Kate Young: Hi, I'm Kate Young. You are listening to, This Is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know, firsthand, about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking. Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these boilermakers? Join me as we feature students, faculty, and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same.

Angela Ashmore: The Indy Motor Speedway, that place is just so special. All these little things that make it special, it's like Purdue's really ingrained in all those things, so I'm just honored to even be a part of that. I'm honored to represent my school.

Kate Young: That voice you just heard is the voice of an Indianapolis 500 winner. She may sound familiar to all of our This Is Purdue listeners out there. That's right, we interviewed Purdue mechanical engineering alum, Angela Ashmore, before the Indy 500 and shared her story back in May. Then something big happened, Marcus Ericsson won the 106th running of the Indy 500 in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda. Our boilermaker, Angela, made history as the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 as a member of the winning cars crew. So, naturally, we wanted an update from her. Angela took the time to talk to us about how it felt to achieve her giant leap and we were so honored. Let's get right into it. Angela, thank you for joining us again.

Angela Ashmore: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me, Kate.

Kate Young: Congratulations. I'm so excited for you, your team, Marcus. We'll throw it back to that day, I know it's a lot of build up, it's a lot of work that goes into it. What were you feeling like waking up that morning?

Angela Ashmore: To be honest, the few weeks leading up to the race are kind of a grind, they wear you down because you're at the speedway so much. Then race day is so early, so I think I was up at 3: 45 to get to the track. I was like," Oh, thank goodness. It's finally race day." Because that's my element. I like race day, the rest of it is kind of just gravy.

Kate Young: Did anyone say anything leading up to it? I know your dad's been influential on you. Did your parents say anything? Did any other engineers or crew say anything to you that really stuck with you before the race?

Angela Ashmore: I think most people know better than to say anything leading. Most people just say," Good luck." I think the part that stuck with me was that all five of our CGR cars were so fast, throughout the entire time we were at Indy, especially during qualifying. Four of our five were in the fast six, which was a really big deal. Our cars just had a lot of speed and I know the rest of the paddock was impressed with what we had done as a group. That part of that is really special, something I'm holding onto.

Kate Young: As Angela just mentioned, Chip Ganassi Racing had an incredibly successful showing during Indy 500 qualifying. CGR's Scott Dixon started from the poll for the fifth time in his career. CGR driver, Alex Palou, the reigning IndyCar champion and 2021 Indy 500 runner up, started second, followed by Angela's teammate and driver Marcus Erickson in fifth and Tony Kanaan in sixth. How did Angela feel leading up to the race with four Chip Ganassi racing drivers in the fast six?

Angela Ashmore: It puts a lot of pressure on, because you know that your car is capable of winning and that you're expected to win or at least contend for a win, but it also makes you feel kind of good because you know you have a car that can and should win. I've been on the other side of it where I kind of knew the potential of my car was if I do everything right today, I could maybe finish 10th. That is demoralizing and kind of kicks you down. It's really nice going into the race, thinking," Man, I've got a really good shot to win this. Don't screw it up."

Kate Young: In our first interview with Angela, she described her love for the pomp and circumstance that comes with each and every Indy 500. What was a moment during the pre- race ceremonies that really stuck out to her this year?

Angela Ashmore: I really loved the flyover. I don't know. That part in particular, I'm not sure why exactly, but it really stuck with me this year. I was on the tiny stand and the rest of the team was out on the starting grid. I walked out on a pit lane and the planes came over directly overhead. I remember looking up and seeing this V flight pattern, thinking," Man, this is really cool. I'm really, really lucky to be where I'm standing right now."

Kate Young: Okay. The most iconic race in motor sports is about to start and winning this race is a dream of every single driver and team on that grid. I ask Angela about the moment she knew Marcus was going to drive to victory, and her and the team would win it all. Talk me through what was going through your mind, those last, maybe, five laps. Did you know Marcus had a chance at winning? What was that feeling like?

Angela Ashmore: Well, earlier in the race, based on where we were running, I kind of thought," Well, we're going to end up around seventh if things kind of stay status quo." I was fairly happy with that. That's a good result, a good point stay. Then as we were getting close to the end, a few other cars had issues and we were coming to the last pit stop. I remember thinking," Man, we're going to cycle through here to like third or better if we jump someone on the stop." As we came through the pit cycle, I'm like," Oh my God, we're going to come out in the lead here. This is awesome." Then with five to go, so we're leading, I just remember thinking,'What is going to happen that's going to take this one away from me?" I just remember thinking," Something's going to happen and we're going to get screwed out of a win." I kept saying over and over," Don't get too excited. Something is going to happen. This isn't real." Sure enough, we had a red flag with a couple of laps to go. I just thought," Well, there it goes," because we had a three second lead. We were basically just walking away with it. Then now we have to restart after a red flag. I'm worried about my electronics overheating while we're sitting there on pit lane. Is everything going to boot back up the way that it should? Then on top of that is Marcus going to be able to defend his position on the restart? That was nerve wracking. I don't even think I believed that it was really going to happen until after the checkered flag flew. I remember because Chip was sitting to my left and our other engineer, Brad was sitting to my right and we took the checkered flag and I kind of just looked over at Chip, I was like,"Holy cow! We just won the Indy 500."

Kate Young: Was everyone in disbelief or what was... Were half of you like cheering and freaking out and half of you were still kind of stunned?

Angela Ashmore: I think it was like 75% were freaking out, excited. A few of us were still like," Holy cow. Did that just really happen?"

Kate Young: Oh my gosh. Were people talking before, during the restart, or was it just kind of like really serious silence, because you only had a couple of laps left?

Angela Ashmore: It was really serious, but I was on the radio to our crew chief telling him the sequence for what needed to stay powered up. We needed to get fans on X, Y, and Z. Please don't turn the car off. Kind of just talking him through like what needed to happen at the car. Our strategist, Mike O'Gara was on the radio with Marcus, basically just trying to keep him calm, get him refocused on restarting the race and thinking about how he was going to defend his position. Between those two things, that took up all the available time.

