Notes & Quotes: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

David Malukas, 23, joined AJ Foyt Racing this season to drive the No. 4 Chevrolet as he enters his fourth year in the NTT INDYCAR Series. A multi-time karting champion and the 2021 Vice-Champion in the INDY NXT by Firestone series, Malukas has earned five Top-Five and 10 Top-10 finishes in the NTT INDYCAR Series, with a best finish of second as a rookie at World Wide Technology Raceway. We asked him a few questions...

When did you know you wanted to race cars for a living? And when did you realize that you could? 

 DM: "The love for racing has always been in the family. I was introduced to racing at a young age and when my dad took me to my first go kart race when I was 6, I was in love ever since. I realized that this could become a living at the age of 16 when I started coming back to the states after my first races in open wheel in the middle east. When we made the jump to open-wheel, it was the first sight that my dreams could become reality." 

David and his father Henry with David's first go kart.

What was your favorite memory (to date) of a race track or a race? 

DM: "My favorite memory will always have to be winning the Le Mans x30 Final."  [Note: Held in the fall in LeMans, France, this race hosts over 450 drivers from nearly 50 countries to compete in one of six karting divisions. Malukas became world champion in the junior division in 2015.]

David winning the 2015 IAME International Final World Championship (Junior division) in LeMans, France.

Did you face any obstacles in becoming a race driver? if so, how did you overcome them? 

DM: "There were many obstacles to face. The hardest would probably be the long periods of time when you have no results and start doubting yourself. It is a very hard hole to get yourself back out of. However, through the help of the great people around me, I was able to overcome it and go back to successful ways."

How do you handle the pressure that comes with IndyCar's strong competition? 

DM: "With the help of my mental coach I'm able to always put myself in the right headspace and to always believe in myself no matter how bad or tough the result may be. I always tell myself that I know I belong here. I will find a way."

Rookie David Malukas hugs his dad after finishing second at World Wide Technology Raceway in 2022. It was his first podium.

What do you like about racing on the streets of St. Petersburg? What would you consider a successful weekend there? 

DM: "For a street course, it isn't that bumpy so you get the thrill of close wall to wall action that a street course gives you without the unpleasant bumps! From the fans to the track layout, it is already one of my favorite race tracks on the calendar and better yet, it is the first race back. So, the nerves and energy are at their highest! A successful weekend would be staying out of trouble and getting a good result in the end. Want to make sure to start the season off in the right direction!"

What do you like about the city and about opening the NTT IndyCar Series there? 

DM: "St. Pete is a great city to start off the season. The weather is amazing and the views are unbeatable. The fan show up is also always fantastic. It would be hard to beat for a season opener!"

What is your pre-race prep? 

DM: "A quick 15 min nap or just time to myself. Go in a dark room, put some white noise on, and let my thoughts go free."

Do you have a driver coach? If so, how does he help you become a better driver? 

DM: "I do, yes. Nowadays it's a bit different. When I was younger, he would help me with driving skills etc. but being at this level and age, it changed more into mental practices and mental health. I take mental health very seriously and we do a lot of work on making sure I'm in the right mental space to go out and perform every time I go on track." 

Driver and mental coach Luke Varley congratulates David after his fourth place finish at Texas Motor Speedway after starting ninth on the 1.5-mile high-banked superspeedway.

What do you think is the most important lesson you learned last year that will help you this year? 

DM: "Greatness comes to those who wait."

What are your goals for this year? 

 DM: "Working on bettering my performance on street and road courses and to have consistency."

What do you enjoy most about racing cars? Fine-tuning the car's setup, going wheel to wheel during a race, etc. 

DM: "My favorite thing about racing is trying to get inside the heads of other drivers. Figuring out what their next move is so you can be two steps ahead."

When you met A.J. Foyt, did he confirm expectations or surprise you?  

DM: "He surprised me in the fact that he treated me like one of his close friends. Was very friendly and open for conversation. Was nice to hear about his stories from his past."

David met A.J. for the first time last October at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during testing.

How do you spend your spare time? What interests you when you’re not racing? 

DM: "With all the racing and traveling I actually like to have some balance and stay at home. Nothing better than having a day at home alone making some good food, watching movies, and playing video games." 

What would you do for a living if you weren’t a race driver? 

