David Malukas Points Finger at Chevrolet After Costly Restart Denies Him First IndyCar Triumph

David Malukas attributed a Chevrolet engine issue to preventing him from securing his first IndyCar victory at The Milwaukee Mile, as a hesitation on a late restart allowed Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to snatch the win.

Piloting the #12 Team Penske Chevrolet, the 24-year-old Chicago native began third in the resumed Race 1 after finishing fourth in Race 2. An off-strategy pit call propelled Malukas into the lead on lap 120, and he went on to lead 93 laps. However, during a restart with 19 laps remaining, Malukas’s car hesitated, enabling O’Ward to dive underneath him into Turn 1 and drive away to claim victory.

Malukas concluded the race in second place, 1.7535 seconds behind the winner.

The result marked Malukas’s fourth second-place finish of the season and the sixth of his career, placing him in a tie with several drivers—including Romain Grosjean—for the second-most runner-up finishes without a victory. Victor Meira holds the record with eight. Malukas currently sits fifth in the championship standings heading into the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, trailing Christian Lundgaard by 23 points for second place.

Chevrolet-powered cars nevertheless swept the top seven positions in Race 1 and the top four in Race 2.

Malukas criticized Chevrolet when speaking to IndyCar Radio following the race.

“Yeah, I mean, Race 1, Race 2, Chevy just, they let us down,” Malukas told IndyCar Radio’s Michael Young. “I mean, plenum events [overboost], every time I leave pit lane, I gotta be lifting, first gear, second gear. It’s ridiculous. And I mean, the team did such a good job. That car was unreal. I mean, it was already so good in Race 1 (2), and then they worked on it and got it to where it needed to be for this race. We were so fast, faster than the rest. And yeah, just got let down on that restart.”

When asked if the hesitation was a rev limiter issue, Malukas offered a brief final assessment.

“Yeah. Look, I don’t want to go into details,” he said. “Yeah, we just got let down today. We should have won that. And yeah, I don’t know.

“We’re just cursed.”

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