CONOR DALY – TEAM CHEVY PHOTO
Team Chevy Places Six In Top Ten
* David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies AJ Foyt Racing
Chevrolet, led Team Chevy with a third place finish in the 109th running
of the Indianapolis 500
* Was best finish of 2025 season, and career-best at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway for Malukas
* Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, finished fourth to
give Chevrolet two of the top-four drivers in the final order
* Moves O’Ward to second in the point standings
* Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing
Chevrolet, continued his streak of top-10 finishes in the Greatest
Spectacle in Racing with a strong seventh place finish-his seventh
top-10 in seven Indy 500 starts
* Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet,
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and Conor Daly, No.
76 Jucos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet finished eighth, ninth and 10th
respectively to give Chevrolet six of top-10 finishers
* Kyle Larson, in is second attempt at completing the Double-racing
the Indianapolis 500 and Coca Cola 600-was moving up through the field
piloting the No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet when an
on-track incident ended his quest on lap 91
* Pole-winner Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, was
running a strong, consistent race running in the top-10, having a
setback on pit lane then rebounding to 13th place when the rookie
suffered a brake related pit lane incident that ended his race on lap 87
* Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner, led a Chevrolet-high
48 laps when a fuel issue ended his strong run on lap 171
* Josef Newgarden’s quest for three consecutive Indianapolis 500
wins ended with a fueling issue with the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team
Penske Chevrolet ended his day on lap 135
109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge Race Results
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING 109th RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 (QUOTES)
David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet (started 7th, led
2 laps and finished 3rd):
“We keep the record alive (top 10 finish in every Indy 500 he started).
Honestly, the crew did an amazing job. They got the sidepod bolted back
on the car during a green flag stop, which was, I mean, damn impressive.
I mean, we needed it on. So 120 laps of it flapping in the wind wasn’t
great. But the last stop, we had an issue and we just lost some time, it
kind of pulled us outside of the top five. Nothing we can do from there.
Crew did a great job. I mean, strategy was great. It gave us kind of
what we deserved. It would be nice to come back here in a year and just
have a perfectly clean month. (Have you ever had a perfectly clean
month?) 2023 Perfect.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (started 3rd, led 2 laps
and finished 4th):
“My race had a lot of up and downs. The restarts were chaotic. We were
two or three cars too far back. We gained four or five spots in the last
pitstop sequence. I think we were one pitstop sequence short or a
restart could have given us an opportunity. All green like that,
everybody you could see, was stuck. It’s a strong points day for us.
We’ve just about got every single spot in the top five here, except a
win.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet (started 15th
and finished 7th):
“Woke up this morning wanting to win it. I told the guys, let’s go
win this. Disappointed in myself that I could’t get it done for us.
But I will take what the day gave me. I had some fantastic restarts and
some good passes. Dealt with a little more adversity than I
anticipated. Here we are…another top-10. Slowly pushing my record
down the line.
“We had a mega start. Good strategy, good pit stops, good everything.
I could kind of see it coming to us late in the race. Just trying to
stay smart and clean. Had that last green flag stop, we were racing just
outside the top-five. We would have needed that last lap caution to
happen about 10 laps earlier, that would have given us a shot to win,
but congratulations to Alex Palou. Man, I’ve never seen anything like
this. Man it’s wild.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet (started 18th, led 8
laps and finished 8th):
“What a messy race that was – rain, crashes and everything in between.
We came out of it with my best INDYCAR finish yet in eighth. It was a
messy month, but we had a good race car and that showed. We will take
this momentum with us to Detroit, where we were quick last year.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (started 8th and
finished 9th):
“I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, but I wouldn’t say I’m
happy. I am disappointed not getting a better result, but at the end of
the day, we need to remember the car came back in one piece. We lost one
position from where we started. I don’t think we had the pace today to
fight for a win even if we were in the position. A little disappointed
with that, but at the end of the day we were in the top ten. We’re
staying steady. We’ve only finished in the top ten this year, except
the Indy GP. We’re building a great campaign for the championship. I
think at this point we need to focus on finishing second in the
championship and we have a good chance to do so.”
Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet (started 11th, led
13 laps and finished 10th):
“The car was just evil the last two sets of tires. I have no idea what
happened. We didn’t really make many changes. It completely fell off a
cliff and I was hanging on for dear life; literally crashing every turn.
The team did great. The car was so fast at the beginning and it’s
exactly what I needed and then something happened. We have to look into
it. This car was so good and then all of a sudden it fell off a whole
lot. Still proud of our efforts and the team did a great job on pit
stops.”
Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet (started 21st and finished
12th):
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (started 24th and finished
16th):
“Terrible end to what should have been a good day. We made our way
forward every stint like we planned on, and nobody on the team made any
mistakes, except for me on the last lap. I’m very disappointed and
upset with myself, and want to make it right in Detroit next week.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 33 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet (started 14th and
finished 18th):
“Kind of a bummer of a day in the end, but despite the result we
actually had a very good car. There was a period of the race where it
looked like our strategy was going to come to us, but in the end we had
a stall that made it a moot point. There was an issue all day selecting
first gear during our stops, other than that the day was shaping up
nicely. I’m happy Christian (Rasmussen) had a solid result, but at the
end of the day we come here to win, and we now wait another year to try
again!”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (started 33rd and
finished 19th):
Jack Harvey, No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST (started 26th, led 3 laps and
finished 22nd):
“Overall, at the end of the day, we had a lot of positives. I think
the strategy was looking good until it wasn’t, as we wanted a few more
yellow laps. That’s the roll of the dice you play here sometimes.