Kate Young: Just like that more than 4. 6 million people watched Marcus win the 106th running of the Indy 500. Okay. Marcus wins, the checkered flags out, what happens next?

Angela Ashmore: There's a lot of high fiving in the pit box. A short celebration there. We were all the way at the front of pit lane. Most of us just took off. I took off running like as fast as I could on pit lane. My husband, Craig works for the 60 team as an engine calibrator, and so I was just thinking," Oh my God. I have to see Craig. I can't believe we just did this." So, I took off running thinking... I should have been running to victory lane, but I was running to get to his pit box so I could see him. I actually momentarily ran past victory lane and I was like," Wait a minute. I'm here." We all ran down to victory lane. By the time I got there, the car had just pulled in. We greeted Marcus as he got out of the car and high fives all around and hugs and all of that.

Kate Young: Was Marcus kind of in disbelief or did he fully know that he just won the Indy 500? Had it sunk in yet, you think?

Angela Ashmore: It still may not have. It's such a big deal to win that race. I'm not sure that you even really appreciate it or like believe that it happened until long after it's happened.

Kate Young: Angela and her husband got to share some special moments together, but who else did she contact afterwards and who was the first to receive an extra special selfie of Angela and Marcus, with the coveted Borg- Warner Trophy?

Angela Ashmore: My sister- in- law and my father- in- law were there. That was really cool that I got to give them hugs after... The victory circle at Indy Motor Speedway is really cool because it's raised up. You go up an elevator or you go on the stairs up behind, so you're on this big platform and we took pictures and all of that stuff. Then on the way back down, they were standing in this sea of people waiting to tell me congratulations. That was really cool that I got to celebrate with them. I had a selfie with Marcus with the Borg- Warner Trophy and I texted that to my dad and my brother because they were kind of the people in my family growing up that we bonded over racing. That's kind of what really started my passion for motor sports. They were the first people that weren't there that I shared with.

Kate Young: The Chip Ganassi racing team. Hadn't won an Indy 500 in a decade, but on May 29th, 2022, Marcus and the team won Chip Ganassi, his fifth Indy 500 as a team owner. Okay. What was victory lane like? You've won other race, but what was it like after winning the Indy 500?

Angela Ashmore: Indy is way different. One, there's just a lot of people there and it's a lot bigger deal. There's so much more going on. Normally, it's just like spray champagne, everybody gets a swig, you take a picture and celebrate a little bit and then you head back to your inaudible stand you stand and tear down and get ready to go. I was prepared to be in victory lane all night, if they would allow us. It's an extended celebration. One of the really cool things were just how many fans had come to that area to celebrate with you. There were a few younger girls that were standing along the staircase and I gave them a high five on the way down. I just thought that was really cool. Somebody in the mass of people offered me a beer, which I thought that was funny.

Kate Young: Did you accept or no?

Angela Ashmore: I may have. I may have. Yeah. It's a much bigger celebration.

Kate Young: Angela mentioned her husband, Craig, also a fellow boiler maker and mechanical engineering alum in our first interview with her. Craig is an engine calibrator for Honda Performance Development or HPD within the IndyCar Series. He was there to witness CGR's No. 8, Husky Chocolate Honda win and experienced victory lane with Angela.

Angela Ashmore: I don't know how he got up there, but he found his way up there. He came up and gave me a big hug. That was really awesome. Yeah. He was up in victory lane with me and we took a few pictures together. That was really cool. I didn't get to see my extended family until after we had finished with a lot of the photos and stuff and had drank our milk, but that was really cool that he was able to get up there and celebrate with me just right after it had happened.

Kate Young: What does all this support mean to you, from your husband, who's a fellow boilermaker, your parents, your family? How does that fuel you for the next race as you keep going in your career?

Angela Ashmore: Well, obviously I can't work in a vacuum, especially my husband. When I decided that I really wanted to be in racing we both picked up our lives and he left his career at Chrysler so that I could go and pursue my dream. That's not a trivial thing that he did for me. When I decided that I wanted to leave NASCAR and come do IndyCar, we picked up our lives the second time. That was not a trivial thing for him to do, now twice. I have a lot of late nights, long days. I'm away from home a lot. I work really long hours. He always is picking up the slack for me. I couldn't do it without him, frankly, because you have to have a support system. He's right behind me and he totally supports the racing lifestyle because he's got the racing bug too. Hopefully he feels the same for me. When he gets really busy and needs extra time or has a test or whatever, I try and pick up the slack on the other end.

Kate Young: I asked Angela to give her take on Marcus' incredible driving and the rest of her CGR team strategy that day.

Angela Ashmore: Well, I think part of what really helped us was our running position earlier in the race, because we were back in the pack a little bit and your fuel mileage is extremely dependent on where you're at in the field. If you're out leading, you're getting considerably worse fuel mileage than if you were running seventh or eighth, like we were, or even third or fourth. That first person line really takes a big hit on the fuel mileage and that kind of stacks up during the race. Marcus is a smart driver and he's really got his head in the game all the time. If he wasn't passing anyone or if he knew he couldn't get by them because of the air wash on his car, he was saving fuel all the time during the race. At the end of the race, what that means is you don't have to put as much fuel in the car, which means that you can take a shorter pit stop and only put in just enough fuel to get to the end. You don't have to fill it all the way up. That was definitely something, fuel wise, that helped this win. Part of it's just luck of circumstance, and the other part is just being prepared to take advantage of the circumstances.

Kate Young: As I mentioned earlier in this episode, part of what makes the victory so special for Angela is that she made history, as the first woman IndyCar crew member to win the Indy 500. Angela has now been featured in numerous articles and magazines like Mel magazine, for example, where writer Ian Douglas said," In a sport, not exactly known for its diversity. Angela Ashmore is trailblazing her way to victory lane, where she and her team recently took a lap as this year's Indy 500 champs." He also made sure to point out that under 10% of IndyCar engineers are women. What did it mean to Angela to make history? How did she feel learning that she achieved a first within the IndyCar Series?

