St. Petersburg (Friday, February 26, 2022) – Rookie David Malukas took part in his first qualifying session on Saturday for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, picking up some valuable experience along the way. The session didn’t go quite as he had hoped with a 24th place on the starting grid, but the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports driver is excited to make his race debut Sunday.
Starting: 24th
Group 2 / Round 1
Best Lap: 1:00.4601
• The rookie sat in the top six early on in the 10-minute qualifying session and was sitting sixth when he entered pit lane for a fresh set of red tires.
• While Malukas posted a fastest lap of 1:00.03, he ended up losing his two fastest laps due to qualifying interference.
• Had it not been for his penalty, the 20-year-old could have been starting from the ninth row.
David Malukas #18 HMD Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports
“What an experience that was for my first NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying. It was nice to have the two groups for qualifying because in the practice sessions we were struggling to find a gap. 26 cars on track is a lot, especially with me and my experience coming from Indy Lights, having about half of that. Going into qualifying we had a good gap and were able to put a run in. did reds for both stints, I’m really new to those because just one lap in practice isn’t enough to learn it. We knew what we needed with the car but we needed to take it that one step higher. All in all it was a great experience. I’m really excited to see how the race is going to go. There’s a lot of strategy so hopefully we can come up with something.”
dalecoyneracing.com 