AJ Foyt Racing Team President Larry Foyt says he is so proud of the team as he watched David Malukas score his best career result with a third place finish in the Greatest Spectacle In Racing.
Malukas was extremely quick during the race and led laps while Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 TurnsForTroops Chevrolet in seventh place following a strong race for the 14 crew.
It was the first double top ten finish at the Greatest Spectacle In Racing since 1999 when Kenny Brack won, Billy Boat finished third while Robbie Buhl finished sixth.
Speaking following the action, Larry Foyt said:
“It was a great day for Foyt Racing but one of those days that leaves you wanting more. ” I’m so proud of this team for getting both cars in the top 10, and one even in the top 3, but we all want to win, and we all feel that way. David drove an amazing race and the crew was on point to give us a chance for the win. Santino drove through some adversity with a car body issue that the team did an amazing job to fix in the pits, but made the win difficult. Still, it was a great team effort and shows what we are capable of. I’m looking forward to this momentum for the rest of the season.
Speaking following the action, David Malukas in the No.4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet commented saying:
I mean, we did everything right,” said an emotional Malukas afterwards. “The guys, the team, they did an incredible job. And, man, it’s just bad timing at the end there and they got us. We tried to get that set up to where it needed to be on that final run, but I’ve never been in that final situation before, so we kinda made a guess with the wing (adjustment). Look, I’m really happy. It was an incredible run for us.
“In fact, it was an incredible job from the whole team, Clarience Technologies, Foyt guys. “But, yeah, we missed out on that end there. Third and seventh for this team. That’s a pretty strong finish in Indy. I was looking the whole time, and I saw the 14 car also up there. I mean, it was, like, p 3, p 5 at times. It goes to show these guys really care for this, and they did an incredible job. We were cutting everybody off in the pit stops. These guys were on it. I kinda feel like I let them down on that final run. But, yeah, a lot of positives to take away.”
Santino Ferrucci started the race from 15th and came home in seventh. Speaking following the action he said:
“I was overdriving it and wore my tires out at the end.
“We kept 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 and 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.”
David Malukas spoke to Paddock Eye following the race saying:
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.
AJ Foyt commented saying:
I thought the boys and the crews did a great job. “I was hoping the way they started off running, it would be a little further up, but all in all, we had a good day. Neither car crashed and the boys got in the top ten so what else can you ask for after 500 miles?”