Angela Ashmore: Somebody had asked me that in victory lane, actually. They're like," So are you the first woman to do this?" I'm just like,"I have no idea. I'm really not sure." Actually, Marshall Pruett, who does a lot of motor sports writing, he did a lot of the background research and got in touch with some Indy Motor Speedway historians, and basically tracked down this fact finding mission to see if I was or wasn't. It turned out that, as far as they know, that I am. I thought that was really cool. Part of what made that so special was that when I was in NASCAR, which is what I dreamed about doing as a kid, my goal was to be the first female crew chief in NASCAR. That's what I wanted to do. That's what I wanted to be. It was really important to me to be the first one. A few years ago when I decided to leave NASCAR, I kind of had to up on that dream because if I wasn't going to be at NASCAR, then I could be the first female crew chief obviously. I think this is an adequate replacement, more than adequate replacement, for that goal of mine and something that I can hang onto as I still was able to achieve something in my field that no other woman had done.

Kate Young: It's so funny because I remember I talked to Marcus at a test day at IMS. That was really cool. I've obviously spoken to you a couple times. You guys just kept saying," The Indy 500 is the pinnacle. Of course, this is like the biggest dream of ours." Then it happened. It's just so amazing to see that. I'm sure you guys just had, of course, the best day.

Angela Ashmore: Yes. Chip sets these goals for us, and we talk about them every week in our pre- race meeting. We have two goals for the season. Number one is win the Indy 500, and in some respects, that's an even bigger goal than winning the championship. Goal number two, which I just alluded to, is to win the championship. Every single week we talk about those. It's obviously a difficult thing to do, to win either of those, so it's a big achievement to be able to do it.

Kate Young: Longtime motorsports writer, Marshall Pruett, who Angela just mentioned, did a few features on the CGR No. 8 Husky Chocolate Honda team in RACER Magazine. He mentions that Angela wasn't the only woman involved in this story. Nicole Rotondo is the engine technician from Honda Performance Development who tuned the motor Marcus used to win the race. Marshall said," Like Angela, it was Nicole's first Indy 500 win, and her third in the series, all with Marcus Erickson. Two women directly involved with the victory, one on the team side, and the other with a key vendor, made for powerful optics as the TV cameras and photographers captured the moment." Angela mentioned in the same article," I think it's pretty important to tell that story, because there's a million little girls out there, five and six and seven years old that I would want to totally fall in love with racing and see that success and see themselves in it. It's an important thing for little girls to be able to aspire towards big things and having somebody to look up to is important. If I could be that person, even for a couple of minutes, I would be honored." We're certain Angelo was a role model for many little girls after that race. As of the end of June, Marcus is in first place in the IndyCar Series with 293 points, leading 27 points over Will Power. The Indy 500 is worth double points in the standings, plus Marcus just scored a second place finish at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Road America marked his fourth consecutive top seven finish. What would it mean to Angela and the entire team to win both the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Series Championship in the same season?

Angela Ashmore: Actually, I was reading something at lunch, and I may be mistaken, but I think that it's only been done two other times in recent history and both of them have been Chip Ganassi racing drivers, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti in 2008 and 2010.

Kate Young: Wow.

Angela Ashmore: It's been done, but not recently. It's a pretty huge deal if you can check both off, especially in one season.

Kate Young: When we talk about other Chip Ganassi drivers, obviously there's competition, everyone's competitive, this is a professional sport. What is it like? Are the teammates happy that Marcus won? Everyone wants to win it, but what is it like within that culture of Chip Ganassi racing?

Angela Ashmore: We really take the one team mentality to heart. I think that's something that the people of CGR do really well, and what makes us so competitive because we're all pushing in the same direction. Obviously, we're all competing against one another, but we're not hiding anything from one another, either. One of the things at the 500 was Alex was leading early in the race and he caught a yellow at the exact wrong time and had to take emergency fuel and then go to the back of the field. That basically took him out of contention. Scott Nixon was right there at the front of the field to take his spot when he caught some bad luck. Then late in the race after Scott had led most of the race and was on a good path to victory, couldn't get slowed down enough and sped on pit lane, so same thing. Now, he's got a penalty. He goes basically to the back of the field and there's another CGR car there that's just as fast that's ready to take that spot and carry the torch for the team. If one car can't do it, we want the next car to do it. If that car can't do it, the next car is right there, ready to do it. We're all always backing each other up. It was one of the really nice things. I know it was really heartbreaking for Scott because he had led so much of the race and his car was obviously really fast. He came to victory lane and congratulated Marcus, and I know that it was really heartfelt congratulations because he knows, from his own experience, what a big deal it is to win that race. We're competitive, but we're still a family.

Kate Young: Speaking of family, Angela was featured as part of the Purdue family in our Indy 500 commercial on NBC, which aired during the 106th running of the Indy 500 on May 29th, 22. How did Angela feel when she first saw it?

Angela Ashmore: I don't know if I realized that I was going to be in it. I started watching it and I was like," Oh, how cool. That is so awesome." I was surprised, but happily surprised. The commercial gave me all the feels because just the music in the background and all of the sight and sounds of Indy Motor Speedway and hat place is just so special and all these little things that make it special. It's like Purdue's really ingrained in all those things. I'm just honored to even be a part of that, even if it's a small part, but I'm honored to represent my school.

Kate Young: Absolutely. No, it's not a small part. It's a big part. Did any other boilermakers reach out to you after your win? I hope our podcast help show the world that a boiler maker won the Indy 500 too.

Angela Ashmore: I got an inordinate number of messages after the race. I am still struggling to respond to them all, even in June. A lot of people did reach out and just say," Congratulations." A lot of old classmates who I hadn't talked to in a long time reached out and said like," Oh my gosh. I think that's so cool. I remember you being so into motorsports even when we were at Purdue together." Yeah. It was really cool to connect with some people from, from my past and some people, honestly, that I had never met that are just part of the Purdue family and wanted to reach out and congratulate me and felt like they were part of the win because of that tie. That was really cool.

