Will Power's IndyCar future, or lack thereof, with Team Penske beyond the conclusion of the 2025 season was not yet confirmed by the time it concluded on Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway. But based on the overall tone of discussions within the media, around the paddock, and involving Power himself building up to it, all signs seemed to indicate that he is on his way out.
Two days after the season ended, it was confirmed.
Team Penske cutting Power, their lone champion this decade, their lone winner in 2025, and their top driver in this year's championship standings, has more than likely paved the way for David Malukas to take over behind the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet after spending the 2025 season with A.J. Foyt Enterprises as a part of a deal that Roger Penske himself was said to have orchestrated.
Power's resume speaks for itself. The two-time series champion and former Indy 500 winner is fourth on the all-time wins list and first on the all-time poles list, and he's also still the only driver not named Alex Palou to win a championship since Scott Dixon won his sixth title five years ago. He is not expected to miss out on a ride completely next year.
Malukas has been a highly touted prospect since his days at Dale Coyne Racing, when he secured podium finishes in back-to-back seasons. Believe it or not, he scored three top 10 finishes, including a podium, scored an average finish of 14th, and placed 16th in the championship standings as a rookie. Palou had the exact same stats as a rookie with the same team in 2020.
He clearly has the potential to be great, and he added more evidence to that claim with a runner-up finish behind Palou in this year's Indy 500.
David Malukas could make Zak Brown, McLaren pay
And before 2024, he appeared to be well on his way to greatness with another top team. That is, until Zak Brown and company decided to cut ties with him for no reason.
Now, we say "no reason". There was a reason. But it was actually just an excuse, and everybody knows it. Malukas injured his wrist in a preseason mountain biking accident, and as soon as his contract allowed it (after missing enough races), McLaren fired him after zero starts.
For those of our readers who have followed us for over a year, this is going to sound like a broken record. But at one point last year, McLaren had made more driver changes over the course of 15 months than Team Penske had over the last 15 years.
Ironically, it's one of those hastily vetted McLaren driver changes which could set in motion Penske's first full-time driver change since 2021, and it's one that could come back to haunt McLaren for years to come.
You see, when McLaren cut ties with Malukas, they announced that Theo Pourchaire, who had been sharing Malukas' car with Callum Ilott, would be replacing him full-time for the remainder of the 2025 season. A couple weeks later, they dropped him too, and instead signed Nolan Siegel.
By the time Siegel made his McLaren debut at Laguna Seca, Malukas had already landed with Meyer Shank Racing. And in his first start of the year, he qualified third.
Could they really not afford to wait, just to not find the answers they were supposedly looking for anyway?
Of course, somehow Brown thinks this constant turnover is Palou's fault, for merely remaining with the team that had already had him under a valid contract. With McLaren's promise of Formula 1 nothing more than a proverbial bait-and-switch ploy, given the timetable of Daniel Ricciardo's abrupt departure and the ensuing Oscar Piastri/Alpine drama, of course Palou wanted to stay at Chip Ganassi Racing by the time he actually had a choice to make.
Skip ahead to 2025. Siegel hasn't performed well whatsoever, and it's mind-boggling that the team expect anybody to believe that they signed him strictly for performance. Amid their insistence that he's not a pay driver, he has just three top 10 finishes in 27 starts, with nothing higher than a seventh.
They could have had not only Malukas, Ilott, or Pourchaire, but also Alexander Rossi or Felix Rosenqvist in that car.
And no, Kyle Moyer coming over after being fired following Penske's latest scandal hasn't helped. Siegel has three DNFs, a DNS, and four non-top 10 finishes since joining forces with Moyer.
Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard, by comparison, finished second and fifth in the championship standings, with O'Ward second in oval points and Lundgaard second in road/street course points. And Lundgaard is actually the team's newest driver, for what it's worth; not Siegel.
And all the while, Malukas appears set to join Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin at Team Penske, which should give him the opportunity to prove to McLaren once and for all what a terrible mistake they made by kicking him to the curb.
For no reason.
Lets also not forget McLaren's ongoing lawsuit against Palou, whom they initially signed to drive the car that ended up in Siegel's hands.
They reportedly did not view Malukas as an "A-Level Driver" and rushed his signing after learning Palou would be staying with Chip Ganassi Racing, further adding to the obvious conclusion that the wrist injury was merely an excuse to cut ties, rather than a legitimate reason.
While entering a world-class team like Team Penske with a chip on one's shoulder may not be the best idea, in Malukas' case, it would be justified. And so would sticking it to Zak Brown any time he has any kind of success behind the wheel of a Penske Chevrolet over the next however many years.