Penske’s Caitlyn Brown becomes first female crew member to win Indy 500

The mention of Caitlyn Brown’s name made Team Penske president Tim Cindric smile.

Josef Newgarden’s left-front tire changer, a history maker as the first known woman to win the Indy 500 as a member of the over-the-wall tire-changing pit crew, earned her stripes in the toughest team in the IndyCar Series. Her ascension since arriving in IndyCar as a rookie in 2021 — as part of Beth Paretta’s women-led Paretta Autosport Indy 500 team—as a young employee attached to Penske NASCAR program to earning the trust of the No. 2 Chevy crew to go from backup tire changer to a frontline team member in less than two years is wholly impressive.

“She came to us on the NASCAR program and just wanted to work on race cars,” Cindric said. “When Beth Paretta’s program started up here, we told everybody internally what was happening there and wanted to know if there were any females that wanted to be part of that program, and she was the first one to raise her hand and say

Full Story »