DM: "I always had a big interest in coding and computers in general. Would have probably pushed towards that direction. Stayed in school and worked in computer science."

Do you have a favorite saying?  

DM: "Greatness comes to those who wait."

Social media has become integral to business. Which is your favorite platform to post on and why? 

DM: "My favorite has to be X (Twitter). Super easy to just tweet out your thoughts and has a good community of memes."

Do you spend more time on it during the season or in the off season? 

DM: "I'd say very similar but more on socials during the season for sure." 

Who is your hero and why?

DM: "Might be a basic answer but I'd probably have to say my dad. Hearing everything that he had to go through to support our family and how hard he worked to get to where we are is always a big inspiration. Thinking about his story always keeps me motivated and pushing."

David with his father Henry in 2022.

What is the best advice you've ever received (and from whom)? 

DM: "You have all the time in the world."  -- from an old friend in my younger days.

Malukas Fast Facts: Age 23...Born in Chicago...Lives in Indianapolis...Single...First generation Lithuanian American...Father gave him his first go kart launching his multi-time championship karting career including the 2015 IAME International Final World Championship (Junior division) in LeMans, France...Scored poles and victories in the USF2000 and Pro Mazda series before becoming Vice-Champion in the 2021 INDY NXT by Firestone series...Joined Dale Coyne Racing with HMD to advance to the 2022 NTT INDYCAR Series scoring a 2nd place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR)...Came back with Coyne in 2023 and scored another podium at WWTR finishing 3rd...In 2024, a wrist injury in a dirt-biking accident in the off-season led to a partial 10-race season with Meyer-Shank Racing where he posted two Top-10s and qualified in the Firestone Fast 6 five times.

SANTINO FERRUCCI is entering his fifth full season of NTT INDYCAR Series competition and third season with AJ Foyt Racing driving the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet. Last year he earned his first NTT P1 award at Portland, posted 11 top-10 finishes in 17 starts, and finished a career-best ninth in the driver standings.

Why is St. Pete a great place for the season opener?

SF: "I think it's a good place because it's still kind of cold everywhere else we run. And who doesn't love to go to Florida? The vibes are always up when we're there, and the marina is beautiful. Normally, there's a lot of action to start us off."

 What do you like about the track, assuming that you do like the track,

SF: "I think that the track is just very technical and it has a little bit of everything:  high speed chicanes, hairpin, big brake zones. The track is a very good, well-rounded track. It's not terribly bumpy bad for a street course, and compared to some others we run, it's pretty smooth."

Mike Armbrester is your race engineer this season. How's it going with him?

SF: "It's going well. I mean, me and Mike have had success in the past. We've worked together before. Obviously changing engineers was not my call. It's a team management decision. But it's a solid strategy, because I've already worked with James [Schnabel, who will be working with Malukas this season], and as much as I'd love to have been together for a second season with him and having a new teammate, it's good to change things up and get everybody to gel a little bit quicker."

Ferrucci is focused as he prepares to get in his car at the Sebring test. His race engineer Mike Armbrester checks data .

When did you work with Armbrester before?

SF: "With my time at Rahal, a bunch of years ago, he was there, but he wasn't my race engineer. He was my race engineer when I filled in for Jack Harvey who was injured in practice at Texas." Note: In that 2022 race, Ferrucci had just a handful of laps in a special practice session race morning. He started last and finished ninth."

What did you learn at Sebring that will help in St. Pete?

SF: "Sebring was a good test to run through some setups that we've been wanting to try and just kind of being able to gauge where we thought those would be useful later in the season, and if they'd be useful at St. Pete. The other thing was, obviously, getting back into the rhythm of things. Working with Mike is definitely different.  I very much enjoy working with him; he's to the point, very direct, so that'll help keep me focused. "

How was your off season?

SF: "Well, in the off-season Renay and I finally took our honeymoon because we had gotten married in January 2024 and didn't have a chance then. So, after the season ended, we went to Paris, the south of France and Switzerland. It was an incredible trip. In January, we celebrated our first anniversary. I also ran the Chili Bowl (midget race in Tulsa) which was a lot of fun. We also adopted a rescue -- an Anatolian Shepherd. We named him Lenny after Lenny Kravitz so now we have three dogs: including Kodak (Yellow Labrador), and Kleo (Great Dane).

