In my last post I alluded to having some different options for 2023. There turned out to be even more than I knew when I wrote that, though I was already aware of the one that I ultimately chose for this year. Before Christmas in December, I moved out of Cornelius (North Carolina) and sent my belongings to Indianapolis, where they still live in a storage unit somewhere in the city. After a couple of weeks at home for Christmas I drove myself to Indy, where I have started working for the McLaren IndyCar team. I am the Performance Engineer on the #7 car, driven by Alexander Rossi. The main hope for me is that this will offer a little better life balance (16 race weekends rather than 38 in NASCAR). Additionally there are things about how the team is structured that I think will be more motivating for me professionally. And lastly, it’s much closer to the cottage!
After a little over a week of trying to settle into Indy a little bit, myself and a couple of co-workers went down to the Chili Bowl for a couple of days. While it wasn’t as long as I had hoped to be there, it was great to be back for the first time since 2020…. It felt like it had been forever. We made it to a C-main on Saturday, which isn’t bad, but the quest for the A-main continues…
Last week IndyCar had it’s first on track action of the year, we had a two day test at Thermal Club which is just outside of Palm Springs, California. It was interesting, I still have a lot to learn but I am starting to get my feet underneath me. We have another test the week after next at Sebring, so another chance to learn and figure some things out. And Sebring is one of the big tracks that I haven’t actually been to yet, so it will be good to get that crossed off my list!
Plutoe Engineering 
Ryan, a great start to the year. Good luck with the new team.