If you ask most competitors what drives him or her every day, you might think the obvious answer is “winning.” And while that feeling is sweet and addictive, most of those competitors wouldn’t give that answer. In racing, of course, you’re only as good as your last result. 

No, the real motivator is the desire to improve, learn more, innovate and push boundaries. It’s how Lauren Sullivan, Lead Test Engineer at Arrow McLaren, has gotten to where she is and continues to define her path. She’s learned that lesson after being part of Indianapolis 500 victories the last two years. 

“You think you’ll be satisfied with your motorsport career once you reach that pinnacle, but you aren’t” Lauren says. “Winning, especially at the Indy 500, is surreal. But all it does is give you the hunger to want to do it again and take the process of how you got there and repeat it. Just because you figured it out once doesn’t mean it’ll happen again. Glory fades. The scoreboard starts over at the very next race.”  

Lauren joined Arrow McLaren earlier this year and has a hand in all forms of testing, such as  gear box,  straight line and wind tunnel testing, which is her favorite kind of testing. It's been a major point of interest from a young age, so much so that she and her Dad built a wind tunnel as part of a 5th-grade science project.

She utilizes her background in aerospace engineering and wind tunnel testing from her time at Boeing, where she worked on military aircraft, to form methodologies, testing operations and more. Lauren obviously didn’t take a linear path into motorsports, largely because she didn’t think a career was possible. She later came to find out, after a few searches on Google, that was not the case. 

“I finally realized that I don’t like airplanes, they’re kind of boring,” Lauren says. “But I love wind-tunnel testing, so I asked myself, ‘How do I keep doing this but without aircraft?’ And I had the thought, ‘What did you love growing up?’ I loved race cars.” 

Lauren started her motorsports career on the NASCAR side of Team Penske, fulfilling a childhood dream. She and her family were massive NASCAR fans when she was growing up, and they even operated a race team out of Irwindale, California that raced Super Late Model NASCARs. She later pivoted to the INDYCAR program under the female-led Paretta Autosport program, and she immediately fell in love with open-wheel racing after the 2021 Indianapolis 500. 

“My husband, who I’ve known since college, had always been a big open-wheel racing fan and had previously worked in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES,” Lauren says. “For years, he told me I’d be into this and I would tell him that I’m a stock car person, no way. I came back from the Indy 500 and I told him, ‘I really like INDYCAR.” 

This May, she’ll be pairing those two worlds together as she’ll be the Car Communicator for Kyle Larson and the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. It’ll be her first time working with Kyle and as a Car Communicator, a challenge that she calls “baptism by fire.” However, the challenge means much more than just the career opportunity. 

“I’m just hopeful this can be leveraged for making the dreams of many young girls a reality. And for those young girls, still looking for their, ‘What I want to be,’ maybe this will help reveal it.” 

While carving out her career in racing, Lauren has become a champion for women’s equality and empowerment. She recognizes the opportunity she has a woman in motorsports and tries to pay that forward whenever she can. 

“When I see a new female face in the paddock, I always try to introduce myself to them,” Lauren says. “I try to let them know who else is around, introduce them to others I know and help them get an understanding of the lay of the land.” 

Outreach and networking are keys for expanding female representation in the motorsports space, Lauren says. It’s so important to her that she’s taped a QR code on the back of her phone that directs new contacts to her LinkedIn profile and a specific personal outreach email address, where Lauren can build relationships and engage on a deeper level.  

And it’s not just making new connections with other women, but also keeping those relationships alive. Lauren noted that, while accepting defeat as a competitive person can be challenging, celebrating the success of other women around the paddock is important to empowering and elevating gender equality in the sport. 

“I’m always excited to see another woman find success, even if they are a competitor and they just kicked my butt on track,” Lauren says. “If I have that relationship with them, I try to make an intentional effort to congratulate them, and they’ve done the same to me. I heard from Kate Gundlach after the 2024 Indy 500, which took immense emotional strength on her part. Now it’s cool that we’re teammates.” 

Anyone that knows Lauren understands how fiercely competitive she is. From a technical side, mixing her love for STEM with a direct contribution to the outcome on the track scratches a competitive itch that few in the world get to do. She knows there are countless young women out there who feel the same way, making that woman-to-woman engagement with colleagues, students and young girls more meaningful. 

Lauren’s outreach has gone so far as to build a high-school curriculum centered around the world of racing. From car builds to operating under a budget and even sourcing kit and merchandise, the course offers a holistic view into motorsport and shows that there are countless ways to make an impact in motorsports. While the curriculum has been seldom used, it’s another example of how she wants to help build a diverse community in motorsports. 

“The depth of resource and innovation when you have a diverse work environment is so valuable,” Lauren says. “From gender to race to fields of study, you get to have such great discussions. You may have an idea and not know how to get there, but someone else can help you because of their experiences. I’ve realized that the more diverse the work force is, it’s easier to find solutions.” 

Lauren believes that gender equality in STEM careers and motorsports has come a long way, but there’s still progress to be made. While there’s increased representation of women around the paddock, the next step is to see upward growth and greater female representation in leadership positions.  

“We're starting to see more of an influx of women at lower and mid-level positions, but I think we need to start seeing that trickle upwards,” Lauren says. “Right now, I’m glad I found not only space to pursue that, but a seat at the table here at Arrow McLaren.” 

That seat at the table will have her in the ear of one of the most talented racers in the world in Kyle Larson. She feels like her background in both racing disciplines will make for more effective communication as she speaks both INDYCAR and NASCAR “languages.” That could be an impactful factor as Larson not only attempts “The Double,” but looks to claim an Indianapolis 500 victory. 

For Lauren, while that victory would be incredibly meaningful and rewarding, that wouldn’t be what matters most. It’s the journey and the impact she makes on others that counts.