
“I think with the power of adrenaline, I think we maybe could have gotten [to 300 laps]. To be honest, on track, my face was covered in salt, salt crystals, snot coming out of my nose.
“I didn’t feel any of that till the end, or any yellow flag to be honest. I was just running on pure adrenaline, focused on what’s in front.
“I just kept asking [my body to] give me one more, give me one more. I’m not going to lie, halfway through that race I thought I’m done. We kept going, kept going. The body kept pushing. Adrenaline is a beautiful drug.”
Rain delay
Malukas had another factor helping him out as well, which was the fact that the race was held on Monday instead of Sunday.
The 24-year-old had been given the all-clear from officials to compete on Saturday evening, having recovered quickly from his earlier incident.
But Malukas admitted he was pleased to hear the heavy downpour on his roof Sunday afternoon, which ultimately led to the race being delayed to the next day.
Even though temperatures were at 90°F with a heat index of 105°F at the time of the green flag, he was better prepared than he was the day before.
“Oh, it was better we raced a day later,” said Malukas. “Look, going from yesterday, my quote was: If we race [Sunday], it was survival. Today was game on.
“That was the situation I was in. Getting the extra nature of sleep. I am not going to lie, I heard the rain on my bus and I thought ‘That’s really nice.’
“I was already lights out at 8:00 PM. I just thought if I go to bed, we’re not going to race today. It is going to be committed.
“I woke back up a couple minutes later, they told me that they canceled it. I said, ‘I knew it. This is good.’ It was awesome, really good.”
Accomplished goals
Although Malukas is still searching for his first IndyCar win, and continues to come agonizingly close to doing so, he was very pleased with the weekend.
A bold strategy call early in the race helped him leapfrog a good portion of the field, but he battled back from a subsequent poorly timed caution to truly earn his podium finish.
Malukas was the first to recognize all the work that went into the accomplishment, including his Team Penske crew that worked all weekend in the brutal heat along with him.
“Man, this whole week, what an incredible weekend. This is definitely not going to be one I’m going to forget for a very long time.
“It’s cool to see when you have so many people all on a collective opportunity. Like, I would not be in this car, I would not be racing without all the support and people that were behind me, from the team, to the medical team, the local hospital here.
“Everybody just worked so hard, managed to get me back into an operating form, getting the car into an operating form.
“Here we are. Last to third. It was an incredible thing. Incredible story just to think about when humans come together what we can accomplish.
“Super happy. So much to remember. A lot of good memories.”
Malukas now sits second in the points standings in his first year with Team Penske, and has six races left this season to catch Alex Palou who is 83 points ahead.
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