Episode 13: The Other Brickyard: How Purdue Built the Engineers of the Indy 500

Introduction

April 26, 2025. West Lafayette, Indiana. The 68th annual Purdue Grand Prix.

Forty thousand fans line a half-mile go-kart track on the Purdue University campus. Thirty-three karts have been on the track for almost three hours. The drivers are exhausted. The crew chiefs have called every pit strategy they can think of. The race has been a series of fights and recoveries, mechanical failures and last-second comebacks. The leader has changed eight times.

Now the checkered flag drops. Kappa Sigma Racing A crosses the start-finish line first. The crowd erupts.

The winning driver climbs out of his kart, helmet still on, and walks toward a row of red bricks set into the concrete at the start-finish line. He kneels. He pulls his helmet off. And he kisses the bricks.

You have seen this gesture before. You have seen it after the Indianapolis 500. You have seen it after the Brickyard 400. Both of those races happen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 60 miles south of West Lafayette. Both of those tracks have a famous Yard of Bricks at the start-finish line.

So why is a driver in a college go-kart race kissing bricks?

Because out of every racetrack in the United States, only two contain original bricks from the 1909 Indianapolis Motor Speedway. One of them is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself. The other is a student-built go-kart track at Purdue University.

How that happened, and what it means for any Indiana high school student thinking about engineering or motorsports, is the story of this Bonus Episode.

1958: A Late-Night Idea in West Lafayette

May 17, 1958.

A group of Purdue University engineering students are sitting around late at night. They are talking about how their classroom work, the calculus, the physics, the mechanics, never feels quite real. It feels like math problems on a page. They want to do something with it.

One of them brings up the Indianapolis 500. The Indy 500 is 60 miles south. It is happening that very month, on Memorial Day weekend. It is the greatest race in the world. It is the proof that engineering matters. Cars built by engineers race at almost 150 miles per hour around a 2.5-mile oval, and the entire United States watches.

What if Purdue had its own version?

They decide to build go-karts. Not buy them. Build them. They will use whatever small engines they can find: lawnmower engines, leaf-blower engines, anything that runs. They will weld their own frames, mount their own steering, install their own brakes. They will model the race directly on the Indy 500. They will run 144 laps for 60 miles. They will use 33 karts on the starting grid (the exact same number that starts the Indy 500). They will award trophies and milk to the winners (Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, n.d.).

That first race is held in 1958. It is sponsored by an organization called the Purdue Auto Club. The Auto Club eventually disbands, but the students refuse to let the race die. They organize the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation in its place. The Foundation has run the race every year since then, except during a few specific COVID-related cancellations (Purdue Exponent, 2022).

Today, almost 70 years later, the Purdue Grand Prix is still going. The format has been refined: it is now 160 laps instead of 144. The engines have been standardized to the Yamaha KT-100 (which everyone uses, just like everyone at the Indy 500 uses the same Honda or Chevrolet engines). The number of starting karts is still 33. The number of laps in the qualifying field is still capped at 33, exactly matching the Indy 500. Each kart still costs about $5,000 to build, raised by sponsors. Each kart still gets welded, machined, and tuned by Purdue students. Each driver still kisses the bricks at the end (Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, n.d.; WLFI, 2026).

The race has its own traditions:

• Roll cages (required since the 1960s after early crashes)
• A milk shower in victory lane (mirroring the Indy 500's milk tradition)
• The "Greatest Spectacle in College Racing" nickname (parallel to the Indy 500's "Greatest Spectacle in Racing")
• Race weekend events that mirror the Indy 500's qualifying weekend, parade lap traditions, and pre-race ceremony

The point is this: from the very beginning, in 1958, Purdue students did not just admire the Indianapolis 500. They built their own version of it. They did it as an engineering exercise. They did it because they wanted their classroom work to mean something.

That mindset, "the classroom work has to mean something," is what we are going to come back to in this episode. It is the through-line that connects a 1958 student go-kart race to a 2025 Indianapolis 500 pit box where Purdue engineers are running the numbers.

The Greatest Spectacle in College Racing

What does it actually take to compete in the Purdue Grand Prix today?

Each team starts in the fall semester, eight months before race day. The team has to:

1. Raise money. About $5,000 per kart. Most teams raise it through sponsors, fraternities, sororities, residence halls, alumni, or local Indiana businesses.
2. Design the kart. Students apply mechanical engineering principles to frame design, suspension geometry, steering ratio, and braking systems. Most teams use a Topkart chassis as a starting point but heavily modify it.
3. Build the kart. Welding the frame, machining custom parts, installing the Yamaha KT-100 engine, mounting the brakes, building the seat to fit the specific driver.
4. Tune the engine. The Yamaha KT-100 is the only engine allowed. Within the rules, teams can tune carburetors, exhausts, and gearing to get more power and better efficiency.
5. Practice and qualify. Teams run dozens of practice sessions in the weeks before the race. The fastest 33 karts in qualifying make the starting field.
6. Race. 160 laps. About three hours of green-flag racing. Multiple pit stops. Tire changes. Driver changes. Strategic decisions about when to push and when to save the kart.

