MADISON, Ill — It’s funny how the racing God’s work. There’s a true sense of humor involved there. This past week, I asked David Malukas about how he’d race the drivers up front on Sunday should be in a position like he was in last year of going for the win. More than likely, it would be against the guys going for this year’s championship.

If he finds himself in a similar situation this year as last, how does he races those drivers going for the championship?

“I mean, in some ways you could say so, yeah, but recently the Bus Bros actually kind of did a dis on me on their racing video, so if anything, I’m more motivated to block them and hold them off and be very much of an annoyance on track,” he told me.

He of course was joking saying that the joke was all in good fun, but did say if he’s in that position late, you can’t go overboard.

“No, it’s all fun and games,” he continued. “I think they just picked like certain drivers that would obviously take the joke. I wanted to have a little bit of beef with him on Twitter, but he didn’t respond. I wanted to kind of have a little back-and-forth, create some kind of attention. But he never did it. He never went for it.

“It’s all fun and games. If they do come, yeah, there’s always kind of a sense of respect if you’re not really fighting into it, you know you’re not going to do anything crazy.

“But at the same time, if it’s 20 laps to go and I’m actually fighting with them for a top-3 position, then I think it’s all going to be fair game at that point because I would very much like a proper result at Gateway.”

INDYCAR took it and ran with it trying to promote some drama. Malukas quickly squashed it not wanting any problems.

Well, now he has problems. Fast forward to Sunday. Not quite 20 to go but it was the closing laps. Malukas, battling for a spot on the top 3, had an incident with Scott McLaughlin to where it looked like according to the Penske driver, a hip check gone wrong.

They had a run-in on track for which they made contact with Malukas on the inside of McLaughlin late in the race in Turn 3. It sent McLaughlin high off line and nearly crashing. McLaughlin wasn’t pleased with his friends move.

“Yeah, I was foul,” McLaughlin told me if the move was fair of foul. “I mean like, it’s got to be a point where you’ve got to give up the spot. You can’t put it like, well maybe that’s what he think so that’s fine.

“He didn’t want beef but now he’s got beef, yeah.”

Malukas didn’t see eye to eye about that incident.

“Yeah, I followed the car in front on the inside. Obviously for position he squeezed down,” he said. “I was right on the curb. It’s not like I washed up into him. It’s more that he cut into me. We had a tap. I managed to save it. I guess he did, as well.

“He came to me at podium and said something about it. I don’t know if he’s, like, oppressed by it. I don’t know, I think he got beef from that.

“From my standpoint, if you squeeze somebody down on the inside, what else are you going to expect? I can only go on the curb so much.”

Malukas a year ago in Portland was the honorary Bus Bro and it truly looked like he, Newgarden and McLaughlin was shaping up to be a powerful bromance. Now…there’s trouble in paradise.

He settled for third in the end for a second straight podium here while McLaughlin was P5.

McLaughlin felt they had a solid day overall. A pole this morning but a 9 spot grid penalty for an engine change could have derailed his sails. However, they responded and had a cad capable of a podium if not for that contact with Malukas.