Kate Young: That's awesome. We love hearing that. We discussed this a bit in our first interview with Angela, but I wanted to follow up. In March, 2022 Chip Ganassi and PNC Bank partnered together to announce the Women In Motorsports campaign to drive awareness and support for gender equality and economic inclusion for women in the workforce. At the time, CGR also announced the inaugural Women In Motorsport internship program. They selected a group of five young women in college to work for the team during the 2022 IndyCar season. One of those students is from Purdue. Angela gives us an update on this special internship program and she names her next giant leap.

Angela Ashmore: Yeah. So we have five interns and one of them is from Purdue. They've been at the track with us since Indy, I guess. Indy was the first event that they got to start getting integrated with our team. Man, they probably came in and thought," Wow, it's pretty easy to win. First try I came in, here we are on victory lane." I'm hoping I am impressing on them how difficult it is and setting a good example for work ethic and the amount of attention to detail that it really takes to get the job done. It's cool to see some other people getting their foot in the door and just starting out their career where they're seeing things for the first time that is maybe not as novel to me anymore. It's kind of fun to see that through a different pair of eyes.

Kate Young: Well, we can't thank you enough for sharing this update with us and sharing your experience with us again. We're rooting for you and Marcus and the No. 8 team, for sure.

Angela Ashmore: Thanks. Yeah. We've got nine races to go in the season. Maybe we'll talk again in October with a championship under my bell, hopefully.

Kate Young: Yes. Next giant leap, championship.

Angela Ashmore: Yes. Yes.

Kate Young: How amazing is it that our podcast team got to work with an Indy 500 winner, not once but twice now? How many universities can say their alum was the first woman IndyCar crew member to win the Indy 500? Just one. You can check out our full post Indy 500 video interview with Angela on YouTube at youtube. com/ purdue. Plus, in case you missed it, we're adding our original interview with Angela onto this episode right now. Listen in as she discusses her childhood Purdue journey and what she hoped her next giant leap would be. But as you all just heard that next giant leap was achieved with the Indy 500 win. We hope you enjoy it. It's officially May in Indiana. The weather is finally starting to warm up and race fans far and wide are preparing for a little race called the Indianapolis 500. From Purdue University's all American marching band serving as the host band of the race since 1919 to the 500 Festival Princess program right down to the milk that the winner drinks, Purdue's involvement in the Indy 500 can be seen through a variety of traditions on race day and in the 500 Festival Foundation activities leading up to it. 2022 March the 106th year for this legendary 500 mile race. We're proud to say multiple Purdue University alums are heavily involved in the greatest spectacle in racing. One of these alums is NTT IndyCar Series engineer, Angela Ashmore, who received both her bachelor's and masters in mechanical engineering at Purdue. As an engineer for Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 8, Husky Chocolate Honda. Angela works on collecting and analyzing data from the car for IndyCar driver, Marcus Ericsson. Angela isn't someone who just happened to get into the professional motorsports world. She's a lifelong race fan. I ask her about when she first fell in love with racing.

Angela Ashmore: I have a very distinct memory of being pretty young, maybe five years old. Our local track was Berlin Raceway up in Michigan. I was there with my dad and I'm sure my mom was there too, but I specifically remember my dad being there. He helped me up the steps, and I remember it being very scary because there were these big gaps in between the steps and he was helping me climb up. We sat down and he had bought these Gargoyle sunglasses, which were popular at the time because Dale inaudible Gargoyle sunglasses. He picked me up to put me on his lap so we could watch. His sunglasses fell off his head and somebody stole them.

Kate Young: Not only were Angela and her dad big race fans, they were also fans of the late, legendary NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt.

Angela Ashmore: Oh yeah. It was like borderline obsession, really obsessed with him. He was easily my favorite driver.

Kate Young: Why was he your favorite driver out of all the other drivers?

Angela Ashmore: I guess because my dad liked him. We just had that in common. I kind of picked up my love for racing for dad. It was a common interest we had. I saw him rooting for Dale, so I did too.

Kate Young: So we knew that Angela loved racing growing up, but at what point did she realize that she could turn her love of cars and motorsports into an actual career?

Angela Ashmore: I equate my want of being a driver to most little kids when they're like," I want to be a fireman. I'm going to be president. I'm going to be a doctor." I wanted to be involved in racing. I knew I really loved it. Then once I started to get older, I started to understand what I was good at, what I enjoyed and that's kind of when I started thinking about," Okay, well, what can I actually do with the things that I like and I'm good at which math and science and how can I apply that to something I like so that I can work in a field that I like doing something that I'm good at?" So that's kind of how I ended up going down this race engineering path because engineering was a natural fit for me and motorsports was the field that I wanted to be in.

Kate Young: Yeah. A lot of people aren't that lucky. They have passions, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll get to spend their whole career being around their passions. Were you in high school when you realized that you could really pursue motorsports as a career? Or when did that click?

Angela Ashmore: Early in high school I thought," Well, I'm good at math and I'm good at science. What can I do with those?" I thought of traditional things like accounting or maybe I'll major in physics. I didn't really grasp what engineering was or what engineers did, because the field is so broad. As an engineer, you can do so many different things. It didn't even really occur to me that engineering was a path until my dad said... We had a sit down when I was maybe a junior in high school and he asked," What do you think you're going to do, realistically, in college? What are you going to major in?" I said,"I really don't know. I just know I like math." He was the one who said," You should really think about engineering. I think you'd be a natural fit. It would be great for you." I don't think I questioned it after that point. I did a little research and understood a little more about what the field was and...

Kate Young: Here you are.

Angela Ashmore: Yeah.

Kate Young: Angela grew up outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. As you may know, there's another big 10 school well known for engineering in Michigan. Well, how did she find out about Purdue? What was it like for Angela, the valedictorian of her high school, that first year in another state, away from her family and friends and attempting to keep up with the challenging coursework of a first year engineering student?

Angela Ashmore: I got a flyer in the mail. I showed my dad and I was like," Wow, wouldn't it be really cool if I could actually go here." I didn't really think, at the time, that it was possible. I just thought for sure, since I was young that I was going to go to University of Michigan, because it was a great engineering school and Purdue wasn't even on my radar. When we went and started visiting colleges, the first step on campus I just fell in love and I knew that was where I had to go. I had to be at Purdue.

