IT’S KIND OF A FLEX TO ASK your first engineering questions in the race shop.
Even before Rose-Hulman and General Motors, Mandy Chick Gregory was raised in a family where motorsports were a weekend activity. Her father and grandfather built engines and cars, raced before she did, and owned a NASCAR truck team from 2001 to 2006.
“I grew up around racing. It’s in my blood,” she said. “It was something that started in my family early on. I’m a third-generation racer.”
By the time she was 12, Gregory was already working on her own race cars and getting hands on experience. It was a big leap at such a young age, but she decided that if she was going to race in it, she needed to understand it.
“Seeing our subsystems and doing the routine maintenance, I started to ask those typical engineering questions: Why is it designed this way? Why did we have this failure? What can we do better next time?” Gregory said. “That’s really where my passion for engineering sparked.”
While it started out as a way to get better at racing, engineering gradually became a passion of its own. Gregory was already thinking about a degree in her early teens, and had her first college tour at 14.
“The funny thing about my racing is it was always my plan A. I wanted to make it to NASCAR,” Gregory said. “My plan B was, I wanted to get my engineering degree either way, but my backup was to be an engineer.”
At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the backup plan started looking a lot more like the future. That’s not to say it was an easy path. There are glass ceilings for women in both racing and engineering, and though she’d grown up around that reality and could stand her ground, arriving at Rose-Hulman brought a different kind of challenge: being surrounded by people who were also incredibly capable.
“My first week of classes was coming to terms with the fact that my whole life I was top of my class, and then I’m dumped into this classroom and I’m the dumbest one there,” Gregory said.
She understands imposter syndrome and the mind games it can play on young people. What helped for her was reframing the room. “You have unique strengths that a lot of other people don’t, and likewise, they have the same,” she said. “You all have a piece of the puzzle to bring to the table.”
Even though the coursework was rigorous, her love for the field grew. At the same time, she was also seeing how hard it could be to sustain a racing career long term, especially with the funding demands and hustle-and-bustle nature of the sport.
“I felt like if I went into NASCAR, my only focus would be driving, and I want to be more heavily involved in my racing than that,” she said. “It was important to me that the engineering side remains.”
If Gregory could choose one race from history, she would be in Lee Petty’s seat for the inaugural Daytona 500 and its famous photo finish. “I’ve been to Daytona, it’s incredible.” In fact, she had her own photo finish there. In her free time, she’s currently reading All Corvettes Are Red.
“A lot of engineers are ‘type A’ and self-conscious, and they want everything to go right. It’s not always going to go right. There are going to be hiccups and things, and you just have to be prepared for that and be agile and adapt. I would transition to say to young racers: Sometimes you have to do the work yourself to fully appreciate the whole journey. Be involved and be present—it makes for a better racer.”
—Mandy Chick Gregory, TRACK Assistant Program Engineering Manager, General Motors
Photo: Jack Kessler
Born to Race, Made to Engineer
Gregory applied for internships. She worked with Toyota Material Handling and then General Motors, and as she saw more of the profession, she also began to see engineering as more than an extension of racing.
“That’s really where I started to love engineering for what it is and not for where I came from,” she said. “I’ll always appreciate learning about it in the race shop, but when I got into the field, I started to see the impact that we have here.”
Today, Gregory works as assistant program engineering manager for Corvette at General Motors, a role she started in March 2026.
“I am blown away every day by the incredible people I work with and the team and how smart they are,” Gregory said. “It’s really cool to see so many people that are performance-focused and passionate about that space.”
And she’s far from being the only racer in the room. She was surprised by how many racers work at GM, especially on the Corvette team, and how much customer knowledge and racing experience they bring to the work.
Her role sits between all of the little functions, she said, going between engineering and the plant and development. Changes have to move smoothly, people need to be informed, and problems have to be solved in ways that satisfy the right technical and business needs.
The environment is high-pressure, she said, but one of the lessons she’s learned is that technical alignment often starts with personal connection. Getting people on the same page first and getting to know them on a personal level has to happen before problems can be solved.
“Everyone has a life outside of work that they’re proud of,” Gregory said. “If we don’t know each other personally, we can’t really work toward a common ground very well.”
Photo: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology/Bryan Cantwell
Off the Clock
Gregory still races pro late models in a semi-regional touring series across parts of the Midwest. It keeps her close to a challenge she cares deeply about: making sure grassroots racers are not priced out of the sport.
“On a personal level with my team, we’ve been working with the series for an engine rule—that they have to make different manufacturer engines equivalent, and give different options for pricing structures,” she said.
Innovation comes with cost, and that can make it harder for smaller teams to stay competitive. She’s especially interested in the question of how to keep racing affordable while still allowing technology to move forward.
“We still want those engines to be competitive and up to par and fast. How does innovation intersect with affordability for smaller teams?” she said. “That’s something that I’m kind of on a mission right now to figure out.”
It connects back to a personal story of how her family sold their NASCAR team back in 2006, primarily due to lack of sponsorship.
Gregory is eager to support up-and-coming racers and is happy to be a resource for others, even giving out her personal phone number, especially to young women who reach out with questions.
Her advice to young racers is simple: be involved in your own racing.
“Always figure out how to do everything yourself, because it makes for a better racer,” Gregory said. “Sometimes you have to do the work yourself to fully appreciate the whole journey.”
Sarah Alburakeh is strategic content editor.
© 2026 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.