St. Petersburg, FL (Sunday, February 27, 2022) – Rookie David Malukas’ NTT INDYCAR SERIES race debut didn’t go as planned with the rookie seeing what was a promising start to the race end following contact with the Turn 3 wall.
Started: 24th
Finished: 26th (contact)
- Malukas was taking part in his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
- From the start the rookie gained some spots and was in 17th place when he entered pit lane for his first pit stop to go from Firestone alternate tires to the primary ones.
- Unfortunately for the rookie he had a ‘moment’ going into Turn 3 on lap 24 and he ended up going a bit too wide and into the marbles. He subsequently made contact with the wall and put an end to his day.
David Malukas #18 HMD Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports
“It’s really unfortunate. We ran clean all race weekend up to this point. If we were to crash this weekend I would have preferred that it happen in the first practice but that wasn’t the case. Before that we were trying to make the red tires last during my first stint. It was my first time running on red tires so long, so I learned a lot there. We tried to stretch our pit window but came up a bit short on that first stint. We then went to the Black Firestone tires after my first stop. A few laps later, I was going into Turn 3 and I had a bit of a moment, it was only a split second but it took me offline and as soon as that front left hit the marbles that took me straight to the wall. It’s unfortunate. I did not want it to end that way. Our seasons always seem to start with a bang, but then go in the right direction so hopefully this one is no different.”
dalecoyneracing.com 