David Malukas’ IndyCar Dream was ALMOST a Nightmare

Introduction [0:00]

David: I am David Malukas.

It was almost like I achieved what was my dream, and then I lost it all in an instant.

I was having some dark days. If I compare myself now to one year ago, I mean it is... a very different person for sure.

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Who is David Malukas? [0:27]

Greg:  Welcome back to another episode of FanAmp Insider. We are at the St. Pete season opener with David Malukas.

David: Yes, hello.

Greg: Of AJ Foyt Racing.

David: Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me as part of the show.

Greg: For those who don't know, who is David?

David: Who is David? I am David Malukas. Driver #4 for AJ Foyt Racing. I'm 23 years old, and this is gonna be... what is it, my 4th season in IndyCar.

It's been a little bit interesting the past year with my injury, but I'm going into my 4th year in IndyCar.

Greg: And how are you feeling starting this one out?

David: I feel really good. From what was 2024... it was a chaotic year for me with the injury and not racing, then coming back in and all of that.

It was chaos. So to come into it knowing that I have a full season under my belt; safety, consistency, one team. It feels really nice. We did a lot of work in the off season and I'm very excited. I think it's going to be a very good year for us.

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The Malukas family’s American Dream: From the Soviet Union to racing [1:22]

Greg: Before we get into that, I want to start by going back to the beginning.

By the beginning- I mean all the way to the beginning with your parents. How much did you understand about their journey? There's this notion of the American Dream that gets thrown around, but how much did you understand of their journey growing up?

David: Like you said, it's a good American Dream story.

In 1991, when the Soviet Union ended up collapsing and Lithuania became a free country yet again, my parents came over to to America. They heard the stories back then about the American Dream and coming over. My dad started as a truck driver, my mom was a dispatcher, and both of them worked together.

Now, the company is over 500-600 trucks strong. They started from scratch, built that, and they came over here with nothing. Growing up I heard of those stories of everything that they've told me.

Being my age and growing up through them, I was definitely a spoiled kid. Growing up, I had a lot of things, but hearing these stories and everything that they told me was, I think, very important, from the racing perspective. Of course it was a love that I had, but it was also something that my parents both loved.

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How David got into racing [2:25]

Racing is something that's always been core to the family. My dad always wanted to be a race car driver, but in the Soviet Union, that opportunity was never there. When we came to America and finally had the opportunity... he's now living his dream a little bit through me as well.

My dad took me to my first go kart track when I was six years old. Back then it was something that was a father son bonding experience on the weekend.

It was a lot of fun. I think we realized when it was around 2014/2015, that I ended up winning the X30 World Finals in France for go karting. That was, I think, the big first step. Noticing that, 'you know what, there is actually a talent here, and there's something there.' It's something that we can actually pursue as my career.

That point was a big turning point for us - realizing that it was going to be a lot of push for us from the money side to time to try and support all of that. I've had so many years where you don't really get results. You have bad seasons. I remember my first year in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT). It was a rough season for us. We really didn't really get many good results.

You're struggling to get there, and you start getting those thoughts in your head that "Maybe, I can't do this. This isn't for me." But knowing how much work and time my parents spent to get to America to give me these opportunities and to be here, it was the biggest drive for me.

Even last year, through the injury, having my parents supporting me and telling me, "look, this is fine - things are going to turn out in the right way, you just have to keep motivating yourself, keep pushing, and get back out there because the time will come. If you don't do anything and you sit here and manifest that this is the end then it will be the end."

You have to keep going. I'm 23 years old. When they came to America, they were around the same age, and they came here not speaking any English. They didn't have any money, so it's a completely different scenario. They continued to push no matter how hard it got. They stayed motivated, kept going, because they knew that in the end, the only results you're going to get is by keeping pushing yourself.

Them supporting me, telling me these things throughout these years is definitely what's kept me going, and I think at the end of the day it's because of them, that I've managed to make it this far.

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Navigating a mountain biking injury and moving forward [4:33]

Greg: David called 2024 chaotic. He stressed his parents' advice to never manifest failure.

Both things are for a good reason because after 2 years in IndyCar, David announced a multi-year deal with Arrow McLaren. He was 21 and riding high.

Except before he could set foot in his new car, it all crashed down. Literally. Less than a month before the season opener and he crashed mountain biking.

The injury put his season and his entire IndyCar career in jeopardy.

