David Malukas was inconsolable after missing out on victory in the Indianapolis 500 in agonizing fashion on Sunday.
The 24-year-old had looked like he was in position to win when he passed race leader Marcus Armstrong off the final restart with one lap to go.
Yet, when the legendary race finally came to an end, instead of leaping from his car in triumph, Malukas was left sat in the cockpit trying to come to terms with the unfathomable as he tried to replay what just transpired.
Somehow, he saw Felix Rosenqvist speeding past him in the final yards for the victory in the closet Indy 500 finish in history. The difference, 0.023 seconds between first and second place, was made even more bitter by the fact that he had held the same title last May – Indy runner-up.
The Team Penske driver at times looked understandably devastated. His father talked to him on pit lane as he sat with bloodshot, tear-rimmed eyes.
His girlfriend Kamila Jurkus embraced him as she attempted to console the distraught driver after the heartbreaking finish.
David Malukas had to be consoled by his girlfriend Kamila Jurkus after Indianapolis 500
The driver was visibly emotional after narrowly finishing second in the legendary race
Malukas buried his head into her shoulder as she allowed him the moment of emotion in the pit lane.
His teammate, Scott McLaughlin, paused the postrace news conference to give Malukas a hug when he arrived. Even the notion that he had moved up to second in the points standing didn’t seem to matter.
And if anybody understands Malukas’ plight, it would be Pato O’Ward, who has spent four of the last five Mays coming agonizingly close to being the first Mexican to win the race. He was in the mix, too, on Sunday, adding a fifth-place finish to last year’s third and runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2024.
Malukas had snatched the lead while Meyer Shank Racing teammates Rosenqvist and Armstrong battled wheel to wheel down the back straightaway and through the fourth and final turn.
But Rosenqvist had just enough power to pull away from Armstrong and snake behind Malukas before making the decisive outside pass in the final 50 feet.
Malukas said he couldn’t think of what else he could have done to hang on to the lead.
‘I just don’t know what else we could have done,’ Malukas said. ‘We were driving 150 percent that whole time. We had the fastest car out there, loved that whole race. It was ours to win and I knew that, so I just never pushed like that my whole life.’
The closest previous finish came in 1992 when Al Unser Jr. beat Scott Goodyear across the yard of bricks by 0.043 seconds.
Felix Rosenqvist sped past him in the final yards for the victory by a margin of 0.023 seconds
The 24-year-old Team Penske driver at times looked understandably devastated
‘The last five years I’ve been in the front and I’ve had a good enough car to probably win it, but today there was just something more,’ said Rosenqvist, who had been fast all month. ‘It was an absolute rocket this month and year; it was still there in the race.’
It was Rosenqvist’s second career win in 120 IndyCar races and comes after the recent birth of his first child. His last win was on July 12, 2020, at Road America, making this his first win on an oval. Rosenqvist joins Kenny Brack and Marcus Ericsson as the only Swedes to win the race.
The wild finish began with a red flag that came out with seven laps to go because of a scary crash involving Indy 500 rookie Caio Collet. Flames billowed out of the side of his car as it skidded to a stop in the grass.
When racing resumed after a 10-minute delay, Armstrong and Malukas sped past the top two cars – Rosenqvist and Pato O´Ward. But with 3 1/2 laps left, the yellow flag came out again when Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, brushed the wall in Turn 2.
On the final restart, Lap 200, Malukas sling-shotted his way past Armstrong for the lead and started pulling away from the two Meyer Shank Racing drivers. But Rosenqvist finally caught the Team Penske driver to win the biggest race of his career in the same month he became a father.
‘I was given two options: either I lift or I crash with Felix,’ said Armstrong, who finished fifth. ‘I chose to lift. I don’t know if I could have done anything different.’
