Josef Newgarden, David Malukas finish second, third at Nashville despite battle wounds

Josef Newgarden raced in Monday's IndyCar race at Nashville Superspeedway while still nursing an injury suffered in the Indianapolis 500. David Malukas raced despite a hard practice crash on Saturday that briefly put him in the hospital. 

Yet the Team Penske drivers finished second and third, respectively, in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix, only finishing behind race winner and four-time series champion Alex Palou. 

"It was an all right day, okay day," Newgarden said. "We had a good, fast car. Chevy did a great job. We'll take second and move on. It is what it is. I got blocked a couple times. We lost track position a couple times. It's racing. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't."

Newgarden's runner-up effort was his eighth top 10 finish of the season. He's now sixth in the series standings through 12 races.

Malukas, on the other hand, entered Monday's race within striking distance of the points leader in Palou. Palou's victory meant that the Chicago native lost ground in the championship despite finishing third himself.

In addition to driving a backup car, starting at the rear of the field and being two days removed from a short hospital stay, Malukas had to battle the hellacious Tennessee heat, which led to him getting fluids after the race. 

"Almost no time the past few days to get fluids," Malukas said. "We weren't even getting fluids yesterday. After that race we knew it was probably going to be a thing. Felt really good. The adrenaline started to wear off, things started to get a little spinny there. Got fluids, picked me up on a little bit of sugar. I'm good now."

David Malukas finishes third at Nashville but loses ground in title hunt

Malukas led laps early but was no match for Palou over the race's final run as the four-time champion pulled away to his fifth win of the season. 

"That was the one thing at the end of the race, I'm saying this is such a good race, but I see he was in front," Malukas said of Palou. "Look, he's at the peak right now. He's doing so good year by year. Again, people thought he was going to run away earlier on in the season. Had a few unlucky ones. See how it plays out. You never know how things are going to happen. Thankfully, I was able to recover a mistake from this one, all the support I had.

"We have to keep trying, keep pushing hard. Maybe it will come down to the end. If not, I'm so happy with this race, this season. Life is good."

Malukas is second in the standings, 83 points back of Palou with six races left in the season.

Quotes provided by IndyCar Media.