Kate Young: What was it like your first year? You're away from home for the first time and you're trying to immerse yourself in Purdue's culture and go to all these classes. What types of steps did you have to take to really buckle down and know that you were on the right track?

Angela Ashmore: I think I was in shock after my first year, because I was used to being the best student. I was valedictorian. School was always easy for me. I never really had to try that hard and I was so good at it. Then I got to Purdue and it was really, really hard. I suddenly wasn't the smartest person there and I had to study and I had to try really hard to do just okay. Yeah, it was a shock, but my competitive nature kind of kicked in and I was like," Okay, well either I buckle down and study harder and figure out how to do this, or I'm not going to be an engineer." So, I just did it.

Kate Young: I can tell that Angela's time at Purdue still means so much to her. She discusses how Purdue set her up for success in the professional racing world. What kind of skills did you learn, whether it's inside the classroom or outside the classroom? This is not a typical job, obviously, so how did Purdue kind of tee you up for those?

Angela Ashmore: I mean, the biggest thing I learned in school was how to think, how to problem solve, because that's what I do day in and day out, is I get presented with new problems every day and stuff that I am not an expert in, that I don't really have any knowledge on, and I have to figure out given inaudible. What do I know about the problem? What am I trying to figure out? How am I going to get there? That was what my engineering degree gave me, was that problem solving technique.

Kate Young: During her time at Purdue, Angela was part of the Society of Automotive Engineers, collegiate design series, also known as SAE. In this program, students build their own race cars, which includes a yearlong design process, manufacturing, testing, and racing against other universities. There are three teams within SAE at Purdue. Angela was on the Formula SAE team where she helped build a single seat formula style car with an internal combustion engine. She also learned how to manufacture with carbon fiber and made composite control arms that shaved 10 pounds of weight off the car.

Angela Ashmore: Formula, I got involved in, I think, my sophomore year. I can't remember how I even found it. It was a friend of a friend who was like," Hey, have you heard about Formula? Do you know what it is? Because I think you'd really interested in it." I was kind of on the fence and then I was all in as soon as I figured out what it was. It was an excellent experience for me, because through your classes, obviously, you get all of the practical knowledge and the book smarts, but Formula SAE gave me the teamwork aspect. You had to work to a deadline, produce a project. You got to actually compete and put the thing that you made, this race car, to the test against other groups of students who had worked on the same project. So, you kind of had a natural grading scale. There's no curve. Your car's either fast or it's not. You either designed it well, or you didn't. You also learned tangible skills like working machine shop. Learn how to use all the machines. You learn basic mechanical skills, how to use tools, stuff like that. All of those skills were so invaluable. It was a really great experience.

Kate Young: Do you have any favorite stories or one favorite memory?

Angela Ashmore: I believe there was a stretch of time I stayed up for three days straight working on the car.

Kate Young: Before a race or...

Angela Ashmore: Yeah. Before a competition. Yeah, it was in the final stretch and we were kind of a little bit behind schedule.

Kate Young: How did that happen? Just lots of coffee?

Angela Ashmore: I don't drink coffee. I think we had a thing that year with grape soda.

Kate Young: Oh, okay.

Angela Ashmore: Yeah, we bought it in bulk.

Kate Young: Angela also shares which Purdue professors made a big impact on her college experience.

Angela Ashmore: Professor inaudible was one of my favorites. I mean, I had a few that I still remember and were really great. Professor inaudible is like one of the best teachers I've ever had just from the standpoint of making me excited about learning the topic he was teaching and helping me to understand it really well. He was just so good at it. I don't even understand how he did such a good job, but I just loved him as a teacher. Then my professor for vehicle dynamics, professor Starkey, he was just so great. I worked with him on my senior design project. He was really flexible and helped us pick a project that was interesting to us and not really traditional and kind of down the racing path. I just really appreciated his tie into the motorsports realm and his appreciation for what I was trying to accomplish with my senior design, not just to do a project and check the box, but do something that actually meant something to me.

Kate Young: Angela has now worked for two of the biggest professional racing series in the world, NASCAR and IndyCar. She dives into her career path after graduating from Purdue in 2010.

Angela Ashmore: So straight out of college, I wanted to go into racing. I didn't find an opportunity right away. I did have an opportunity to work in the automotive field. I got an offer at Chrysler, it was for rotational program. It offered me a chance to get my master's degree and it was a really great opportunity so I took it. One of the great things about that opportunity was that they were lenient with where you got your degree from. I went through the process and got Purdue approved for the degree program.

Kate Young: Oh, amazing.

Angela Ashmore: I did my master's degree through Purdue while I was working through my rotational program at Chrysler. After I finished my rotations, then it was time to choose a permanent position. I had a spot lined up at Dodge Motorsports, which was a perfect fit for me. Two months before I was supposed to start that position, the motorsports program shut down. That was a bummer. I had to figure out something else to do. There's a smaller group of people there that are really passionate about performance vehicles and it's called SRT, Stream Racing Technology. Being that it's a small group, it's kind of tough to get in, especially as a newer hire, but I found a spot there in SRT driveline. They took me on. So that was my next two and a half years. I got to work on the very first Hellcat program, which was the 62 supercharged. Really awesome. I got to do so many cool things. We tested at the racetrack and I got to drive and we tested a lot at the drag strip and I got to drive a lot for that. That was all really great experience. It wasn't really racing though. Fast forward a couple of years, a friend I had got a job at Roush Fenway racing and he said," I know of another position that's opening up if you're interested." I'm like,"Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please." Because I still really had that passion. I knew I wanted to work in racing no matter what. The position opened up and I applied and they took me on. I worked my way up at Roush Fenway from an assistant to the assistant engineer. I was a super support role. The next year I got moved up to managing that group. Then the next year I got moved up to a race engineer in the Xfinity Series. And then after half a year, as a race engineer at Xfinity, I got moved up to a race engineer in the Cup Series. So I just kind of progressed through that. Then after four and a half years there, then I got an opportunity to come here to Chip Ganassi Racing and work in IndyCar, which was an absolute dream. So, I jumped on the opportunity. I was really excited to come back to Indiana, get back to the Midwest, work on a more manageable schedule, racing wise. There was a lot of more technical work that really interested me, so it was a natural fit. I'm so glad that I'm here.

