My Evening at Andretti Autosport

A sign in the race shop shows the team’s various technology sponsors.

Andretti Autosport certainly has racked up the wins over the years.

Here’s the team’s DMG Eco machine, one of two VMCs DMG/Mori Seiki provided.

IRL cars have a number of carbon-fiber parts. Some of these require milling and drilling. When this is performed, coolant is turned off and the operator uses a shop vac to collect the dust that is created during machining.

The team machines parts such as the ones shown at bottom-left for the six-speed gearboxes. It also uses its mills to lighten certain components.

A Speroni presetter from Big Kaiser is the latest equipment addition. It’s parked next to the team’s NV5000DCG vertical.

Here’s one of the components machined in that NV5000DCG.

The DuraTurn 2550MC has live tooling to allow milling and drilling of turned components the team creates.

The team doesn’t perform any machining on internal engine components. Per IRL rules, teams can’t even tune or alter engines in any way. Honda supplies identical, completed engines for each team to use. Plus, a Honda rep must be on hand whenever one is started…

…which is why the team retrofitted this old car model with an electric engine and uses it to practice pit stops. The car has a top speed of only 30 mph, but that’s good enough for practice.

The shop uses its 10-foot Faro Quantum arm (with both laser and touch probe) for a number of inspection operations. Here, the donated arm is being used in conjunction with torsion testing of car “tubs.”

Here’s a shot of that tub. For all the high-tech nature of IRL cars, it’s refreshing to see they still use Bondo for a smooth finish.

In-house spray booths are used to ensure a sleek paint finish.

Here’s an assembled gearbox/rear suspension assembly for an Andretti Autosport car being prepped for a “shake” test.

And here’s a jig the team uses to create its cars’ wishbones.

Luckily, yours truly got to meet the team’s boss, Michael Andretti.

Of course there is one of the team’s four team drivers I’d also like to meet at some point…

Finally, one can only assume this vise is used to hold parts for Danica’s car.