The engineering parallels to the Indianapolis 500 are deliberate and exact:

This is not coincidence. It is design. The Purdue Grand Prix was created as a deliberate mirror of the Indianapolis 500, intended to give engineering students hands-on practice with the same kinds of engineering decisions that race teams make 60 miles south. The difference is scale (a kart at 60 miles per hour versus an IndyCar at 230 miles per hour), not principle.

For an engineering student, the value is enormous. The Purdue Grand Prix teaches:

• Systems engineering (the whole kart has to work; one weak part defeats the whole)
• Project management (eight months from design to race day; everyone hits deadlines)
• Materials science (which welds hold; which fail; why)
• Vehicle dynamics (suspension, weight distribution, tire mechanics)
• Pit strategy (when to pit; how long to fuel; when to change tires)
• Teamwork under pressure (the kart, the driver, the crew all have to work together)

It also teaches something less measurable but equally important: the engineer who has touched the kart, fixed the kart, raced the kart, and won the kart understands the kart in a way that no classroom can teach. That understanding is what race teams pay engineers for. That understanding is what separates an engineer who has only studied a car from an engineer who has actually built and raced one.

The Purdue Grand Prix is engineering education with the engine running.

March 12, 2025: The Bricks Come Home

Now we get to the brick story.

For decades, Purdue Grand Prix alumni had wondered: what if we could put some of the original 1909 Indianapolis Motor Speedway bricks at the Purdue Grand Prix track? It would acknowledge the deliberate connection between the two races. It would give the Purdue Grand Prix the same physical link to history that the Yard of Bricks gives the Indianapolis 500.

In 2024, three alumni decided to actually do something about it. Al Wurster (Purdue Bachelor of Science class of 1985), Dave Fuhrman, and Bill Shumaker approached Doug Boles, the President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the idea (Purdue Stories, 2025).

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway maintains a small reserve of original 1909 paving bricks. Most of the bricks were paved over with asphalt in 1961 (covered in Episode 2 of this season). But a small number were kept for special purposes: museum displays, commemorative gifts, and the famous 3-foot Yard of Bricks at the start-finish line itself. New bricks are not made. The 1909 reserve is finite. Each one matters.

Boles said yes (Purdue Stories, 2025).

On March 12, 2025, Boles drove from Indianapolis up to West Lafayette. He brought a set of original 1909 bricks. At the Purdue Grand Prix track, in a small ceremony, Boles personally laid the final brick at the new Purdue Yard of Bricks at the start-finish line. The brick was held by Al Wurster, Dave Fuhrman, and Bill Shumaker together. There was history in that moment beyond just the brick. Shumaker and Fuhrman had been involved in a famous head-to-head collision at the 1981 Purdue Grand Prix (the kind of incident that becomes legend in any racing community). More than 40 years later, the two of them stood at the same start-finish line holding the same brick, setting it into the ground together (Purdue Stories, 2025; WLFI, 2025).

Boles spoke at the ceremony. According to coverage by WLFI and other Indiana outlets, he made a statement that has since become widely quoted in Indiana motorsports circles:

"The Indy 500 does not exist without Purdue University and the people who have graduated from Purdue University." (WLFI, 2025)

That is not a polite statement. It is a factual claim. Boles, as the leader of the most famous racetrack in the world, was acknowledging that the Indianapolis 500 itself depends on Purdue's engineering pipeline. We will see why in the next segment.

The first driver to kiss the new Purdue Yard of Bricks was the winner of the 68th Purdue Grand Prix, on April 26, 2025: Kappa Sigma Racing A's lead driver. From that moment forward, the tradition is permanent. Every winner of every future Purdue Grand Prix will kiss those same bricks. The bricks will not be moved.

There are now exactly two racetracks in the United States that contain original 1909 IMS paving bricks. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself. And a student-run go-kart track in West Lafayette, Indiana. Both Indiana. Both connected.

Traditions get built. They do not just happen. Three Boilermaker alumni and one IMS President decided that this particular history mattered enough to preserve in concrete. The bricks they set on March 12, 2025 will be there in 2050, 2075, and 2125. The students who race on them have a direct physical connection to the founding of American motorsports in 1909.

