David Malukas calls his Milwaukee IndyCar qualifying laps "beautiful"

Yet to get his first pole position in IndyCar, David Malukas narrowly missed out on starting on pole in Milwaukee after he set "two beautiful laps" that had him at the top of the field until the very last moment.

With cars running in reverse championship positions in qualifying, 2025 IndyCar champion, Alex Palou, was the last driver to take to track.

Hopeful he could hold onto the top spot, Malukas shared his disappointment once he saw the Spaniard's first lap average which was the only lap by any driver to set an average over 163 mph.

"The were two beautiful laps", Malukas digressed, "I crossed that line [and] I didn't even look at the time. I knew as fast.

"Sometimes you just know it's gonna be good and I crossed the line and I was like 'oh, that was was really beautiful.'

"I really think it was gonna be the one and [I] just had to wait right until the end and I saw him [Palou] come out of four and I was like 'oh no'.

"I put the ghost in there and I was like 'I think he's got this one'."

Despite being downbeat after Palou pickpocketed him for the top spot, Malukas remained happy and reflected on the progress the team has made this season.

Malukas stated that both he and the team has been "transformed this season" going from unable to qualify in the top 10 to fighting for poles.

The Lithuanian-American driver linked part of this success is due to Maluka's race engineer, James Schnabel.

He said: "He's transformed AJ Foyt [and] transformed me. We built that chemistry from a personality standpoint and getting to know each other and then learning what I want from the car. He's just done an incredible job understanding what I need and giving that to me.

"From the first three months it's crazy how different things were, we were struggling to even make the top 10 in qualifying and now we have some fast six performances and now we're here again on the front row of Milwaukee."

Looking ahead to the race, Malukas seemed nervous to suggest that Palou will be beatable in Milwaukee after he followed him in practice.

However, in what he called the "beautiful chaos of Milwaukee", Malukas was clear that anything can happen and that final practice was important in finding out more about the car ahead of the race.

"This afternoon is going to be where we find out all the answers. I was behind Palou in practice and he was just so fast on passing people.

"I think it was in a race earlier this year where is was just me in front battling him so it's going to to be a little like that I think to start. Then obviously the beautiful chaos of Milwaukee will unfold and we'll see where we end up after that.

"We have some questions to get answered before this practice this afternoon."

Malukas finished second in final practice which was a much more steady session that qualifying.

The AJ Foyt driver was nearly 10 mph off his qualifying time but was ahead of Palou who finished sixth in the session.