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I don’t think I will get much argument that this has been a strange IndyCar season, so far. It all started with David Malukas breaking his wrist before the season. Then Team Penske had two drivers disqualified from the season-opener that also vacated the win by Josef Newgarden. It wasn’t strange, but we had a back-to-back winner at the Indianapolis 500, when Josef Newgarden accomplished the feat for the first time since Helio Castroneves repeated in 2002.

Fans of Agustin Canapino made their presence known again by making death threats to a driver they felt had wronged their driver. This time, the threats were made against Arrow McLaren driver Theo Pourchaire, who made contact with Canapino at Detroit. This time, Canapino’s own team sat him down for the weekend at Road America, yanking him from the car less than an hour before the first practice. He was replaced foe the weekend by Nolan Siegel.

Pourchaire had been the third driver designated for the No. 6 Arrow McLaren car for 2024. Malukas was let go by McLaren without ever driving a race for them. Callum Ilott drove in the first couple of races, then Pourchaire, then Ilott back in the car for the Indianapolis 500, then Pourchaire was to drive for the rest of the season…or so we thought. He was permanently replaced by Siegel, the same driver ironically chosen to fill in for the driver whose fans issued death threats.

Then Pourchaire allegedly gave an interview with a French website, where it sounded like he was blasting McLaren and even strongly hinted at financial problems at the team. A few days later, Pourchaire denied the statements and said that was not the interview he gave them.

This was after it was announced that 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi would not be returning for a third year at Arrow McLaren, and that he would be replaced by promising driver Christian Lundgaard. Then this past weekend, Rossi broke his thumb in practice at Toronto. Who did they call to fill-in? Pourchaire – all the way from France.

These are just a few of the highlights (or lowlights) of some of the craziness that has taken place this season within the NTT IndyCar Series; and I haven’t even mentioned Scott Dixon’s introduction to the hybrid era.

Among all of the things that have made this such a unique season, there is one unexpected bright spot that I think most everyone can agree on, and he was mentioned very early on in this post – David Malukas.

Just as we were turning the calendar to May, we got word that Arrow McLaren was letting David Malukas go. I don’t make it a habit of defending Arrow McLaren and their personnel decisions, but in this case – they simply had to move on from Malukas. He had been injured in February, and the healing process was taken a lot longer than expected. Remember, they had sponsors they had to answer to. Plus, they just needed a definite driver instead of going week to week.

Felix Rosenqvist had been a very pleasant surprise in the early part of the season. He was definitely part of the resurgence at Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) through qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. The same could not be said for his teammate in the No. 66 car, Tom Blomqvist.

Blomqvist drove a few races in the No. 60 car in 2023, and drove in the first five races of the 2024 season. It did not go well. A fifteenth place finish at St. Petersburg was the outlier. Otherwise, most of his finishes in the two partial IndyCar seasons were in the mid-twenties. After crashing in Turn One on the opening lap of the Indianapolis 500, Blomqvist was removed from the cockpit and replaced by co-owner Helio Castroneves for two races – Detroit and Road America – and produced similar results. During the week before Road America, it was announced that David Malukas would take over the No. 66 for the rest of the season, beginning with the next race at Laguna Seca.

Most people could not imagine a worst place for a driver to make a season debut, coming off of a severely broken wrist. Laguna Seca is tough on a driver and can be physically exhausting. To practically everyone’s surprise, Malukas took the beleaguered No. 66 into the second Round of qualifying. He spent a good deal of the race running in the Top-Ten, before a slow pit stop relegated him to a sixteenth place finish. Was it a fluke?

The answer came at the very next race at Mid-Ohio, two weeks later. Malukas made the Firestone Fast Six, and qualified third. He ended up finishing twelfth, but he had answered questions about his durability over his first two races back.

Iowa did not go well for Malukas, at least Race One didn’t. He qualified a disappointing fourteenth, but lost control of his car coming out of Turn two on the opening lap. His evening was done. The Sunday race was some better. Malukas started ninth and finished thirteenth. It wasn’t great, but it salvaged a disastrous Saturday night.

At Toronto this past weekend, Malukas was driving a special livery featuring The Tragically Hip. For the second time since his return at Laguna Seca, Malukas made the Firestone Fast Six and this time he backed it up in the race, by finishing sixth. He kept his nose clean on a day of mishaps and scored his first Top-Ten in five races.

I think it’s safe to say that David Malukas has exceeded expectations this summer. There was a time earlier in the season that I thought we would not see Malukas in a car all season. If we did, it would be late in the season as a one-off sub. He is now in a solid ride for the rest of this season.

The question is…where does he go from here? At the moment, Malukas is a free-agent. Does MSR want him back? Well, Alexander Rossi is also a free-agent for next season. Given the choice, MSR may prefer to have Rossi in that car rather than Malukas. But I think Rossi may have his sights set on something better than MSR. How would Malukas fit in with the Rahal team? Having a young American in the No. 45 may be attractive to Hy-Vee – that is if they stay with Rahal and Rahal doesn’t sign Rossi.

Some have suggested that the proposed charter system may eventually drive Dale Coyne out of IndyCar. Could Henry Malukas (father of David, and owner of HMD Motorsports) become a partner to Dale Coyne, and eventually buy him out. HMD Motorsports has been very successful in Indy NXT. Would Malukas go back to Coyne under that scenario?

PREMA could also be an option next year; once again assuming Rossi doesn’t end up there. They have made it clear they would like a young driver paired with a veteran. By then, Malukas would have two and ahlf seasons under his belt. Which role could he fill? The young driver or the veteran? There may or may not be an opening at Ed Carpenter Racing in 2025. Could Malukas fit in there?

Now that Newgarden has re-signed with Team Penske, it’s obvious that the biggest domino in the 2025 Silly Season is Alexander Rossi. All scenarios begin and end with whatever Rossi does. But I would say after Rossi chooses his destination, Malukas would be the next target.

Personally, I hope Malukas stays at MSR. After the dismal 2022-23 seasons they had, their comeback this season has been nothing short of extraordinary. In the five races since his return, Malukas has gotten better race results than Rosenqvist in three of those five races. The two seem to work well with each other. I think MSR would be crazy if they didn’t lock down Malukas for 2025 before this season is over. But, what do I know.

One thing is for certain, this is going to continue to be a very interesting Silly Season. If Malukas continues to improve over the remaining five races (four of which are ovals), Malukas won’t be simply trying to find a ride for 2025, he will have his choice of where to go. He is definitely the bright spot in an otherwise strange season.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 24, 2024 at 4:01 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.