Kate Young: Purdue has ties to space, ties to NASA. A lot of engineers at NASA are Purdue alum. Is there anyone in the racing world that you run into, or is there a group of you guys that are engineers?

Angela Ashmore: There are Purdue engineers everywhere. I know it more from the engineering side. I mean, everywhere I've been there's other Purdue engineers. There's a few right here in this building. One of the most popular drivers in NASCAR, Ryan Newman, he's a Purdue grad, probably the most popular one, at least in the motorsports scene. That's a great thing about Purdue, is that wherever you go, there's someone who has that common tie with you. Actually, one of the guys who works here with me is a really good friend and he and I actually did our senior design project together.

Kate Young: Oh, cool.

Angela Ashmore: So we talk about that all the time. Like," Oh, Hey, you remember when we did..."

Kate Young: Yeah. Angela's husband is also a boilermaker and also works with an IndyCar as an engineer. Their first date story is one for the books.

Angela Ashmore: My husband, Craig, he's a Purdue grad. He is older than me, so we didn't actually go to Purdue at the same time, but we kind of took a similar path. He went through mechanical engineering, just as I did. He did Formula SAE, just like I did. Then he took a job at Chrysler, just like I did. We met through a mutual friend at Chrysler when I was there as an intern. She knew that we were both really into racing. We hung out for the first time and went to mid Ohio to an IndyCar race and it poured down rain on us. I guess it was meant to be because both of us had a great time.

Kate Young: Angela is the first to say her job is different every single day, between race weeks to the off season, to preparing for, what many consider, the biggest race of all the Indianapolis 500. None of Angela's days look the same.

Angela Ashmore: My main role is data systems engineer. There's an electrical box on the car and it collects data from hundreds of sensors. We have thousands of channels of data. I set the calibrations and the logging rates and collect all that data and write math to make it usable and distribute that to the other engineers to use. Then I also work on tools to consume that data and make it easier to digest, for the people who need to make the decisions.

Kate Young: How do you work with the driver when it comes to that? How do the team of engineers kind of help, I guess, the driver digest that too?

Angela Ashmore: Normally, if the driver will either ask for specific requests for his aids in the car. Anything on the steering wheel or hot pitch controls, I can just change those things directly. But then if it's something about how the car's handling, normally the race engineer will handle those requests, but a lot of times I'll help out with the data analysis side and getting data in front of the driver. I'll work on things like developing tools so that the driver can get data immediately when he comes into pit lane. As soon as he stops, he's got data in front of him and he can pull up the data and look at it himself. Because as inaudible a picture's worth a thousand words, well trying to describe someone, what the data looks like and where they're losing time compared to another driver, you can only describe so much, but if you can put it in a visual format, that's easier for them to visually see," Okay, here's a ED compare. Here's where I lost time. I'm plus time here. I'm minus time here." It's really easy to see for them. We can't send data to the car, by rule while the car's running. So, during practice, we're making those changes on the fly. Normally, I'm evaluating shift points and driver reaction time and changing shift flights and shift patterns. If it's things on the steering wheel that he wants different or lights different, or driver alarms for fuel or limited time or stuff like that, I can change that stuff really quickly, it'll take me a minute or two and send it to the car while he's in the pits. Then between runs, we can change it. But normally once you set sail on the race, you've got what you've got.

Kate Young: Just like each of her work days are different each IndyCar race is also different. Here's an example of what Angela works on as she prepares for a race weekend.

Angela Ashmore: I'll normally spend at least a day on the computer getting the setup ready for the data logger. We're putting in a bunch of constants and motion ratios and suspension geometry, all of these things that help... All of these math channels that are running on board calculate correctly. Then as the car's getting put together, I'll come down and plug into the car and do a systems check. We'll check every sensor in the car, check the nominal voltage, check the calibration and make sure that everything's working correctly, program the steering wheels. Just do a once over on everything in the car. Then I'll have a couple days of just preparing data scenarios. I'll spend time doing pre- race strategy, pre- race fuel scenarios, I'll be looking at previous race data, stuff like that. I think a lot of what we do are incremental changes. You don't often change a spring and have the car be a second faster. Especially, when we go to Indy, we're looking for fractions of a mile per hour. With the stuff I work on, there's no obvious upfront gain. A lot of times, working on tools that improve our efficiency... One of the tools I've been working on is the race fuel program. I've been working on it for, I think, two years now, just tweaking and tweaking and tweaking away. But I get into race situations, every once in a while, where a feature I've added comes into play and it's like," Wow. I was able to answer that question really quickly on the spot." I don't think other teams would be able to do that and that gives us an advantage. That kind of stuff comes up all the time.

Kate Young: As Angela just mentioned, she also works on fuel strategy for the No. 8 car she discusses how fuel strategy can impact the result of a race. Every

Angela Ashmore: Every weekend's a little different. Normally before the weekend is part of the preparations I go through and write out a bunch of scenarios that could happen. You've got a lot of options, as far as what the driver can do and how much they can save. If they run full out, let's say might get 3.0 miles per gallon. But if they were to lift and coast, which is the strategy and also run a fuel mixture, which is controlled on the ECU side of things in the engine let's say you could get 3. 8 miles per gallon. If you were run really hard, you're not going to be able to run as long, obviously. If you were to run a more fuel, safe strategy, you could run longer. There's a crossover point where when you're saving fuel, you're giving up lap time to save that fuel. There's a point where you could maybe save a pit stop and only have to pit maybe twice instead of three times, but you might also give up enough lap time, saving that amount of fuel, where going one less pit stop doesn't actually save you any time. So you've kind of got to go through those options.