That is the kind of detail that sounds small until you realize what it represents.

Why Every IndyCar Team Has a Boilermaker

Now we get to the part of this episode that matters most for any high school student thinking about their future.

In the United States, there is exactly one accredited undergraduate degree in Motorsports Engineering. It is the Bachelor of Science in Motorsports Engineering (BSMSPE), offered by Purdue University at its Indianapolis campus (Purdue Engineering, n.d.; Educational Advocates, 2025).

The program has a specific history:

• Founded in 2008 at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). At the time, IUPUI was a joint campus operated by both Indiana University and Purdue University. The Motorsports Engineering program was operated through IUPUI's Purdue School of Engineering and Technology.
• In 2024, IUPUI dissolved. Indiana University and Purdue University split the Indianapolis campus into two separate institutions: IU Indianapolis and Purdue University in Indianapolis. The Motorsports Engineering program transferred entirely to Purdue.
• Today, the program is fully Purdue. It is headquartered at the Dallara Building in Speedway, Indiana, less than six miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Dallara Building is the U.S. headquarters of Dallara, the Italian race-car manufacturer that builds every chassis used in the IndyCar Series. Purdue students take classes in the same building where IndyCar chassis are built (Purdue Engineering, n.d.; Forward Pathway, 2025).

The program is accredited by ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), which is the gold-standard accreditation for any engineering degree in the United States. ABET accreditation means employers can trust that the degree meets rigorous engineering education standards. Without ABET, an engineering degree often does not qualify graduates for professional engineering licensure. Purdue's Motorsports Engineering is, currently, the only ABET-accredited motorsports engineering undergraduate program in the country (Purdue Engineering, n.d.).

Key features of the program:

• Direct admission. Students are admitted directly to Motorsports Engineering as freshmen. They do not have to apply to the major after their first or second year, as is the case at many engineering schools.
• Guaranteed internships. Every student is guaranteed at least one internship before graduation. Many students complete multiple internships across IndyCar, NASCAR, and major automotive companies.
• Specialty tracks. Students can specialize in Aerodynamics, Motorsports Design, Vehicle Dynamics, or Vehicle Simulation.
• 5-year combined bachelor's and master's pathway. Students can earn both a BSMSPE and an MS in Motorsports Engineering in five years (instead of the typical six).
• Residence hall expansion. A 426-bed residence hall is under construction at Purdue Indianapolis, opening in 2027 (Educational Advocates, 2025).

The leadership of the program includes Alan Jones (Site Director for Mechanical Engineering at Purdue Indianapolis, who oversees the Motorsports Engineering program) and Nik Chawla (Associate Dean for Engineering in Indianapolis and the Ransburg Professor of Materials Engineering, who oversees the broader Indianapolis engineering campus). Both are nationally recognized researchers (Chawla, 2024).

Career Outcomes

According to Purdue's 2023 graduate data:

• 95% placement rate (either in industry employment or graduate school) within six months of graduation
• $70,000 average starting salary (well above national entry-level engineering averages)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the mean annual salary for a mechanical engineer in May 2024 was over $110,000, with top earners exceeding $161,000. A degree from a highly-ranked, ABET-accredited, industry-connected program like Purdue's typically positions graduates near the top of those ranges within a few years of starting their careers (Forward Pathway, 2025).

Where Purdue Motorsports Engineering graduates work:

In motorsports:

• IndyCar teams: Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren, Meyer Shank Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing
• NASCAR teams: Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske Racing (NASCAR), and dozens of smaller teams
• Race-car manufacturers: Dallara (U.S. HQ in Speedway, IN), Honda Racing Corp USA (Mid-Ohio), Chevrolet Racing (Pontiac, MI), Ilmor (UK / Indiana)
• Tire and component manufacturers: Firestone (Indianapolis), Brembo, Bosch Motorsport

Beyond motorsports, Purdue Motorsports Engineering graduates work at:

• SpaceX (rocket engineering)
• Tesla (electric vehicles)
• Harley-Davidson (motorcycles)
• Ford, GM, Polaris (automotive)
• Cummins (engines, based in Columbus, Indiana)
• Caterpillar (heavy equipment)

The skills transfer. Engineering at 230 miles per hour around an oval is harder than engineering for almost any production vehicle. Once you have done the harder problem, the easier problem is straightforward (Purdue Stories, 2025).