Being where we started (26th), you have to roll the dice with different
strategies. I couldn’t slow down enough with the braking, and I had to
drive through the pits. That’s on me. I just feel with this team that
we can win it here. It would be great to come back and do it for a
second time with the team. We know each other well now, but that isn’t
my decision right now. It was a promising month, and I’d love to come
back with the DRR/Cusick team for the 110th running of the Indy 500.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No.23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES (started 25th, led
48 laps, and finished 24th):
“I’m just heartbroken. We had a chance to win this race today. And
with a car that hadn’t run a competitive lap before the race started.
The DRR/Cusick crew did an amazing job to get the backup car ready for
the race. And then to lead for 48 laps and be in position to win the 500
is pretty remarkable. It felt like the engine was starting to run out of
fuel when I came through turn four for the pit stop. The final pit stop
was good, and we were in the position we want with 31 laps remaining.
But it felt like we were out of fuel and the engine stalled. I tried
everything to keep it running. But I really don’t know what to say.
The Wedbush crew got me in the right spot today with strategy. And the
car came together well as we made adjustments during the race. It felt
very good the second half of the race. I think we would have come out of
the pits with two back markers between myself and (Alex) Palou, and in
the proper position to win the race. It’s just a heartbreaking
scenario today. It’s going to take a while to get over this one.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet
(started 32nd and finished 25th):
“It’s tough to not have a shot here at the end. It’s a team sport.
It takes everything to win here. I’m still immensely grateful to run
at Indianapolis. As tough as it is to take, I still feel grateful to be
out here today. I just wish we had a chance to fight for it. We didn’t
get to see what we had there. We were slowly working forward. Thank you
to our partners and our whole team. It’s a big effort and a shame to
not be there in the fight.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet (started 17th
and finished 26th):
“Looking at it in my head, I don’t see a way to get out of it. When
Kyle started losing it, I was checking up and once he spun I was trying
to get around the outside, but there was just no grip. Cold track, cold
tires, it was tough conditions. These cars are much more difficult to
drive this year. I wish we could do something different. That’s not
the way I wanted it to end. They did sweep the high line, but not far
up. It’s frustrating.”
Kyle Larson, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (started
19th and finished 27th):
“It was a bit crazy there on start, and I got tight behind Takuma. I
was really close to him and I think as I got a shade left of him (sees
replay). I got loose and got all over the place and spun. I just hate
that I just got a little too eager on the restart and caused that crash
and hate it for anyone that got caught up in it. Bummed out. Try to get
over this quickly and get to Charlotte. Forget about and try to win the
next one.”
Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet (started 1st, led 8
laps and finished 29th):
“I think I had a pretty decent start today and we were at the top.
Then we had our first pit stop, where we had some issues and we were at
the back. I tried to battle my way to the front and I think we were in
P13. When it was yellow, it felt really strange – my brakes – already
when I was in going slow coming in the pit lane I locked both front
tires, which is not usually the case. I wasn’t sure if it was the
brakes or if the tires were cold. I did not push, I tried to be very
slow, but as soon as I touched my brakes both fronts locked and I just
went straight into the guys. It was very scary when I braked I was just
a passenger there were no brakes. We don’t know what happened with the
car. We’ll have to have a look and see if there is any mechanical
problem or if it was just cold tire. It was really sad because we did
such a great work in qualifying, but as we know this the Indy 500 and in
the race anything can happen. I saw already a lot of strong drivers are
out of the race or behind.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet (started 12th, led 14
laps and finished 31st):
“It’s always a terrible situation. It’s so disappointing. It was
such a phenomenal race car. The team made a great decision to stay out
there, when that first split happened with strategy. Everything we were
doing on the No. 20 stand was awesome. That’s what is so painful about
this place. You have to have so many things go right. That’s what is
so disappointing, it’s another opportunity gone. That’s the way that
it goes. All I know is that the gearbox was starting to go. All I know
is that it was a gearbox issue.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet (started 10th and
finished 33rd):
“I don’t know. I have no idea. I just lost control of the car. It
just came out of nowhere. I’ve never had that. I just lost rear grip.
I’m sorry for my family, my friends, my partners, my sponsor, and my
team. It’s definitely the worst day of my life.”
David Malukas
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Also joined by third-place finishing driver in David
Malukas, driver of the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet for AJ
Foyt Enterprises, his best career finish at the Indianapolis 500,
starting from seventh, best career finish in the NTT INDYCAR Series
since second place at Worldwide Technology Raceway a couple years ago in
2022. The other day I said, ovals, you and ovals, something about you
and ovals.
DAVID MALUKAS: I love them, yeah. I mean, at least — we’ve been having
a lot of success on short ovals, but at least finally we could say
pretty good success here at the 500.
