Elkhart Lake, WI (Sunday, June 12, 2022) – Dale Coyne Racing with drivers Takuma Sato (#51 Nurtec ODT – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR) and David Malukas (#18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports) brought home their Honda powered machines in 15th and 16th place respectively in Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR. Detail for each driver’s race are below.

Takuma Sato Enjoys Good Battles at Road America

Elkhart Lake, WI (Sunday, June 12, 2022) – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR’s Takuma Sato (#51 Nurtec ODT) had some good battles in Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America on his way to a 15th place finish. 


Started: 19th
Finished: 15th

• Sato immediately gained 3 positions at the start of the 55 lap race, moving from 19th to 16th by the end of the first lap.
• He continued to gain positions and was sitting in 12th by Lap 10.
• The driver of the #51 Nurtec ODT car entered pit lane on Lap 17 for his first stop.
• Despite losing some positions with his pit stop and with cars on different pit cycles, he climbed as high as 6th prior to making his second stop on Lap 30. 
• With pit stops cycling through he was 17th following his final stop and gained a couple more positions with some good battles in his last stint to take the checkered flag in 15th place. 
• The two-time Indy 500 Champion was making his eighth start on the 4-mile, 14-turn road course this weekend.
• So far this season, in nine races, Sato has a best finish of seventh at the GMR Grand Prix and a best start of second in Detroit.

Takuma Sato #51 Nurtec ODT Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
“It was an exciting race. At the start I overtook a couple of cars and gained a few more positions after that, but we lost a couple of places on our first pit stop and that really hurt us in terms of track position. Unfortunately, we didn’t gain back anything under the yellow and we always ended up cycling back to where we were. It was a tough race overall, but we fought really strong on the restarts and had some side-by-side overtaking, which was fun. In the end finishing 15ht isn’t exactly what we wanted but as a team we showed some strengths.”

Road America Never Disappoints for Rookie Malukas

Elkhart Lake, WI (Sunday, June 12, 2022) – Rookie David Malukas (#18 HMD Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports) has always enjoyed racing at Road America and Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix was no different for the rookie who ended up 16th in the 55-lap race. 

Started: 14th
Finished: 16th

• Malukas was making his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES start at Road America this weekend.
• Starting 14th, he was running 9th by the time he made his first pit stop on Lap 16. 
• Unfortunately, the rookie went a little long in his pit box and it cost him some important track positions and he fell to 22nd following his stop.
• By the time he made his second stop on Lap 27, he had made his way back up to 15th.
• The rookie held his own, and enjoyed some good battles on track, including some in the final laps of the event following a restart with three laps remaining. 
• In 8 races this season, the rookie has a best finish of 11th (Detroit and Texas Motor Speedway) as well as a best starting position of 6th (Detroit.

David Malukas, #18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda
“This race, even if it’s Road America, and it’s 55 laps and a long race, it still felt short to me and it went by very, very quickly. Sadly, I made a mistake coming into the pits. I was trying to get the maximum I could on pit entry and a car pulled out in front of me and I got spooked a little bit and I ended up locking up the brakes on entry to the pit box, so that cost us some positions. In the end, I was P16. It’s not the desired result, but there were a lot of good battles at the end, and I still had some push to pass while others didn’t. It was a lot of fun. Road America never disappoints.”

Next Up:
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
Race 9 of 17
July 1 – 3, 2022
Track length: 2.258-mile, 13-turn permanent road course
Race Distance:  80 laps
Broadcast: NBC Noon ET, July 3, 2022