When the issue happened with your hand, when you thought your dream might be disappearing, I'm curious, what were those next steps, either with your mental coach or others, to get in the right headspace and move forward? Did those moments help make it easier for you to then land where you are now?

 David: Oh boy. It was definitely... it was rough in the beginning. I was having some dark days. But, I had a lot of support around me. Like I said, I have a mental coach, my trainer, my family. Everybody was there to support me. I think I was down for, I'd say probably about a week or so.

Then, from that point on, I said, "look, I can't give up. I've got to keep pushing".

I went to the doctor and had some good news that finally, looked like the hand's going in the right direction. That was my first little bit of positive information I'd heard in, in, quite a few months.

So I held on to that and I said, "okay, you know what, this is one little step forward." It's nothing crazy, but this is the first little bit of good news, so let's work on it. From that point on, I said, "okay, now I'm not racing. I have a lot of time."

I scheduled everything. I did the most aggressive, PT that I could have possibly done for my hand.

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Physical therapy with a broken wrist [6:06]

Greg: For context, what is aggressive PT? What did it take for you to get from hurt to healthy?

David: At that time, I still had the the cast on and everything. We found ways to wrap weights around the cast. The wrist was the one that was injured, but the rest of my hand- it was fine.

So because I'm not... without the wrist, you can't curl, you can't do anything. So because my wrist was broken, I'm actually losing muscle on my entire arm. We were trying to figure out ways to do curls, do bicep curls, maybe some sort of pull ups without using the wrist.

So, a lot of it was isolating the wrist while trying to work the other muscles. Once the wrist got the green light, and we were able to do it, it first started off with just resistance to my hand because it was so weak.

Just to even open my fingers, it was like shaking like this. My whole hand was like just trembling just to open my fingers because everything was so weak.

Those muscles weren't used for 4-5 months. So the brain is like "okay, we don't need it. Forget about it." I wish we could tell my brain like, "no, we need that and leave it there." Because of the wrist and the hand having so many different muscles, it was very frustrating. It actually took the whole day to work on it.

In the morning, as soon as you'd wake up, the whole hand is stiff. So everything doesn't want to move. I'd go under the shower, heat it up and put this - almost like a mitten on. It was like a heating pad to heat all the joints up. Then, I would do stretches for an hour and a half.

Once the whole hand is actually stretched and has some maneuverability, which at that time was about like 10 degrees each side, but that was like really good. It's "wow, my wrist can move 5, 10 degrees."

Greg: It's so scary to even think about.

David: Yeah, it was because everything's just so weak and hasn't been moved.

At that point with that movement, that's when we get little five pound weights or even just putty in the beginning because my muscles were so weak, I just had to use my own muscles between my fingers and do those finger stretches. I would do that three times a day with those stretches.

It was like a 9-5 job just to just get this hand back. I had it all planned out on my calendar of what the PT was. Anybody that has a wrist injury knows it is so complex. There's so many different muscles and it is such an awful injury to have. Even now, there's still so many different little things that I always have to be doing and getting it there.

It takes a long recovery time.

Greg: Was it ever really frustrating on one of those days where you're just like, "God damn it, I just wish this would-"

David: Anybody that has injuries, they know when it comes to recovering and PT, it is extremely frustrating because you'll have, let's say, a week that's so good.

Then, all of a sudden you're like, "wow, this feels so much better it's getting there I made big gains now, I've increased from 5 to 10 pounds on the weight." Then all of a sudden, the next week, it's really bad. The whole hand is inflamed. Now you're back down to five pounds. You can barely even move your wrist.

Anybody with that knows, any sort of recovery, big kudos to anybody that's had injuries in recovery, because it is very frustrating and very tough.

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Losing his Arrow McLaren seat, running IndyCar socials, and finding a new perspective [9:00]

Greg: Pressure mounted with each passing race David sat sidelined. Not just pressure to heal his wrist. I mean mental pressure. The notion that he's fighting off negative thoughts that other drivers are trying out for his seat in his car.

And pressure from McLaren to get their first pick back in action.

Tony Kanaan was sporting director at the time, and he said 70% of his bandwidth was focused on helping David recover. He cried with David and his family. But after four races the pressure was just too much.

News reporter: Arrow McLaren is adding to a crazy week of IndyCar news. Today, the team released David Malukas from his contract.

David: Losing my ride at the time and having to deal with, once the ride was lost, I still didn't really know where my hand was going to be at OR what was going to happen. So it was almost like I achieved what was my dream and then I lost it all in an instant.

