In the midst of a resurgent season following the start of its technical alliance with Team Penske, a second consecutive second row start in the Indianapolis 500 and a top 10 position in the championship race with Santino Ferrucci, AJ Foyt Racing has nabbed one of the hottest free agents left on the IndyCar market in third-year driver David Malukas.

The team announced Tuesday that one of IndyCar’s legendary programs has inked a multi-year deal with Malukas, starting in 2025, for the 22-year-old driver to man one of the team’s two full-time entries – the number is yet to be announced.

“I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to join AJ Foyt Racing,” Malukas said in a release. “The team has performed very well this season, and I can’t wait to get to work with them and immerse myself in that environment.

“The history and success of both AJ Foyt Racing and A.J. Foyt himself were key factors in my decision to join the team. Everyone knows that A.J. is a legend, and he was someone whose name I always heard growing up. To have the opportunity to work alongside him and drive for his team is very special. I am starting a new chapter in my IndyCar career, and I am eager to achieve strong results with AJ Foyt Racing.”

Insider: For Arrow McLaren, releasing David Malukas a tough, necessary business decision

After starting the 2024 campaign on the sidelines following a preseason mountain bike crash that caused a dislocated left wrist and torn ligaments that required surgery – eventually leading to him losing his new ride at Arrow McLaren – Malukas has since made a resounding return to the grid in Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 66 Honda entry. In five starts with MSR, Malukas has made the Fast 12 for qualifying in all three road and street events – including a pair of Fast 6 appearances at Mid-Ohio (3rd) and Toronto (6th). Along with starts of 14th and 9th at Iowa Speedway for the doubleheader weekend, the 2021 Indy Lights runner-up has erased any doubts that he’d lost a step in his recovery process.

Outside a Lap 1 crash at Iowa in Race 1 of that weekend that left him 26th, Malukas has finished 16th or better in his other four starts of 2024 – including a season-best 6th at the most recent event on the streets of Toronto last month.

“David will be a great addition to AJ Foyt Racing,” team president Larry Foyt said in a release, “He is a fierce competitor who possesses a great deal of natural talent. I think David will be a super fit with our engineers and mechanics, and he will be an important factor as we continue to ascend the IndyCar rankings.”

With so much momentum already built at MSR through his partial-season deal that includes the final 10 races of the year and a seat still available at the team for next season, that Foyt was able to lure Malukas away appears to be a major boon for the team that currently has Ferrucci and the No. 14 crew 10th in points with a favorable oval-heavy schedule left this season. What it means for Malukas’ future teammate, though, is unclear.

Foyt has long been a team in need of a cash infusion to energize it's rebuild process – something that it currently fields from second-year driver Sting Ray Robb, who is believed to bring funding just shy of eight figures to his No. 41 Chevy entry. Though Malukas started his IndyCar career in a two-year campaign with Dale Coyne Racing that included a partnership with his family’s HMD Motorsports that delivered funding to Coyne, that backing ceased when he had planned to move to Arrow McLaren and hasn’t reappeared at MSR.

Ferrucci, on the other hand, is believed to come with little – if any – funding. From a competition standpoint, a Malukas-Ferrucci tandem would give Foyt two potential top-10 championship finishers at a team on the rise. Whether it can cobble together the funding to make such a hopeful program a reality is unclear.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: David Malukas joining AJ Foyt Racing on new multi-year deal in 2025