Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports David Malukas in the No.18 HMD Honda says that it was a great day for the team as he repeated his podium finish from a year ago at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday.
It was a really good day for us. We had a race-winning car today, we were right there with [pole starter Josef] Newgarden right there at the start. We put our head down, but our race strategy just didn’t work out. Obviously [race winner Scott] Dixon had the right strategy. We tried to fuel save, but were just losing too much time [on track]. So we changed strategy and, because our car was very good, we were able to recover for third.”
Malukas who finished the race in third having started the race from sixth went on to say:
Our car was a race winning car today. We finished third which is obviously incredible, but at the same time I’m also frustrated because our car was so good. In the beginning we were equivalent to the Penske’s that were running at the front. In the race we tried to do a heavy fuel save at one point but that wasn’t working out for us like it did (Scott) Dixon who won the race on strategy. So, that put us back in the pack with the others a little bit and possibly from being closer to really fighting for a second-place finish but we fought our way back and took over third place and back on the lead lap. So overall I’m really happy with today’s result. The entire Dale Coyne Racing team did a great job. Thank you to them for giving me a great car here two years in a row.”
Sting Ray Robb in the No.51 Biohaven Honda had his best oval finish on Sunday coming home in 21st place and speaking following the action he said:
it was a decent day today. I’m proud of the team, we keep getting better every weekend. We rolled off the truck really strong and the pace was really good. A couple of mistakes on my end cost us a better finish. I think we could’ve been top 15. Congratulations to David (Malukas) for finishing third, super proud for him and the team. I’m looking forward to the west coast swing, two of my favorite tracks and I’m looking forward to finishing strong.”