Malukas tried to pass Power on the inside at Turn 1 but the pair made contact and the #66 spun. Power escaped unscathed but Malukas made heavy contact with the concrete wall.
There were no penalties delivered by IndyCar for the incident.
Power had his own race-ending incident later when McLaren’s Alexander Rossi rear-ended the Australian on the penultimate restart.
The Team Penske driver was left irate by the incident and Malukas claimed he copped some flak along the way.
Asked if he would have done anything differently, Malukas said, “Honestly, probably not.”
He added, “I had a run, I set it up, I went on the inside… I mean, Power just came by and screamed at me. I don’t even know if he got a penalty there, but I braked, I slowed down, I gave him as much room as I could other than the curb and he gave me a tap and that was kind of it.
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“There’s not much else I can do. He’s screaming at me. Man, you have a whole second lane you can go up there. So, yeah, I would still continue to do the move.
“I thought it was a good move. I gave him the space. We slowed down. If he would have just stayed in that second lane, we have been perfectly fine.
“We were side-by-side and come down and you’re gonna hit me like that. Yeah, it’s really unfortunate. We had a really good race, good car. Yeah, it sucks.”
HEARTBREAK for @malukasdavid and the No. 66!
📺: #Bommarito500 on USA and Peacock pic.twitter.com/8tjejCPxmN
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 18, 2024
It was at that point Malukas’ voice began to tremble.
The 22-year-old has endured a rollercoaster season after breaking his wrist.
He was dropped by McLaren before being picked up by Meyer Shank Racing.
Next year, he’ll join AJ Foyt Racing on a multi-year deal.
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Malukas was vying for his first win of the season until that moment.
“Sorry,” he said as he wiped away tears.
“It was just such a good weekend for us. I really wanted that result.
“Toronto was a good result and this was gonna be another good one. Car was really good and we’ll carry this in Portland. It’ll be good.”
IndyCar continues on August 26 with the final road course race of the season at Portland.
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