IndyCarPenske announces promising David Malukas as Will Power's replacement

The annual signing that everyone anticipated for the IndyCar season has occurred this Thursday, involving one of the most conservative teams on the grid, Team Penske. With only four new additions in the last 15 years despite having three full-time cars, the powerful American team seeks to return to form in 2026 after a disastrous season by their successful standards, and the young David Malukas will be the new face in their quest to reclaim the championship.

The Chicago native, who will turn 24 on the 27th, has been announced as the new occupant of car #12, driven with great success for the last 17 seasons by Will Power, and will continue to receive corporate support from telecommunications giant Verizon. This move had been speculated throughout the year as Power's contract was ending, with Penske postponing any discussions until the end of the season. Tired of waiting for the formation in which he has achieved more victories than any other driver in its history, Power decided to accept Andretti Global's offer to cover Colton Herta's departure to Europe, leaving the way clear for Malukas.

With Lithuanian parents who emigrated to the United States in 1991, ten years before his birth, Malukas entered Penske's orbit this year by receiving technical and financial support from the team to drive for A. J. Foyt Racing, where he has had the best of his four seasons in IndyCar. After finishing second in the Indianapolis 500 and legitimately leading races on four occasions, Malukas finished in eleventh place overall, five spots ahead of his teammate Santino Ferrucci despite a poor start to the season.

Malukas particularly excelled in qualifying, where he was the fifth best in the entire grid with three front-row starts, and in oval tests, where he was sixth with the most points earned despite crashing in the final test in Nashville. Notably, nine of the 16 top 10 finishes he has achieved in his career have been in oval races. His major shortcoming so far is the lack of a significant result on road courses, where his sixth places in Mid-Ohio 2023 and Toronto 2024 have been his ceiling, despite having matched or improved that result in qualifying on eight occasions.

Previously, Malukas began his career in Europe driving in Formula 4 before returning to the United States, where he finished fourth in USF Pro 2000. His father Henry, owner of a transportation company, bought a team and turned it into HMD Motorsports, currently the most important structure in Indy NXT, with which Malukas was runner-up in 2021, featuring a great title duel, achieving seven victories compared to ten for Kyle Kirkwood, his generational rival. With HMD's support, Malukas raced his first two seasons in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing, achieving two podiums in Gateway and showing significant improvement.

In 2024, he got his big opportunity by being signed by McLaren, taking the position that had initially been designated for Álex Palou. However, an untimely fall during preseason with his mountain bike caused him a wrist fracture, which became more complicated than expected and left him sidelined for four months. Midway through his recovery, with no fixed timeline to return at that time, McLaren activated a clause to terminate his contract before he could debut with the team. Malukas found a seat at Meyer Shank Racing, which relegated its second driver Tom Blomqvist, and in his second weekend behind the wheel, he qualified third in Mid-Ohio, despite wearing a bulky compression bandage on his arm.

Malukas's overall numbers, with three podiums in 61 races, hide a considerable number of good performances, despite the absence of a first victory that a late 'caution' deprived him of this year in Iowa. Now, this driver, who enjoys great popularity on social media for his effective use of 'memes', receives his second major opportunity in one of the most coveted seats on the grid. At the same time, he arrives at Penske at a crucial moment of reconstruction after the poor results of 2025 (ninth, tenth, and twelfth overall) and the consequences of 'attenuator-gate' that cost the entire team's executive board their positions in May.

At just over 24 years old, Malukas will be the fifth youngest driver in Penske's history in IndyCar, and the second youngest to be a full-time driver, just behind Paul Tracy, who got the opportunity in 1993 at two months younger after paying the toll of two years racing sporadically, going on to win five races on road courses against Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi. With two-time champion Josef Newgarden as a teammate, looking to bounce back after two infamous years, and versatile Scott McLaughlin, Penske's last new signing five years ago, comparisons will be very tough for Malukas, especially given the good performance shown by Power in recent years despite his veteran status.

The announcement of Malukas opens a highly sought-after position in the Foyt team, for which Dutchman Rinus VeeKay seemed the favorite until recent rumors placed him more in the orbit of Juncos Hollinger Racing. Foyt will continue to receive technical assistance from Penske, which has two drivers under its umbrella (Myles Rowe and Max Garcia) in Indy NXT for a potential promotion in 2027, so all free agents in the market, and other potential surprises from across the pond will be closely watching that opportunity.

Fotos: IndyCar Media