Santino and Renay on their European honeymoon last fall.

SF: "And I'm currently rebuilding a 2001 C5 Z06 Corvette. I believe it was the first year of the Z06 because the ZR-1 existed with the C4. They had a ZR-2, which they didn't put into production. And then the C5 came out. They had the C5 Z06 which is a coupe car. It's different, very different. There's not a lot of them. But I pulled the entire rear end off, dropped the transmission, clutch, flywheel, pulled everything but the motor, essentially. I enjoy working on cars."

Ferrucci's off-season project...rebuilding a 2001 C5 Z06 Corvette.

Ferrucci Fast Facts: Age 26...Born in Woodbury, CT...Lives in Dallas, Texas...Married Renay Moore in January, 2024...Began racing karts at age 5, moved to cars in 2013...Competed in Formula 2000, British Formula 3, GP3 finishing third at Spa Francorchamps as a rookie, was development driver for Haas F1 team for three years (2016-2018), moved to Formula 2 in 2018...made his INDYCAR debut in Detroit in 2018...moved to NTT INDYCAR Series fulltime in 2019 finishing 13th in standings for Dale Coyne and won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year after finishing seventh...13th in standings again with fourth place finish in the 500...drove part-time in 2021-22 but maintained top-10 streak in Indy 500 with finishes of sixth (RLL Racing) and 10th (Dreyer Reinbold Racing)...Scored career-best finish to date with his 3rd place finish in the 2023 Indianapolis 500 to continue his string of consecutive top-10 finishes in the 500...Competed part-time in NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2021-22. Earned 2025 NTT P1 Award at Portland, Ore....posted 11 Top-10 finishes for career-best to finish 9th in the NTT INDYCAR Series driver standings, his highest ranking to date. The Foyt team finished in the top-10 in the points standings for the first time since 2002.

Sexton Properties, owned by Marlyne Sexton and based in Indianapolis, continues its primary marketing support of the No. 14 Chevrolet this season. The company began its marketing partnership with the team as an associate marketing partner in 2015 and has been a primary marketing partner of the team since 2022. The Sexton Properties' long history as a builder and developer began in 1962 when the company built Fisher Apartments in Speedway, Indiana and rented every apartment in the first weekend of business! The company is also responsible for developing two of the largest apartment communities built in Indiana at approximately 1400 apartments each. Since then, thousands of apartment homes have been built in numerous communities from central Ohio and Indiana to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

VensureHR, a leading provider of HR services and technology for small and mid-sized businesses, signed an agreement as a marketing partner of the No. 14 Chevrolet for the season. The Chandler, Ariz. based company is kicking off the partnership with an enhanced presence on the car for the Firestone Grand Prix this weekend with their logo atop the sidepods of the No. 14. “Just like A.J. Foyt’s legacy is cemented in the world of auto racing, so too is VensureHR among Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs),” said Alex Campos, CEO of Vensure Employer Solutions. “When the green flag waves, we look forward to showcasing our HR and technology services to race fans across the world.”

PetroActive returns as a marketing partner of AJ Foyt Racing this season. Acquired in 2014, PetroActive Holdings, LLC continues to be one of the leading suppliers to the fuel additives and cargo treatment markets. Their industry recognized products are used in a variety of end use markets. They continue to strive to innovate and bring new products and solutions to the fuels additives market. PetroActive has storage and delivery locations across the United States.

Phoenix Investors continues its marketing partnership with AJ Foyt Racing. Last year, Ferrucci earned his first career NTT P1 Award (pole position) at Portland International Raceway with the No. 14 sporting the Phoenix Investors livery. Phoenix Investors is the leading expert in the acquisition, renovation, and releasing of former manufacturing facilities in the United States. The revitalization of facilities throughout the continental United States leads to positively transforming communities and restarting the economic engine in the communities we serve. Phoenix’s affiliate companies hold equity interests in a portfolio of industrial properties totaling approximately 78 million square feet spanning 29 states, delivering corporations with a cost-effective national footprint to dynamically supply creative solutions to meet their leasing needs.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be broadcast on FOX Sunday starting at 12 noon ET. All practices, including Sunday morning's warm-up, plus Saturday's qualifying session will be broadcast on FS1.