Malukas qualifies 12th at Laguna Seca for first race back from injury

David Malukas put together a gritty performance to qualify 12th for Sunday’s IndyCar round at Laguna Seca in his first outing with Meyer Shank Racing.

It marked his much-anticipated return since an off-season wrist injury led to surgery and led to the termination of his Arrow McLaren contract.

Driving with a left wrist that he says is 80% recovered from an mountain biking accident that required surgery, Malukas took his time getting up to speed around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course.

He was 25th in first practice and improved to 20th in the second session.

Malukas opted to take off the wrist protector for qualifying, with a focus on having more mobility in the cockpit and he was rewarded by transferring out of Group 1, taking the final transfer spot by 0.0721s over Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino.

From there, Malukas tried to mount a challenge in the top 12 segment but was left taking the final position at 0.2279s behind Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong in 11th.

Regardless, the performance by the Chicago-born driver already matched the best qualifying outing of the season for the No. 66 MSR Honda and provided welcome relief.

“Going through the practice sessions, obviously the pace was really far down, but there was so much going on, not really getting laps in,” said Malukas, 22. “So many different question marks going into it and finally, we had a clean lap.

“We had everything into it. We put it all together and that’s all we needed and made it to the fast 12. And then there, I started to make a few mistakes here and there just getting a little bit fatigued being out of the car for so long.

“But it feels amazing and really good for the crew as well.”

The plan is for Malukas to run all 95 laps for the race with the wrist guard back on as now the mindset shifts to Sunday’s race.

“Tomorrow is going to be a completely different beast to tackle,” said Malukas, who has a best finish of 13th (2021 with Dale Coyne Racing) in two starts at Laguna Seca.

“It’s going to be about survival and definitely making sure that we can survive and keep this position for 95 laps.

“It’s going to be  a different kind of turnaround, but have a really good group of people. They’ve set this car up.

“In two practice sessions, we went from not being into it to making it into group two, so I trust these guys.”