"If I look back one year ago, I wasn't even in IndyCar anymore. I didn't have a left hand and I was up here in the media centre just being a fan."
A lot has changed in a year for David Malukas - whose 2025 just got even better when the Indianapolis 500 post-race penalties elevated him to a remarkable second place.
After a pre-season mountain-bike induced wrist injury last year (hence his "didn't have a left hand" comment) he was dropped by McLaren prior to Indianapolis, without having raced for the team, and he came to the event filming social media for the championship.
Interviewing film stars Austin Butler and Jodie Comer was a big plus, but nowhere near his ambition to one day win the event he was then frivolously covering and the championship he was no longer competing in.
Luckily for him, Meyer Shank gave him a seat in June and he used that to secure a full-time drive at AJ Foyt for 2025.
Last weekend, he completed a strong Indy month by turning a seventh-place start into what became second after the post-race penalties. A podium (though technically the Indy 500 doesn't have one) result at one of the biggest races in the world.
"This past year that I've had has been the toughest year I think of my life really," he said when asked about his journey by The Race.
"It was a lot of different emotions, rollercoasters. 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 centre just being a fan.
"One year later 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 [he's actually 23].
"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."
It had been a rocky start to his time at AJ Foyt. Malukas fits in well and the team has bonded, but the results have given Malukas little to show for his choice to leave Shank, a team which has fundamentally looked more competitive than Foyt.
Malukas's 2025 before the Indy 500
St Petersburg - 13th
Thermal - Car struggled on hard tyres, 18th
Long Beach - Wrong strategy, 17th
Barber - Caught traffic in qualifying and the race, 16th
Indy GP - car overheated, 23rd
He was 19th in the points entering last weekend. But such is the closeness of competition in the standings anywhere behind Alex Palou, Malukas has jumped nine spots to 10th.
But what of this result at the Indy 500. Was it just a good car, or a breakthrough in what he's been able to do at the Speedway?
"It's a little bit of a breakthrough," Malukas said.
"This is the third time here but kind of three and a half seasons, fourth season, I don't know how you put that [because he attended but didn't race last year], 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."
Ultimately in the race, he felt it was too tough to make a move on Palou or Marcus Ericsson ahead because they were drafting behind two other cars fighting to stay on the lead lap and he felt trapped in the train of cars.
Had the backmarkers not been there, we may have seen a closer battle.
Malukas is lucky he was part of the battle at the end because the delayed race start and extended early caution period meant he thought he was "going to piss myself in this car!".
That drew a good laugh in the media centre. Luckily for him he was able to hold it in, and hold onto third on the road (and second in the end) ahead of Indy 500 charger Pato O'Ward, for a massive result for this team.
