David Malukas never imagined he’d have something in common with the legendary NASCAR crew chief Jake “Suitcase” Elder.
Best remembered for changing teams in an instant — which spawned the nickname — starting in the 1960s, Elder worked for just about every NASCAR Cup team across the decades, and while the 23-year-old Malukas isn’t trying to emulate the late and great stock car mechanic, the young native of Illinois has amassed a rather impressive collection of IndyCar racing suits and paraphernalia during his brief time in the series.
Entering his fourth IndyCar season, Malukas is driving for his fourth team, having started with Dale Coyne Racing from 2022-23, joined Arrow McLaren in 2024 and conducted pre-season testing for the outfit before a training accident and injury led to his being cut before participating in his first race for the team. Then came Meyer Shank Racing, in need of a new driver after benching an underperforming rookie, which presented a recovering Malukas with the chance to prove he was healed and capable of performing at a higher level in a bigger team.
And in his latest move, which should bring an end to the “Suitcase Jake” stage of his career, Malukas is settling in at AJ Foyt Racing where he drives the No. 4 Chevy. His placement within the car comes through a relationship forged between Foyt and Team Penske, which had a remarkably strong 2024 season where Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci claimed 10th in the drivers’ championship.
For Malukas, who has Penske’s James Schnabel — Ferrucci’s race engineer from last season — overseeing his car, it’s an amazing opportunity to learn within the greater Foyt-Penske family and acquire some of the big-team knowledge he lost while sitting idle at Arrow McLaren.
The two opening races of 2025 haven’t been especially kind to Malukas, with finishes of 13th at St. Petersburg and 18th at The Thermal Club, but he was encouraged after last week’s test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course where the settling-in process is starting to wind down.
“This was the first proper day we’ve had that’s been really good all day,” Malukas told RACER. “In the beginning, it was a lot of just trying to get comfortable, figuring out what I need, what I want from the car, not trying to pick off of Santino’s setup.
“Because with where we started with the team, it’s always been that we unload with Santino setups and then we try to figure out how to make that work for me. But now, I think we can officially start unloading with what is my setup and then work from there. The test was a super productive day for us.”
With the frequent changes and traveling from team to team, Malukas has done his best to adapt to the chassis setup philosophies of his race engineers; as a rookie with Coyne, he wasn’t expected to take a leadership role in shaping the car’s suspension and aerodynamic settings. The same was true in his brief spell with Arrow McLaren and again at MSR, which is why the formative days with Foyt and Schnabel is being received as a vitally important stage in his professional development.