So, it was a very scary few months, but from that point on, I said, "Look, you know what? It's not the end of the world. There's still opportunities." I reached out to IndyCar, and I managed to do some social stuff with them for the month of May. I said, "I'm going to show myself around the paddock."

I'm still going to put a smile on my face. Everything is good, and I'm going to keep working on it. I managed to connect. I think it all happened for a reason. I got a lot of new friends, new connections, being at the month of May, hanging out with the social media crew at IndyCar, and just hanging out with everybody.

And having a different perspective on all of it because now I get to see the Indy 500 from more of an aspect of working with IndyCar group. So it was very good and I made a lot of new friends - new friendships - within the realm of IndyCar.

Also, I was able to draw on the TV. Which was really cool.

Greg: Life long dream.

David: Yeah, I know. It's another dream I had. It was a very cool experience. I actually think out of all the Indy 500's, it was a very good one for me. I had a lot of fun. It was a good time.

 Through that time - between these social cuts and working, I'm doing the stretches, doing all the PT work, doing, push ups in the media center. I was always trying to get ready, because I thought maybe something would happen.

Thankfully, after the 500, a miracle happened, and we got the offer with Meyer Shank Racing. I think if I just gave up and said, "okay, maybe something will come next season", and I just let the hand rest that wouldn't have worked. My hand was not going to be ready for Laguna Seca when I got back in at Meyer Shank. It was actually... the way everything played out was very lucky. A lot of it comes from my mental coach, from my family, my parents telling me to keep pushing. It was because of them that when this opportunity at Meyer Shank arrived and came to the doctors, they said, "you know what, yeah, you have the green light, you're ready to go, you can go and do it."

Everything just played out perfectly. So for me, I always looked at it as it was a miracle, and because of that, I look back at 2024, and I think it was actually probably one of my best years.

I look at it from a positive standpoint. Because with everything that happened with my hand, the driver that I am today, I definitely would not be without everything that happened.

At that time: good driver, okay, sure. I think if I compare myself now to one year ago, it is very different person, for sure.

Greg: I think the interesting thing is that. It is actually that you took the decision to say, look, I'm going to go do socials, which isn't driving, but it's in the realm.

It's with the same people. It got you in the right headspace. Then, from there, that opportunity came up because like you said, the positivity, all of that, it's so critical.

David: That's the way we looked at it. I thought it was very important to always go out there and show myself. I think in the world of, the racing and IndyCar, once you're out, if you wait a few months, people tend to forget a little bit.

There's a lot of talented drivers out there and there's so many people that want that opportunity and people will take advantage of it. I wanted to make sure that, with everything that happened, I still showed myself to the IndyCar paddock. I still showed a smile on my face. I'm happy I'm there.

I'm going to everybody, going to the team, saying hello to everybody, being around because I think that makes a big difference. Immediately when that opportunity arrived, they came to me, and they saw me, and I was there and ready to go.

Greg: There you go. You're in the paddock. You're in the room. You're already there. Never let them see you sweat.

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Resetting his mindset with Meyer Shank [13:12]

Greg: When you signed with Meyer Shank, did it also change your mindset? Were you thinking, "I'm back in the car, I've done this, we're good"?

David: 100%. Being out for so long, having that wrist injury, never done anything like that, getting back into the car. You start overthinking.

Am I still going to drive the same? My wrist doesn't move as well anymore. How is my driving going to change? Can I still do this? Then you go, wow. I remember the first practice I went out, like lap 2, I spun out because I had the brace on, and I couldn't move the wrist.

So I started stressing out, overthinking "man, I can't do this. This is insane." I calmed myself down, figured out different ways, and by the end of the race weekend, we qualified 12th.

Greg: What did you do to help calm yourself down? Was it just a reminder of where you've been and where you're going?

David: I think a lot of it was more on the motivation side, because I knew all the hard work I put in leading up to that point. Those months getting my hand to where it's at now. Okay, it's not perfect. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I've made it this far. I know I can do it. I need to just find a way.

I found every single way to get to this point. I'm back in the car. I'm in Laguna Seca. I'm with another team. There's always a way I can find it. I have found a way for 23 years. I'm here. There's going to be a possible way that I can do this, and that was the mentality going into it.

If you ever look at a time that you were stressed, let's say just even like back in like middle school, right?

Greg: This morning, getting ready for this.

David: Or you go to your high school, right? Or there's an assignment and you're stressing out about it because you procrastinated a little bit.