Real People, Real Jobs

This episode is about real career paths, so the names matter. The following are real Purdue Motorsports Engineering or Purdue Mechanical Engineering graduates currently working in the IndyCar Series:

• Angela Ashmore (BS Mechanical Engineering 2010, MS 2013), Engineer for Chip Ganassi Racing. In 2022, she was on the crew that put Marcus Ericsson in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis 500, making her the first female crew member to win the Indianapolis 500. (Covered in Episodes 8, 9, and 12 of this season.)
• Matt Kuebel and Mike Koenigs, IndyCar engineers at Team Penske
• Nathan O'Rourke, Lead race engineer for Andretti Autosport's Colton Herta
• Lizzie Todd, Systems engineer for Arrow McLaren and driver Pato O'Ward. Lizzie attended her first Indianapolis 500 at age 8 and became a fan that day. She is now part of the team running one of the title contenders.
• Rebecca Hutton, Engineer at Chip Ganassi Racing
• Alex Turner (BSMSPE 2022), Engineer at Dallara's U.S. headquarters in Speedway, IN
• Reed England, Current Purdue Motorsports Engineering student, featured in the program's day-in-the-life student profile

In the 2023 Indianapolis 500, Purdue Motorsports Engineering students or graduates were working on 32 of the 33 teams. In the 2025 Indianapolis 500, every single American-based team in the field had at least one Purdue Boilermaker on staff. Doug Boles was not exaggerating when he said the Indy 500 does not exist without Purdue. The data is on his side (Purdue Stories, 2025; WISH-TV, 2025).

Beyond Coursework: Hands-On Programs

Purdue students do not just take classes. They participate in:

• Formula SAE (build a Formula-style race car)
• Baja SAE (build an off-road race car)
• Purdue Electric Racing (build an electric Formula-style car)
• Indy Autonomous Challenge / Purdue AI Racing (PAIR) (covered in Episode 12; autonomous race cars)
• evGrand Prix (electric karting; covered in Episode 12)
• Purdue Grand Prix (the gas-kart race covered in this episode)

Each of these programs functions like a paid internship that the students design themselves. Students work in real engineering teams, on real race vehicles, with real performance results. The transcripts of students who do this show employers exactly what they can do.

The Al Unser Sr. Legacy Scholarship

In 2025, Susan Unser established the Al Unser Sr. Legacy Scholarship, a full-ride scholarship to the Purdue Motorsports Engineering program in honor of her late husband, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Sr. The scholarship covers full tuition, fees, room, and board. It is awarded annually to a high-achieving Motorsports Engineering student (Purdue Engineering, 2026).

This is a meaningful detail. Al Unser Sr. was one of the most decorated drivers in IndyCar history, with four Indianapolis 500 wins (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987). His family chose to honor his legacy not by funding a trophy or a museum, but by paying for a Purdue Motorsports Engineering student's education. They understood that the next generation of the Indianapolis 500 lives in that classroom.

The Pathway

For an Indiana high school student interested in working in motorsports, the pathway is concrete:

1. High school years: Take the hardest math and science you can. Calculus, physics, chemistry. AP if available, dual-credit if available. Take a CAD or engineering elective if offered. Join the robotics club, the science Olympiad, or the auto shop. Participate in the High School evGrand Prix if your school has it.

2. Application: Apply to Purdue University's Motorsports Engineering program at the Indianapolis campus (you apply directly to the major). The Al Unser Sr. Legacy Scholarship is one of several scholarships available.

3. Freshman year: Direct admission to Motorsports Engineering. Take general engineering, math, and physics courses. Join Formula SAE, Baja SAE, Purdue Electric Racing, Purdue AI Racing, evGrand Prix, or Purdue Grand Prix as soon as possible.

4. Sophomore-Junior years: Take Motorsports-specific coursework (vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, data acquisition, race-car design). Complete at least one internship with an IndyCar, NASCAR, or major automotive team. The internships are guaranteed.

5. Senior year: Complete a capstone engineering project. Use the Purdue motorsports alumni network (often described by students as a literal job board for openings) to identify your first full-time engineering position.

6. First job: Walk straight into a paid engineering job at one of the most prestigious motorsports companies in the world. Or apply your transferable skills at SpaceX, Tesla, Cummins, Caterpillar, or any aerospace/automotive employer.

This is not theoretical. It is happening right now. The 2025 Indianapolis 500 had Purdue Boilermakers on every American-based team. The 2026 race will have even more.

If you are an Indiana high school student, this pathway is built for you. The seat is open. The bricks are laid. The faculty is in place. The Dallara Building is six miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The internships are guaranteed.

What you have to do is start walking.

Wrap-up

The kid who loved the Indianapolis 500 at age 8 and is now a systems engineer for Pato O'Ward at Arrow McLaren is named Lizzie Todd. She did not become an IndyCar engineer because she was the smartest kid in her class. She became an IndyCar engineer because she said yes to the path when it opened.

