{"id":35305,"date":"2025-11-24T15:24:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=35305"},"modified":"2025-11-24T15:27:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:27:03","slug":"david-malukas-arrives-team-penskes-new-phenom-on-ovals-legends-lithuania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/david-malukas-arrives-team-penskes-new-phenom-on-ovals-legends-lithuania","title":{"rendered":"David Malukas arrives: Team Penske\u2019s new phenom on ovals, legends, Lithuania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

David Malukas on track at World Wide Technology Raceway for his first test in the No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet. IndyCar<\/em><\/p>\n

Southfield<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 IndyCar driver David Malukas has been living with legends. Now it\u2019s time to make his own.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old racing phenom has been on a meteoric rise through the open-wheel-racing ranks. Last year, his fourth in IndyCar, he raced with Indy legend AJ Foyt\u2019s team, finishing second in the Indy 500. For 2026, he will fill the big shoes of two-time IndyCar champion Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet for America\u2019s most famous motorsports owner, Bloomfield Hills-based Roger Penske.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up as a kid, Team Penske has been the dream for me,\u201d he said here on his first Motown media tour wearing the iconic Team Penske black jacket. \u201cI want to have a lot of success with them, and it’s very special that I’m also in that No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car. This is writing my own story, the David Malukas story.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a worthy story already.<\/p>\n

A first-generation Lithuanian-American, Malukas is the son of immigrant truck drivers who fled to Chicago with nothing in 1991 as the Soviet Union crumbled. He spoke Lithuanian until he was 5 and got behind the wheel of his first go-kart in Indiana at the age of 6. At 15, he raced an open-wheel Formula 4 race car in the United Arab Emirates before he was old enough to own a driver\u2019s license in the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cGrowing<\/figure>\n
\n

Growing up as a kid, Team Penske has been the dream for me,\u201d David Malukas says. Justin Casterline, Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He raced F4 in Germany, then crossed the pond back to the U.S. in 2017 and entered the so-called Road to Indy series. Living the American Dream, his parents had by then built the multi-million-dollar HMD Trucking company, and in 2019 they invested in an Indy NXT team so their young son could pursue his dream. He finished second in the series in 2021 \u2013 winning seven races \u2013 and earned an IndyCar seat with Dale Coyne Racing for 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky in the fact that (my parents) went through all that, and still decided to put it all into me,\u201d Malukas told IndyCar.com in 2022. \u201cWithout them, I wouldn\u2019t be anywhere near this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He joins a Team Penske Dream Team including future Hall of Famers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin at a time when interest in American open-wheel racing is at its zenith \u2013 boosted by IndyCar\u2019s exposure on the Fox broadcast network and the notoriety of the world\u2019s premier motorsport series, Formula One.<\/p>\n