Kate Young: Then there's the yellow flag scenario. For all of you racing fans out there, you know how that yellow flag can impact a race. When the yellow flag is waved from the starter stand it places the race under caution. Why do they wave this caution flag? It signals hazardous conditions on the track and cars must slow down immediately, maintain position and yield to track safety vehicles until the green flag is displayed again. Angela tells us more about the fuel strategy when cars are under a yellow.

Angela Ashmore: Then the other part of that is evaluating the history of yellows at that race, where they fall, how probable they are, because you'll get a lot better mileage under yellow flag conditions. With a yellow flag strategy, if you assume that you're going to get an average number of yellows, let's say it's 10 laps of yellow, you might gain an extra of three or four laps. It might make a big difference to your strategy. If you assume you're going to get some yellows and you can also save maybe three tenths of a mile per gallon, that might widen up your fuel windows a little bit, or it might allow you to make one less stop. There's a lot of what- if scenarios that you're just trying to plan for in advance. The preparation for the weekend is taking all of those what- if scenarios and just having them ready, because you can't say what the strategy's going to be for the race until you get to the race, because it totally depends on what happens; how fast your car is, how much the tires are falling off, if there's a yellow that falls, where it falls during the race. All those things kind of affect what kind of strategy you have.

Kate Young: For anyone who thinks people within the IndyCar circuit work really hard during the March through October season, then gets a" chill" during the off season, Angela says that's not the case.

Angela Ashmore: I would say I am just as busy in the off season as I am during the season. Normally, you have larger CL projects that you don't necessarily have time to work on or give your full attention to during the season. Throughout the season, I just have a list that just starts building up and over time I just prioritize those. Okay. I really want to rewrite the fuel strategy program. I really want to do live metrics. I really want to do this and this. You work on those projects and really it's a short period of time from the end of the season to the start of the next season, because you've got testing jammed in there and you've got holidays and things like that. It goes by really fast. You have to be super focused and set deadlines still, even though you think like," Wow, you've got a couple months or a few months," you really don't. You've got 10 projects that you have to get done before the start of the season. You're like," Okay, I've got to get this thing done in one week. That's all I have."

Kate Young: After walking around the paddock during a test day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Chip Ganassi racing team, I have to admit, it's largely a male dominated sport. I asked Angela about her experience being one of few women in her career field. You work in a male dominated industry. Do you find it harder to work the way up the ranks? Are you working twice as hard or do you think that, as time passes, it's getting better and there's more and more women coming into this field? How has that been with your career progression?

Angela Ashmore: At the very beginning, I felt like it was more difficult to get a foot in the door, it was harder to get recognized. I definitely felt like I had to work harder to prove that I was capable and knew what I was doing. All that sort of stuff. I think part of that too, is just in the back of your mind, you know that you haven't seen many other women around and there's probably a reason for that. In certain groups of people, definitely not here at Ganassi, but in previous roles, there are certain people who don't want you there, to be frank. I mean, it is sad that it's still that way. I think it's good for you though, because it makes you better engineer. I think you get better at your job as you go. Then the other part that's really refreshing is that the longer I've been around, the more women I've seen. The number of females in the paddock has grown every single year. One of the really fun things we do at Indy 500 is, Kara Adams, who's one of the Firestone engineers, she organizes this women of the Indy 500 photo. We take a grid photo on race day, every year. It's really fun and interesting to see how every year the picture has grown in size. Last year we had to take two pictures because there was so many of us, which is really cool.

Kate Young: It's amazing to hear the number of women in this sport is truly growing. Chip Ganassi Racing team owner, Chip Ganassi, says the team is committed to helping advance opportunities for women in the sport. In March, 2022, Chip Ganassi and PNC Bank partnered together to announce the Women In Motorsports campaign to drive awareness and support for gender equality and economic inclusion for women in the workforce. The initiative includes a thought leadership video content series showcasing women industry leaders, and an internship designed to accelerate career pathways in motorsports for women. Angela will be included in this unique video series, along with two other women who work on the Chip Ganassi Racing teams. CGR also announced the inaugural Women In Motorsports internship program. They recently selected a group of young women in college to work for the team during the 2022 IndyCar season.

Angela Ashmore: It's just meant to give some females an opportunity to get a foot in the door and get some experience in the motorsports industry, an opportunity that they might not otherwise get, or might not otherwise consider, which I think is really important. Those opportunities don't come very easily. I think it's something really great that PNCs doing and Chip Ganassi Racing is partnering with them to facilitate that Women In Motorsports program. It looks like we may have a fellow female from Purdue engineering, which I am so excited about.

Kate Young: That's so awesome.

Angela Ashmore: Yeah. I hope to see her around the building.

Kate Young: Angela says the goal of the Women In Motorsports internship program is to fully immerse these young women into the culture of professional racing and give them hands- on career development experiences. It's only natural they chose a boiler maker to be part of this inaugural internship. Marcus Erickson drives Chip Ganassi's No. 8 Husky Chocolate Honda. As a driver, Angela works hand in hand with him on finding that winning strategy. The people we mainly see in the media are the IndyCar drivers themselves, but the team members working behind the scenes are the ones who set these drivers up for success each and every race. Marcus explains why the relationship between a driver and engineer is so incredibly important.

Marcus Ericsson: For us, at IndyCar, we obviously drive the car, but we spend basically most of our time on the race weekends in the engineering's office trying to analyze every session and prepare for the next session. We have a lot of data logs that we go through, simulations. As a driver today, you drive the car a certain amount of the time, but yeah, you work a lot with your engineers to try and improve the performance. The personal relationship you have with engineers and the understanding between driver and engineer is something that's very, very important for the end result in a race weekend and in a championship. That's why, for me as a driver, that relationship that I have with my engineers is something I work on constantly and can make a difference between winning or not. Something that I feel like Angela is really bringing to the table is her dedication and work ethic. She's working very, very hard and always very detailed in her work. She's focusing a lot on the strategy side with fuel and stuff like that. That requires a lot of focus on the details. I think she's very, very good at that.