But yeah, bittersweet ending, but what a good race.
Q. You said on TV you were tearing up coming in after the race.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, all those yellow flags, seeing our position of the
car and how good we were, I mean, we had it at the end there. Definitely
picturing it, and man, we gave it our all in those last — I think it
was about 15 to go, and we turned it up and I was just hanging on for
dear life trying to get something out of it. Those two lap cars kind of
came in and ruined the fun for us and chose this winner. That’s just
kind of how this track goes.
Q. Obviously it’s bittersweet, but what does this result do for you
guys kind of going forward for the rest of the season?
DAVID MALUKAS: It’s very good. You’ve got to look at it from a positive
standpoint. The guys did an incredible job from start to finish. And
that’s not speaking about the race, it’s speaking about this month.
As soon as we unloaded the car, we’ve put the car in the right
direction, and never took a blindside. Our path was clear, and it kind
of led to getting this P3 finish. That comes down to them. It was from
the engineers and mechanics, just an incredible job.
And I think we needed it. If I look at it from a championship standpoint
and the season as a whole, we got a little bit of a rough start. So I
think this has been a very good month for us to boost morale and lead us
for the rest of the season.
Q. I think your team has a technical cooperation or alliance with
Penske. Is it fair to say that maybe your car are nearly identical like
the Penske cars?
DAVID MALUKAS: No, I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s an AJ Foyt car.
Those are the guys that are working on it, and it’s the AJ Foyt team. So
all the credit goes to AJ Foyt. That’s what I’m driving. That’s what’s
on my suit.
Q. Does it feel like this has been a bit of a breakthrough for you, or
do you feel like this is the best car you’ve had so far at the speedway
and that’s the explanation for the result today?
DAVID MALUKAS: For sure. It’s a little bit of a breakthrough. This is
third time here but kind of three and a half seasons, fourth season, I
don’t know how you put that, but I’ve definitely matured a lot since the
last time I was here. But it’s an incredible car. I think we’ve always
had the maximum success we could out of the cars, but everything lined
up for us, from the team to the guys.
Q. Do you think that the yellow flag at the end kind of threw you off a
little bit?
DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, not really. I think we all kind of — are you
talking about the one right at the end, like the checkered flag? No,
because we were coming out of Turn 4 so there wasn’t really much left to
it at the end there. It was going to be the end.
But yeah, it was more leading up before that when we filtered back out
after the last pit stop is where things got out of our hand, where the
two lappers came in and Palou was able to time a run and sneak behind
them and able to take their tow and obviously get his lucky win there.
Q. The start to this race was sort of all over the place. You had the
delay, you had the McLaughlin crash before you started recording laps.
You record some laps under yellow, you have the Andretti crash, you have
rain. How hard is it to get into a rhythm, especially for a 500-mile
race, with that kind of a start, and when did you feel that you and in
general most of these guys started to settle in?
DAVID MALUKAS: Actually, I think the rain delay in the beginning helped
us. We were having some fitting issues so that rain delay gave us some
time to get things sorted out. Before the race even started I had to pee
so bad, and all these delays, it just made it so much worse. I just kept
thinking about it. Then finally the green flag drops, I was able to
focus on the race and immediately it was caution again. I’m like, man,
we need to just go or I’m going to piss myself in this car. So yeah.
Q. Can you maybe put into words what it means to you to have this
result today just in terms of everything that you’ve gone through over
the past two years? The journey you’ve been on has been pretty
incredible. I imagine today feels like a turning point or at least
something really good to happen to you after a pretty difficult time.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I mean, this past year that I’ve had has been the
toughest year I think of my life really. It was a lot of different
emotions, roller coasters. And if I look back one year ago today, I
wasn’t even in INDYCAR anymore. I didn’t have a left hand and I was up
here in the media center just being a fan. And I could say one year
later that I’m back in the 500 and not just back but I’m fighting for
the win, which is incredible to say.
It’s been an insane year. It’s always going to be a year of maturity for
me. I’ve aged — although it was a year, I feel like I’ve aged 10.
Everything happens for a reason and I’m taking all this knowledge and
everything I’ve learned in the past year and all the hardships and going
to put it into more success in the future.
Q. Talk through, from a team standpoint, Santino started off the month
pretty slow, trying to find that balance in the car. You were pretty
solid all month long. Talk through how two top 10s builds up morale for
the team.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I think as a season as a whole we’ve had so many
unfortunate events and they tend to topple, and morale is such a big
deal when it comes to team unity and having performance out of it. We
were just in a very unfortunate spot and things kept not going in our
favor and it was really putting everybody down.
But this month was very necessary for us. If we just look outside of the
500 and the championship, we really needed this. And I think it’s going
to be a big turning point for the team and for everybody that we can be
there and things can go our way if we just have some luck.
The morale is very high in the team. Even though we were still P3, man,
it’s an incredible time. So many things can go wrong in that race, and
everything went forward for us and the crew did an insane job on the pit
stops, the engineers, incredible time and gave me a great car and
strategists were on point.
A lot, a lot of positives to take out of it, and we’re going to push
into results for the rest of the season.