It might be early days after just one practice for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR, but David Malukas hopes it’s the start of a turnaround for the rest of the season.
Despite two early top-10 finishes to start the year, including a fourth at Texas Motor Speedway back in early April, Malukas has endured the dreadful sting of five consecutive finishes of 19th or worse. He sits 19th in the championship standings, 57 points behind Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist in 10th (148-91).
On Friday, the Lithuanian-American born in nearby Chicago put the No. 18 HMD Trucking Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD second on the overall practice timesheets at 1 minute, 41.8652 seconds, trailing pacesetter Alexander Rossi by a narrow .0862 of a second.
Malukas attributed much of the improvement to a test last week at “America’s National Park of Speed.”
“We left the test, and the speed was there,” Malukas said. “We were looking at the times, and I'm like: 'Wow, it's good. Finally. We can finally get a rebound for this mid-season slumber that we've been having.' Overall, we're much more in the window than we were for the rest of the season.”
When it comes to figuring out if there was anything significant found during testing at the 4.014-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course, the sophomore driver kept it simple.
“We found a setup,” Malukas said. “You know, going into the season, we knew the road course setup was going to be our struggle; went to Indy GP (GMR Grand Prix), went to Barber (Motorsports Park), and it's kind of what we expected. So, we spent a lot of time, especially this off weekend and the test to make sure that we can find something, and we found a few things at the test that clicked. I was pretty optimistic going into today.”
Palou Not Taking Long Title View – Yet
Alex Palou has sent an ominous message to the rest of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
The Spaniard, who won the 2021 INDYCAR SERIES championship, comes into the eighth event of the 17-race season as a winner in two of the last three races and also has the overall lead in the standings with a 51-point advantage over Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson.
The momentum continued Friday as Palou put his No. 10 The American Legion Honda third quickest at 1:41.9486 seconds in opening practice at the newly repaved Road America.
“Yeah, I love it,” Palou said. “I mean, we had really good cars so far, really good races at the start of the year. It's really early still to think about the championship and stuff. Obviously, we want to win the championship. That's the goal. But yeah, we take it race by race as we've been taking all the season, and I don't think we'll think about the championship until it's like two races to go.”
Palou spent the first off weekend since early May recharging in a different way than most of his other NTT INDYCAR SERIES competitors. Also a reserve driver for McLaren’s Formula One team, he went back to Europe and tested the MCL35M on June 8 at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary.
“I went to Europe, tested with the old McLaren F1 at Budapest, which was fun,” Palou said. “And then got to see my racing team back in Spain, and it was fun, as well.”
Rosenqvist Eager To Dance
Felix Rosenqvist was all smiles after a great experience on a new dance floor in Friday’s practice.
The Swedish native put the No. 6 onsemi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet eighth on the overall timesheets at 1:42.0633, with teammates Rossi and Pato O’Ward ending up first and fifth, respectively.
Sitting up on the timing stand just moments after exiting his race car following the session, Rosenqvist couldn’t stop smiling and gave credit to Road America officials for an improved track surface.
“It's good,” Rosenqvist. “They did a good job. It's super smooth. It's like a dance floor out there, but grippy. Seems like every lap you're just getting more and more grip. The reds (softer alternate Firestone tire) for us, we weren't super happy. I think none of our cars actually improved on the reds, which is not super surprising here. I think it's just very high grip, so a very long lap. I think in a way, maybe the hards (black sidewall, harder primary tire) could be pretty strong here.
“Overall, it felt good. We tested it last week, so I think that was good. We're comfortable out of the gates, and let’s see what we can do.”
Odds & Ends
- NTT INDYCAR SERIES rookie and 33-year-old Agustín Canapino, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, is set to make his 600th career race start on Sunday, with the majority of those coming while racing touring cars in his native Argentina.
- Racing legend Greg Murphy, known for his four wins in the Bathurst 1000, was on the timing stand of the No. 3 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet in support of fellow New Zealander Scott McLaughlin.
- Chip Ganassi Racing executive Taylor Kiel and wife, Katie, welcomed their second child, Knox Allen Kiel, into the world Thursday. As a result, Kiel missed Friday’s practice as the strategist for Marcus Ericsson at Road America, but he will be back on the timing stand Saturday.
- Kyffin Simpson led opening practice in INDY NXT by Firestone, which saw the top 12 drivers quicker than Colton Herta’s 2017 qualifying record of 1:52.0034.
- Firestone has supplied more than 1,600 race tires to the teams and drivers for practice, qualifying (including the Firestone Fast Six), and Sunday’s 55-lap (220.55 miles) race. The primary and alternate tire construction for this weekend’s event is the same as was supplied for the 2022 Road America event. The primary compound is the same as that used for 2019 Road America race, while the alternate compound is the same as the 2018 Indianapolis road course primary compound. This weekend’s rain tires are the same constructions and compounds as those released in 2018.
- NBC Sports motorsports analyst and former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver James Hinchcliffe will make his Mazda MX-5 Cup debut at Watkins Glen International next weekend, June 22-24. The affable Canadian will drive the No. 3 JTR Motorsports Engineering entry.
- The 2023 Arrow Electronics Racing to Recovery Gala raised more than $1 million for the Conquer Paralysis Now foundation’s work to find a cure for paralysis and to support the DRIVEN NeuroRecovery Center, according to CPN founder and Arrow McLaren owner and former INDYCAR SERIES driver Sam Schmidt. This is the second consecutive year the Gala has raised more than $1 million.