I did this all the time. I'm like, "man, I'm not going to make it because I just procrastinated. This is due tomorrow and this was supposed to take months to do. Like I'm not going to be able to do it." Anytime I look back at those moments I stressed - the next day came. I was fine. I made it to the next day. I'm here now. Nothing ever happened.

So the brain... obviously it's normal for it to stress. That's part of the reason because you care. You want it when you put yourself in a stressful state of mind, if you can control it in a good way. It's to hone your focus and your brain's trying to help in some ways. Although, it does cause some problems because of it.

That was my way of looking at it. I'm really stressed. I feel like this isn't gonna happen. The next day came and everything ended up turning out okay.

Greg: Yeah, "this'll pass."

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The importance of mental health and working with a mental coach [15:25]

David: I also have Luke Varley. He's my mental coach, and he helps me a lot from a racing perspective to put my mind in the right zone. I think, when it comes to racing drivers, and in general, everybody's always talking about the physical. You want to be strong. Which is, of course, very important, but I think nobody really talks about the mental aspect. It's very tough.

Greg: Speaking of the mind, mental health is a growing topic of discussion in sports and in many of our Insider Interviews.

In fact, Patrick Harding, who's F1 driver Alex Albon's performance coach, covered this in detail in his episode. Check that out if you're curious how drivers and their coaches keep their minds in top shape.

David: I feel like when you look at all these other sports, they have a certain amount of time to have that switch off moment before they actually end up going out there.

Let's say from basketball or anything like that, you have the locker room. You can calm down. You can get yourself in the right mindset before you go. But for IndyCar and the motorsports world you are talking to fans and being out there and doing all these interviews and things.

Greg: Sorry. (jokingly)

David: No. This is good. This is all planned. You're doing that minutes before you get into the car! To have that ability to switch all that off and put the helmet on and now within one minute thirty seconds I was just doing an interview for TV. Now a minute and thirty seconds later  I'm in the car, and I'm about to go out for qualifying to try to be in the Fast Six.

So that switch off is very difficult to do and to go into that headspace and not freak out. Now, you get into the car, everybody's plugged in, radio's in and they're telling you, "Hey, like, all right, 30 seconds, green flag, we're about to go."

So you have 30 seconds to get your mind recuperated, create a plan of, "okay, how do I want to go into this session?"

 I've been working a lot with the mental coach - trying to make sure that you can get your correct headspace and have those abilities to switch off. I guess, for me and him, what we've worked on is creating these ticks. These moments where there's something that you can do. And for us a lot of it is actually breathing techniques to get your brain switched off for that.

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AJ Foyt Race Trailer tour [17:22]

David: Hey guys, I'm gonna give you guys a tour of our race trailer. So, come on in with me.

Normally, we have some snacks and stuff over here. Obviously, it's a little bit early in the weekend, so nothing's really set up. So it's a little bit more of a chaos. Up here is the driver's lounge. This is where we're at.

We have Santino, driver number 14. Santino, do you want to say hi?

Santino: What's happening? I'm going through my stuff now that you are out of here.

David: Okay they gave me the smaller one. Santino gets the bigger locker.

Santino: I get the seniority. I've also been here since day one.

David: Seniority! I guess he's the old guy now.

Santino: So is that what it is? I'm awesome. I am older than you. Look, I don't get a lot of the height, but...

David: Yes, you're the veteran, man.

On this side, this is for the mechanics. This is all the different parts and things that they get to do. Up here, this is the engineering room. This is where we figure out how to make the cars go fast.

This is James, my engineer. James, do you want to say hi?

James: Hello

David: These guys are the Albert Einstein's. This is the brain. So, I just go left and right, he makes it go fast. I don't even know what's up there, I think those... who goes up there?

AJ Foyt Crew Member: Larry, AJ (Foyt) (Team Owners)

David: Oh, okay, so those are the big guys, those are like the bosses. So we don't want to frustrate them.

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Signing with AJ Foyt Racing and feeling secure [18:30]

Greg: After all that uncertainty, and then moving through the year, finally ending up here at AJ Foyt and having that full time seat, how did that feel? What was that for you?

David: Oh, that to me was mission accomplished. I finally ended up getting a full season back under my belt. I've secured a new ride and definitely after that point I was: Sit back, relax, and no more.

I was like just go to the gym.

Greg: No more push ups in the media center.

