By David Morgan, Associate Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – So damn close.
David Malukas may have found the most heartbreaking way to lose out on the biggest prize in all of open wheel racing by falling agonizingly short of winning Sunday’s 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 – a record slim margin of just 0.0233 seconds.
Malukas, in his first year driving the fabled No. 12 Chevrolet for Team Penske, came into the day as the driver many thought could break through and win not only his first NTT IndyCar Series race, but doing it on the grandest stage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
When the race came down to a one lap shootout, it was Malukas’ time to shine as he was quick to the jump on the final restart, surpassing Marcus Armstrong to move into the lead before the field even got down to Turn 1.
As Armstrong and his Meyer Shank Racing teammate, eventual winner Felix Rosenqvist, battled side-by-side, it was seemingly Malukas race to lose over those final two and half miles.
Malukas held onto the lead all the way until they returned back to the frontstretch, snaking off Turn 4 for the final time, hoping to break the draft of Rosenqvist and the others behind him, when Rosenqvist – almost as if he was a bullet out of a gun – poured on a sudden burst of speed and charged ahead, pulling alongside Malukas as they charged toward the finish.
From there it was down to a drag race, with Rosenqvist just sneaking out ahead of him at the line to secure the win in the closest Indy 500 victory in history.
As Rosenqvist celebrated on the frontstretch, Malukas was devastated as he pulled back onto pit road, sitting in his car in disbelief before he climbed out, tears in his eyes as he tried to process what had just happened.
Second stings the most. pic.twitter.com/S6yGvgTnii
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 24, 2026
“Just disappointment. I just don’t know what else we could have done,” said Malukas. “We were driving 150 percent that whole race. The guys did a fantastic job getting the car where it needed to be. We had the fastest car out there that whole race. It was ours to win, and I knew that.”
“I’ve never pushed that hard in my whole life. Just to finish, like — I can’t believe it. This whole season, even before, just keep getting a lot of seconds, but we just can’t get — now it’s like — I don’t know how much closer you can get to getting it.”
Trying to put on a positive face in the midst of a heartbreaking loss, Malukas could only think and thank his team and owner Roger Penske for giving him the shot to be in the position he was on Sunday, contending for a win in the Indy 500.
This season marks Malukas’ first in the Penske camp, having bounced around between a number of teams in recent years before landing at one of the premier teams in the IndyCar paddock in 2026, taking over the No. 12 Chevy for the departing Will Power.
“[I’ve] been to so many different teams, and nobody is like Team Penske. Everybody here is just so closely connected and truly feels like family,” said Malukas. “Obviously coming from all of that, Roger was one of the first guys to come to me and tell me that he believes in me and told me to keep on pushing.
“Because of him, I can sit here and cry that I’m going for a P2 position. I think that’s why it’s really emotional for me because I wanted to get a win for this team and just wanted to be written across those history books.
“Everything happens for a reason. I think there’s a reasoning to this. We’re going to just use it as more motivation and just keep pushing forward, and someday maybe it’ll happen.”
Malukas added that he will use Sunday’s near miss as motivation to come back to Indianapolis and make it happen next time around, explaining that it simply wasn’t his time to achieve immortality.
“I think that was the IMS gods telling me that it’s not my time.”
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