Long Beach, CA (Sunday, April 10, 2022) – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports rookie David Malukas had a good start to his first Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, but a series of unfortunate events meant he would see his race end with nine laps remaining.
Started: 18th
Finished: 21st
• Malukas ran strong in his Grand Prix of Long Beach debut, having made his way to 11th before making his first pit stop on Lap 29.
• Unfortunately for the rookie, he crossed the pit exit line too soon upon returning to the track and had to serve a drive thru penalty.
• The penalty sent him to the back of the field, but still on the lead lap.
• Malukas then had to return to pit lane about 30 laps later to get his belts tightened for safety reasons but that would end up putting him two laps down to the leaders.
• A final unfortunate event happened on Lap 76 when he ended up making contact with the Turn 8 tire barrier while trying to avoid a spinning Jimmie Johnson.
David Malukas #18 HMD Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports
“I have a bit of bruises and blisters from my first Long Beach Grand Prix but what a series of unfortunate events this race was! I started off strong all while saving the black tires, hoping we could make them last longer and play with our strategy. However, after exiting pit lane with a set of red tires, I crossed the line too soon, which was unfortunate. After serving my drive thru penalty I was still on the lead lap so that was all good but then somehow one of my belts became undone and I had to head to pit lane again to get that fixed and that put me two laps down.
“At that point, I just wanted to bring it home but with about 10 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson spun going into Turn 8 and I tried my best to steer out of his way but I clipped the tire barrier and damaged the front end of my HMD car and that was the end of my race. I truly love the track here in Long Beach and wish things could have gone better but we had no luck this weekend. We had a really good test at Barber in October at my first test with the team so hopefully things can turn around for us at that race in a few weeks.”