David: No, yeah. It was just - we go to the gym. Very careful warm up. Make sure everything's organized, and we go back home and I sit down and I just wait for the season to start. I just look straight forward and don't do anything. Yeah, I was... that was mission accomplished that point.

Honestly, I got a little bit emotional once everything finally happened, and I managed to secure the new ride. I knew that, I signed a multi-year deal. Everything is back.

Greg: I was going to say, does that also play into it?

David: A hundred percent. Yeah, that was a big play - knowing that, "okay, it's not even just next year."

I know for the future years. I feel more in a safe zone because, man, 2024, it was a tough season. Just having all those ups and downs. But like I said, I think it all happens for a reason. I've definitely matured a lot more since then and became a new man. I feel like that was my transition of going to being like a teenager to an adult.

I feel like that was a very needed year for me. Then through it all - I don't know, maybe it's just from the stress that I have -I started finally starting going to beard after last year. So it's like just a little bit, but it started. So it just started.

I was like, okay, this is it. I'm an adult now. It's happened. That was the transition.

Greg: That's how you know.

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David’s ‘word of the year’ [20:03]

 Greg: A friend of mine likes to ask what the word of the week is. You're in a very storied team. Even with this multi-year deal you're in a good spot now. I'm curious what your word of the year is.

David: Oooooh, word of the year. I'd probably say consistency.

It would be my word of the year. Especially, from what was the previous year, having all the ups and downs. I want to look for some consistency, and I think with this team, having the multi year deal, knowing that my hand is not exploded -I know everything is going to be in line. We're definitely going to be working on a consistent format, building that chemistry up, to getting consistent results.

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Recipe for success: David, Santino Ferrucci, and AJ Foyt [20:40]

Greg: On that, what do you think you're bringing as the ingredient to this whole equation? The team's obviously been around for a long time. There's all the people that have been here in different professional capacities. What are you bringing into this equation?

David: Yeah, I think it's a different perspective when it comes to driving styles.

Looking at Santino - the way our styles have been, there definitely have been some key differences when it comes to the street and road courses, with this test at Sebring. I think for Ovals, especially the Indy 500, me and Santino working together... It's going to be a very strong duo.

I think there's a lot of things that we can play off of each other. Looking at the data and discussing with all the whole crew, I think it's going to be just a different kind of add on how we can make the car better. I think at the end of the day, that's what we want to do. Having that trust between two drivers with the limited practice sessions.

We go into Practice 1, me and Santino, we're gonna try different setups, but we trust each other. We know that we're both very good drivers, and we know the differences between each other. Giving our feedback, we know that, "okay, if he made a setup change that I think we can like, then we can put it on our car to go for qualifying."

So, it's trying to double the performance in that short practice session. I think that's something that I'll be able to bring into the table.

Greg: What do you need from the team?

David: All of the support that they've been giving me when it comes from the engineering side. I feel like I've matured a lot from this past year, but I'm still 23 years old.

There's a lot for me to learn doing all these jumps and going to all of these different teams. I have been able to learn a lot. I think the other perspective to it, I can add more driver lists. When it comes to the [Meyer Shank] thing, that was also a lot of the Andretti drivers added to that list with having their Andretti Alliance that they had over there.

I was able to also compare to all of those drivers. I've been able to compare myself to almost half the field now, when it comes to driving styles and different forms. So I think being with Santino and this team, it's just going to add to it even more.

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David’s American Dream [22:31]

 Greg: To close, we started at the beginning a little bit with this American Dream notion. I know IndyCar was your obsession and there are quotes of you saying how this is what you've been obsessed with it and wanted to do. Thinking further ahead, what is your American dream in all of this?

David: I don't know if you've had those moments where you think, what is the point of life? Those like really deep thoughts.

Greg: Yeah

David: I think for me, it was to be a part of history. My way of being a part of that is through IndyCar. Through getting championships, Indy 500 win, obviously achieving my dreams there as well.

When my time comes and I've passed, people will be like, "oh, David Malukas, indy 500 winner, championship winner, breaking some sort of records."

That is something that I want. That's end goal for sure... to try to be a part of history, have my name written in there that people know about me, search my name, and maybe don't forget me for sometime. That's the dream.

 Greg:  Like his parents when they came to America, David is taking this opportunity with A.J. Foyt to reset.  Stress and hardship, they can be inhibitors or they can be fuel. Given his mindset and support system, I know for sure David's gas tank is full and he's ready to make history.

Thank you very much. This was great.

David: Yeah. Thank you very much for having me.

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