Kate Young: As Marcus pointed out, Angela's job requires so many tiny details that all add up and it can make the difference between winning and well, not winning. Let's get down to it. This is an episode celebrating Purdue's ties to the greatest spectacle in racing after all. What exactly does Angela do to prepare for this race? She breaks it all down for us, including the fuel strategy.

Angela Ashmore: The Indianapolis 500 is a really big race. It's the biggest race of the season for us and for everyone really. But I treat the 500 just like any other race. I do it the same level of attention to detail. I go through every scenario that could happen, every point where the yellow falls or could fall, all the same scenarios. It's really the same, but the difference for that race is it's much longer so there are a lot more pit stops and it opens up your strategy a lot more because there's more choices during the race, as far as when you can pit and how far you want to go into that stint. Part of doing fuel strategy is trying to mitigate risk. Hopefully, you have a good idea up front. There's always a risk reward. When you make a decision, you kind of know what that trade off is in advance. We tend not to make decisions that are very high risk for the potential reward. I know Nashville, last year, we ranked early on and that was a really tight fuel race for us. It wasn't necessarily a risky strategy, but it was a very high fuel save race. That took a lot of management on the fuel strategy. That was one of the ones that sticks out in my mind that paid off in the end because we won that race. We were off strategy because of a wreck that we were in early in the race.

Kate Young: Marcus previously competed in Formula One between 2014 and 2018 before he debuted an IndyCar in 2019. In 2021, Marcus scored his first IndyCar win in Detroit. What does it feel like for the Chip Ganassi team when all of their hard work pays off?

Angela Ashmore: It is just indescribable. For me, last year at Detroit it was my first ever win. It felt like something I had been working toward my entire life. There were so many times that we were so close to winning or should have won and something small happened, we didn't. The number of things that have to go right for you to win a race is unimaginable. When it finally comes together, it's like you almost can't believe it. Then you've got this group of people who you spend so much time around, and they're almost like family because you travel with them week in and week out and you spend all day with them at the shop every day, to celebrate with them, it's a big deal.

Kate Young: Marcus and the team won another race in Nashville in August, 2021 at the inaugural Music City Grand Prix with his Chip Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon finishing second. Marcus ended the 2021 season and sixth place in the Driver's Championship. During this 2022 season Marcus got on the podium placing third at the Texas Motor Speedway. What would it mean to Marcus to win the Indy 500 and to drink that milk, which by the way, has been provided by two Purdue dairy farmers during the past two years?

Marcus Ericsson: Everyone that's going to go here in May and drive, it's a dream for everyone to win the Indy 500. It's a race that's the biggest race in the world, I would say, and to win it's something that you work towards inaudible all your career, so it would mean everything.

Kate Young: As we've heard, Angela's giant leap into professional racing came after relentless persistence and perseverance. As for Angela's next giant leap, she's aiming for an Indianapolis 500 win. There's a lot of special races throughout the IndyCar circuit, but the Indy 500 is kind of the pinnacle.

Angela Ashmore: That's the one. Yeah.

Kate Young: What is it like preparing for that race and what is that day?

Angela Ashmore: It is incredibly stressful preparing for that race. There is no stone unturned and even simple things that are easy, and you don't give a second thought on any other race weekend, you'll question a hundred times before you go into that race. The amount of preparation is just incredible and the amount of attention to detail and time that you spend on that one race is far and away more than any other race of the season.

Kate Young: What's the excitement like that day?

Angela Ashmore: My first year was 2020, and that was the year without fans. I will never forget it because I've been to the race as a fan, and the excitement is palpable. All of the pomp and circumstance and hearing Back Home in Indiana and the pretty marching band coming and doing the walk down pit lane. All of that stuff is just like an entire day of build up. Then that first year I went and it was just completely silent. Running a race in complete silence was something I will never forget because it was so strange.

Kate Young: Oh, I'm sure.

Angela Ashmore: Then last year we had a limited capacity, so it wasn't really like the Indy 500. It wasn't a normal Indy 500. Really this year is going to be my first, full- fledged Indy 500 as a participant.

Kate Young: We will certainly be rooting for Angela and that No. 8 Chip Ganassi Husky Chocolate Honda at the Indy 500. Angela reflects back once again on how Purdue helped her achieve her small steps and giant leaps. When you look back at your time at Purdue, why do you think Purdue's so unique? How did that set you up for something as unique as this job?

Angela Ashmore: The thing about Purdue is the engineering program is just so good. It's nationally ranked. It's really well respected. It doesn't matter where you go, you can say Purdue and people know what it is, what it stands for and how good of a school it is. It's instant respect. If you made it through the Purdue program, then people know what you're about. Having a Purdue degree, it's part of my identity, really. It's just an excellent school.

Kate Young: What does the community and that boilermaker spirit mean to you?

Angela Ashmore: Just that you can connect with someone no matter where you are. It wouldn't matter if I moved to Canada, I bet you whatever town I was in, I could find someone who went to Purdue. You can always find someone from Purdue. There's always just a mutual respect because you both kind of know where you came from.

Speaker 4: Start your engines.

Kate Young: If you'd like to watch our full video interview with Angela at Chip Ganassi Racing headquarters in Indianapolis, head on over to youtube. com/ purdue. In the meantime, we'll leave you with some of Angela's This Is Purdue, rapid fire questions. Okay. We are going to do a few rapid fire questions, but they're really easy. They're about Purdue. This is the first time I'm doing this, so I'm testing it with you.

Angela Ashmore: Okay.

Kate Young: Okay. What's your favorite spot on campus, and why?

Angela Ashmore: It was the clap circle. I love the clap circle. That's amazing.

Kate Young: I would not be able to think of something that fast. Favorite boilermaker tradition?

Angela Ashmore: Ooh. Running the fountains.

Kate Young: What's your next small step or giant leap, personally or professionally?

Angela Ashmore: Winning the Indy 500 this year, I hope.

Kate Young: Yeah. I love that answer. Thanks for listening to This Is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue. edu/ podcast. There, you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review. As always, boiler up.