'A different mindset': Ganassi Racing paving way for more women to work in auto racing

Erin David’s passion for motorsports was ignited on a Sunday morning in 2022 when she watched her first Formula One race.

Two years later, the Ohio State junior is spending her summer working for one of the most successful IndyCar racing teams of all time as part of a program designed to create career opportunities for women in motor sports.

David, an Avon Lake native who majors in fitness, was among three students selected for the third Women In Motorsports Internship. Sponsored by Chip Ganassi Racing and PNC Bank, the two-month internship provides hands-on experience that may lead women to work in such motor sports fields as engineering, data analytics and human performance.

The goal, according to Ganassi Racing, is to promote equality and inclusion for women in a sport that has long been run by men.

“We're in a male-dominated sport,” six-time IndyCar champion and Ganassi driver Scott Dixon said. “It was vision from Chip, to have an initiative … to introduce a path for women to come into motor sports.

“As a team, you're really trying to find that next gain. If you've got the same people at the same process, you're not going to do that. Introducing woman to the team is huge; it's a different mindset.”

This week, David will join the team at the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with Ganassi starting five drivers on the grid.

She may be new to auto racing, but David always knew a passion for sports would steer her career path. After playing basketball and lacrosse, she became an athletic training aid for the Avon Lake High football team. She said she found fulfillment in helping other athletes achieve and maintain their physical peaks.

That led her to major in fitness at Ohio State, where she has already had the chance to work among elite athletes, including the Buckeye football team.

David was looking to build her skills with a summer internship when she came across the Ganassi opportunity. She almost did not apply because she thought it would focus more on engineering.

“I was reading through the application, and it said athletic training was part of it, and I thought that was so cool,” she said. “I had no idea how that fit into this sport.”

David beat out 150 other applicants to join Lucy Anderson from Elmhurst and Ali Jensen from Texas as the 2024 intern class.

With the internship running May 28-Aug. 2, David spends much of her days in the team’s performance center, a large gym at the Ganassi home base in Indianapolis. She works with the team’s performance trainers, developing workouts and helping with rehabilitation techniques.

Clinical athletic trainer Jason Morgan has been one of David’s mentors at the performance center, and he credited her with being teachable and a quick learner. Morgan said the internship has brought more women to the engineering side of the team, and he is excited for that impact to expand into his field.

“To get a female in the training room and work elbow-to-elbow with her has been a great experience,” he said. “We do a lot of hands-on, manual therapy, and she picks it right up.”

David also travels with the team to races like the Detroit Grand Prix and Mid-Ohio, where she works with the pit stop coach to help crews improve performance.

“The first thought about fitness would probably be the drivers, but, honestly, it's the whole crew,” Dixon said. “If anybody's got an issue, it's a big problem, but more so probably focusing on the pit crew. We have six or seven people, depending on the rotation, trying to change four tires and add almost 20 gallons of fuel less than seven seconds. It's a very physical portion of it.”

David also experiences that physicality firsthand, manning the “fire bottle” for Linus Lundqvist’s No. 8 car, spraying a mixture of water and fire-extinguishing agent during pit stop refueling to limit fire potential.

“It was really, really stressful but really cool,” she said with a grin.

David said she is not sure if her future lies in motor sports, but she will carry with her from the internship extraordinary experiences and a lesson that hard work pays off, especially in the sports industry.

“I just love the competitive atmosphere of it and working with these people,” she said. “They have so much passion for what they do. It's just a very cool to be around.”

Dixon, self-proclaimed “girl dad” to daughters Poppy and Tilly, said his passion for racing drives him to enthusiastically support the internship, since it is indicative of the vast opportunities that could be available to women across the industry.

“It’s endless really - from the driver side, to engineering, to human performance, to mechanics,” he said. “The whole idea of making it open to more women in the IndyCar paddock is huge.

“It's changed a lot already in a short period of time. That's something to be proud of, but there's a long ways to go.”

Chip Ganassi Racing and PNC Bank will open the 2025 application window around Sept. 1. Interested applicants can learn more and apply at ChipGanassiRacing.com/WIM.