That path is open to you, right now, sitting in your high school in Indiana.

You do not have to be a genius. You do not have to be wealthy. You do not have to know somebody in the racing industry. You have to finish the hard math. The hard physics. The hard CAD class. The hard engineering elective. You have to apply to Purdue. You have to join Formula SAE or Baja SAE or the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation when you get there. You have to take the internships that the program guarantees. And then you have to walk into the pit box on race day and do your job.

One concrete action for this week:

"Find out if your school has an engineering club, a robotics team, a Formula SAE feeder, a STEM club, or a shop class. If it does, go to one meeting this week. If it doesn't, talk to a math or science teacher about starting one. Or look up Purdue's Motorsports Engineering program online. Take 20 minutes. The path opens when you walk toward it."

The Indianapolis 500 has 117 years of history. It has 3.2 million original paving bricks (most of them under asphalt). It has 33 cars on the starting grid. It has Memorial Day weekend. It has the milk in victory lane. It has the Yard of Bricks.

It also has, every single year, a few hundred Boilermakers working in pit boxes, in design rooms, in simulator labs, in machine shops, in engineering offices. Each one of those Boilermakers started somewhere. Most of them started in an Indiana high school like yours.

Three point two million bricks. Sixty-three days of construction in 1909. Four founders who refused to quit. A racetrack that became a laboratory. A laboratory that became a school. A school that produced the engineers who now build the cars that race at the laboratory. That circle, that is the real Indianapolis 500. And it has a seat with your name on it.

Sources

Chawla, N. (2024, November 6). Engineering at Purdue in Indianapolis. Faculty Affairs Committee Meeting Presentation. Purdue University. Retrieved from https://engineering.purdue.edu/Intranet/Groups/Committees/Faculty%20Affairs%20Committee/

Educational Advocates. (2025, June 2). Purdue Motorsports Engineering. Retrieved from https://www.educationaladvocates.com/purdue-motorsports-engineering/

Forward Pathway. (2025, April 24). Purdue University Indianapolis Mechanical Engineering: Motorsports edge and direct admission accelerate student success. Retrieved from https://www.forwardpathway.us/

Purdue Engineering. (n.d.). About Motorsports Engineering. Retrieved from https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSPE/About

Purdue Engineering. (2026, January 12). Al Unser's legacy to live on through Purdue Motorsports Engineering scholarship. Retrieved from https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME/News/2025/al-unsers-legacy-to-live-on-through-purdue-motorsports-engineering-scholarship

Purdue Exponent. (2022, April 23). Purdue Grand Prix: 'Greatest spectacle in college racing' returns with historical traditions. Retrieved from https://www.purdueexponent.org/

Purdue Future Engineers. (n.d.). Motorsports Engineering: 2023 graduate data. Retrieved from https://purdue.edu/futureengineers/motorsports-engineering

Purdue Grand Prix Foundation. (n.d.). History. Retrieved from https://www.purduegrandprix.org/history

Purdue Stories. (2025, March 5). Motorsports Engineering program is fueling the industry's future. Retrieved from https://stories.purdue.edu/motorsports-engineering-program-is-fueling-the-industrys-future/

Purdue Stories. (2025, April 29). Bringing a treasured Indy 500 tradition to the Purdue Grand Prix. Retrieved from https://stories.purdue.edu/bringing-a-treasured-indy-500-tradition-to-the-purdue-grand-prix/

Purdue Stories. (2025, May 9). Purdue's mark on the Indianapolis 500. Retrieved from https://stories.purdue.edu/topic/purdues-mark-on-the-indianapolis-500/

Purdue University Catalog. (2026). Program: Motorsports Engineering, BSMSPE (Indianapolis Only). Retrieved from https://catalog.purdue.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=17&poid=31999

WISH-TV. (2025, May 12). Boilermakers drive innovation in IndyCar racing. Month of May coverage. Retrieved from https://www.wishtv.com/monthofmay/purdue-alumni-impact-indianapolis-500/

WLFI. (2025). Purdue Grand Prix Track receives historic brick from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Retrieved from https://www.wlfi.com/news/local/purdue-grand-prix-track-receives-historic-brick-from-indianapolis-motor-speedway

WLFI. (2026). History of the Purdue Grand Prix. Retrieved from https://www.wlfi.com/news/history-of-the-purdue-grand-prix

Yahoo Sports / Lafayette Journal & Courier. (2025, March 13). Brick from original Indianapolis Motor Speedway race track laid at Purdue Grand Prix. Retrieved from https://sports.yahoo.com/

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