Engineers Kate Gundlach, Andrew Mueller are making their mark

Via ESPNW

They’ll probably never drive into a corner at 200 mph, appear in a Super Bowl commercial or make a music video with Jay Z.

That’s OK with Kate Gundlach and Andrea Mueller. While they won’t ever have Danica Patrick’s celebrity status or even the name recognition of, say, Katherine Legge, the two behind-the-scenes racing stalwarts know they’re doing something historic and cool in motorsports.

Gundlach, 31, is the only female engineer in the IndyCar series who’s on the timing stand and in contact with the driver throughout a race. Mueller, 35, is the lead race engineer for Penske Racing’s No. 22 car in the NASCAR Xfinity series, and it’s no accident that the car has won the last two team owners championships and leads the points this year.

If you think it’s no big deal in either case, watch an IndyCar or NASCAR telecast on any weekend and see how many women you can spot on pit road — in any role, let alone leadership positions. Gundlach and Mueller have key jobs, and they’re easy to point to as women who could one day lead an IndyCar or NASCAR team, even if only Gundlach aspires to that role.

The historical significance “never really occurred to me before, but now that I’m stepping up to that platform, I can see the significance,” said Gundlach, who grew up in Pennsylvania around her father Tim Gundlach’s vintage motorcycle racing and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pittsburgh. “Up until now, the guys have treated me like a family member, so I’ve never felt singled out. But then you look around and say, ‘Hey, there aren’t that many of us out here. OK, this could be really something.’ ”

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