Chris Andrews: Purdue Motorsports pioneer
In motorsports, you often meet people who have “been there and done that.” Chris Andrews (BSIDE ’92) is one of those people. As a lifelong race engineer, and current technical lead of Vasser Sullivan’s IMSA sports car team, Chris has had an influence on stock cars, open wheel racing, and even Purdue’s own pioneering motorsports teams.
Chris Andrews’ racing journey began in southern Indiana with a family-run gas station, where he absorbed car culture from a young age. When he decided to pursue engineering, he only had one place in mind. “I kind of took it for granted that for engineering in Indiana, you go to Purdue,” he said, “but it was culture shock when I first got there. I remember meeting people from all over the country and all over the world, and that’s when I realized that people came a long way just to go to Purdue. This was a pretty big deal!”
The educational rigor quickly caught up to him, as he failed his first Thermodynamics class. “I wanted to quit my freshman year,” he said, laughing about it now. “The first time you fail at something, that’s a big life lesson. But I stuck it out, and did much better the second time. I’ve carried that lesson with me through my whole career in racing.”
Building the foundation
Purdue’s history of “giant leaps” often begins with “small steps.” So it’s only fitting that Purdue’s industry-leading motorsports program began with a homemade dune buggy.
“I saw these three or four guys building an off-road mini-Baja car in the basement of the Mechanical Engineering building,” remembers Chris. “I was hooked! The next year I helped to build the car, and drove it as well.”
The car was part of Baja SAE, a collegiate competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Although Purdue had competed in Baja for several years, they hadn’t yet fielded an entry in another SAE category: mini-Formula. So in 1992, Chris and some friends decided to build one.
“My roommates were ME students, and we all had part-time jobs in the machine shop,” Chris said. “Because we had keys to the shop, we would go in there and work until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning! Thankfully our faculty advisor, John Starkey, was very supportive.”
They took their student-built Formula car to a competition at the Ford Motor Company proving grounds in Dearborn, Michigan, where they raced against more than 50 other university teams. They turned in a respectable 11th place finish — not bad for a four-person team. “That experience of designing something from scratch, building it, testing it, and then competing with it? That was by far the highlight of my time at Purdue,” Chris said.
Climbing the ladder
Racing a homemade dune buggy is one thing. Turning that into a career is another challenge entirely.
“Everyone asks me: how do you get your first job in racing?” he said. “The answer is really to bug everyone you know, until someone gives you an opportunity to do anything!”
After knocking on the doors of multiple racing teams, manufacturers, and suppliers, he found an opportunity at a Florida-based company called Quantum Suspension Technology, who built and tested suspension parts for race teams. Before long, Chris was known as the “shock dyno guy,” making friends all over the racing world. He worked for a Trans-Am team in California, and then moved to North Carolina to help start a truck-racing team. That’s when Chris caught the attention of NASCAR powerhouse Richard Childress Racing (RCR). “When I talked to them on the phone,” he remembers, “I asked who their driver was going to be next year, and they said: Dale Earnhardt! No pressure there!”
Chris served in many roles at RCR, including test engineer and development engineer. Because of his Trans-Am experience, they asked him to design their road course car, which led to two wins in 2003 for driver Robby Gordon at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. A year later, Chris became Robby Gordon’s crew chief.
For Chris, the crew chief role took some getting used to. “As an engineer, you sit next to the crew chief and tell him: we need to stop for fuel here, or take some air out of the left rear tire,” he said. “Sometimes he does it, sometimes he doesn’t. But when you move three feet over from the engineer’s seat to the crew chief seat, now everything looks different. Now people are making the suggestions to you, and you have to make the decision. It’s a whole different perspective when you move just one seat over!”
In 2006, Chris moved on to another NASCAR team, Roush Fenway, where he eventually became Technical Director. “What’s funny is that Roush Fenway is a Ford shop,” Chris said, “so I spent a lot of time at Ford’s proving grounds at Dearborn. I could point right over there and say, ‘that’s where I first raced Purdue’s Formula SAE car!’ Everything comes full circle!”
The grand tour
Chris then decided to pivot into sports car racing. He is now a Lead Engineer for Vasser Sullivan, who race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series. “IMSA has some subtle differences from NASCAR,” Chris explained. “They have four classes of cars, which all race at the same time. NASCAR is a fixed number of laps, whereas IMSA races are all timed. And we have multiple drivers, so pit stops often include a driver swap.”
This means many more variables to account for. “You have to optimize the tires, you have to optimize the drivers, you have to optimize the pit stop strategy,” he explains. “But racing is racing. Everyone out there has four tires and four contact patches, and it’s still a matter of who can get there the quickest.”
For Chris and his team, the race weekend starts in the meeting room. “We typically plan two weeks before the race weekend,” he said. “We review the notes from last year’s race, and then do some simulation work to bounce some ideas around what the setup should be. Then once we get to the track and get some actual practice laps in, we confirm that we’re getting the fuel mileage numbers we need, and our tire pressures are all good. Then we go racing.”
During the race, Chris is taking in feedback from his team, and making decisions for what comes next. “I’m talking to my driver on one channel,” he said, “and then I’m talking to my strategist on another channel. Then I’m talking to the crew on another channel to tell them what to be ready to do next. And then I’m also talking to the other drivers to prepare them for their next shift. It’s a lot to manage.”
Compounding this challenge, many IMSA races are endurance events lasting upwards of 10, 12, or even 24 hours. “I’m up for the entire 24 hours,” laughs Chris. “At the start of the race, everyone’s excited about executing the plan. But by 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, it’s a challenge to stay focused. When the sun comes up, it gives everyone a jolt of energy, and then we finish the rest of the race on pure adrenaline. Afterwards, we all go to hotel rooms and crash!”
In 2023, Chris’ teammates at Vasser Sullivan won the IMSA championship in the GTD Pro class — the first ever sports car championship for their manufacturer, Lexus Racing. “It takes a lot of people to win a championship,” Chris said. “A lot of things have to go your way. Every year is a reset, and every year it gets more difficult. But that was definitely a lot of fun to be a part of.”
True passion
Through a multi-faceted career, Chris has demonstrated a true passion for motorsports. But he stresses that the road is not always easy. “If you want to go to work from 9:00 to 5:00 and have your weekends off, this isn’t the place for you!” he laughs. “But if you’re passionate about what you do, competitive, meticulous, detail-oriented — motorsports is a place where you can be rewarded for that.”
He also attributes his success to the skills he acquired as a Boilermaker. “In 1992, I never took a laptop to class — we took pen-and-paper notes on everything,” he said. “And guess what? Note-taking is a huge part of motorsports! Paying attention, solving problems, toughing it out when things get difficult, finding a way to make it happen — those are all things you learn at Purdue.”
Since that first mini-Formula race in 1992, Purdue Motorsports teams have experienced unparalleled success in off-road, combustion vehicles, electric vehicles, and even solar-powered and autonomous vehicles. Purdue now hosts the only accredited degree in motorsports engineering in the country, headquartered just steps from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Boilermakers are all over the racing world, including NASCAR crew chiefs Chris Gabehart and Jonathan Hassler; and Angela Ashmore, the first female crew member to win the Indy 500.
“I’ve worked with teams from 40 people to 400 people,” said Chris. “But to this day, the four guys building the Purdue Formula car in 1992 is still one of the best teams I’ve ever worked on. We were able to accomplish so much that year, working together as a team. I’m so proud that Purdue Motorsports is keeping that tradition of teamwork alive, and they are now getting the recognition they deserve.”
Writer: Jared Pike, jaredpike@purdue.edu, 765-496-0374