Less than a year ago, David Malukas signed what he thought was the ticket to his big IndyCar break.
He’d proven himself capable at Dale Coyne Racing and on occasion put the team in rarefied air to contend for race wins. He was rewarded and brought onboard by McLaren.
A little more than half a year later it all came crashing down. Malukas broke his wrist in a mountain biking accident and missed the start of the 2024 season.
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McLaren fielded substitute drivers Callum Ilott and Theo Pourchaire in Malukas’ absence and pointed towards an eventual return once his injury had healed.
One race on the sidelines became two, then two became three, then three became four.
McLaren decided it couldn’t wait any longer for Malukas to recover and his contract was shredded.
“At the end of the day business is business,” said Malukas.
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“They had obligations to hit. Obviously with the injury, I couldn’t do it.”
Malukas was forced to watch on from the sidelines. With his ties to McLaren severed, the 22-year-old became a free agent.
However, it wasn’t long before his phone was ringing.
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Meyer Shank Racing’s rookie Tom Blomqvist was deposed in a sudden mid-season split after he failed to deliver a finish better than 15th and crashed out of the Indianapolis 500.
Helio Castroneves replaced him at Detroit and Road America before Malukas was shoulder-tapped.
Now, Malukas is just a matter of days away from his return to the IndyCar grid at Laguna Seca on June 24.
It’s not been an easy wait, however. The days after the accident put him in a mental rut and the months of not knowing whether he would race again this year became taxing.
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Malukas said his parents played a big part in keeping him level-headed. Despite not having any money nor knowing any English, they left Lithuania for the United States shortly after the country regained its independence from the Soviet Union.
“When all of it happened, it was tough. Honestly for me mentally, it was definitely one of the toughest things I had to go through,” said Malukas.
“Man, there were some really rough, rough days, especially after the whole termination and things going very dark for me.
“I had my parents on my side. They went through a lot obviously through their lives. They helped me through it, told me that this is nothing, opportunities will come, just get ready. They were my rock to keep me going, that foundation I needed.
“But it’s definitely changed me quite a bit,” he added.
“Looking back at certain moments like that, your brain tends to spiral a little bit, you start asking what is the reasoning? Why is this happening to me? These kind of things.
“I feel like for myself, I believe in the fact that everything happens for a reason. I think the reason for that was to become the driver I can be, with the potential I needed.
“I needed something like that to obviously get me there, to try very hard, to just be better than I was before. It was a very tough few months for me. It was all needed. Now we can look forward and obviously become a better driver than I would have been.”
Malukas admits he’s not fully fit ahead of his racing return.
The two-time podium finisher said his wrist is roughly “80 per cent” of the way to being fully recovered.
“I mean, it’s feeling very good,” he said.
“We are going to see what we can do. There are a lot of things from the car side that we can do to help the steering and already have done from a setup standpoint to make it a bit easier for that wrist to move – but overall I think it’s going to be okay.
“I’ve been on the sim almost every day doing race simulations. Two hours plus, to the point where my right hand is getting a little bit tired. We’re doing everything we can. We’ll be ready to go out there and perform.”
Malukas will make his return at Laguna Seca in the Grand Prix of Monterey, which begins at 8am AEST on Monday, June 24.