Essential IndyCar parts designed steps away from IMS

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Before IndyCars go to the grid on race day there’s a team of people making sure they’re built to a high standard.

A company located just steps away from the track produces several of the essential parts. When you’re reaching speeds of 230 miles an hour or more, it’s important to have a high-quality car.

The team of engineers at Dallara IndyCar factory is designing, building, and supporting some of the world’s top race cars.

“There’s a lot of machinery, but it’s still made by people and handmade parts,” said Dominic Coffey, a Design Engineer, and Technical Support for Dallara.

Day-to-day, Coffey is a designer. On race weekends, he’s out by the track providing technical support. That’s because Dallara is the exclusive supplier for the NTT IndyCar series, and sole chassis supplier for Indy NXT.

“For 27 cars on a race weekend, or 33 cars at the 500, we have to produce multiple times that of every part for every team to have their main car and their spares,” Coffey explained.

Suspension arms are built here, the chassis, body work, some wing pieces, carbon fiber radiator inlets and outlets, and much more.

Bryce Moore, the commercial and sales manager for Dallara said, “One of the big updates we came out with that the guys did a few years ago was a bigger headrest that goes into the cockpit.”

His team’s job is to ensure there’s stock, regardless of what happens on the track.

“The ER for the teams, right?” said Moore, “We’re there if things go bad, even from the business side and sales support side. We have to have inventory on our trailer to replenish teams’ inventory to get back out on the racetrack.”

While May is a special month, it’s extra special knowing this hard work, is local.

“When you go to the Indy 500 and you see the car in front of you, the number of hours not just from us, but from the teams that go into preparing that car to run that race, is amazing,” said Coffey.

Purdue University will be joining Dallara for a major expansion this year. The school’s nationally renowned motorsports program will be located at the facility. It will house space for classrooms, hands-on training, and testing for boilermakers studying motorsports engineering. There will be a groundbreaking later this month.