Annual race day photo tells the growing story of women having impact on Indy 500 results

INDIANAPOLIS – In the same place where “Gentlemen, start your engines” became a thing, a few dozen women will assemble Sunday for a photo at the Indy 500 scoring pylon.

Just after the last notes of the national anthem, a group of female engineers, mechanics and high-level managers will scurry over for an annual pose that has become a figurative and literal snapshot of the progress for gender equity at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Eight years ago, there were three women in the inaugural photo.

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There might be 10 times as many before the 107th Indy 500 – and several of them could play a key role in which driver is swigging milk while being cheered by 300,000 as champion of the world’s biggest race.

Last year, Angela Ashmore, the support engineer who calculates fuel strategy for Marcus Ericsson, became the first woman on a team that won the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.   This year, it could be Anna Chatten, the gearbox mechanic for six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon. Or Kate Gundlach, a lead performance engineer for Arrow McLaren (which qualified all four of its cars in the first four rows).

“That’s been a really cool evolution to see how that’s transpired,” Chatten, who has worked on Indy 500 teams for 20 years, told NBC Sports. “I wish it was moving at an even faster rate, but it is definitely is progressing in a forward direction. I can’t stress enough when I first started in this business, I definitely was made to feel like it was a privilege that I got to even participate. Now we don’t just participate. We’re here improving performance now. That’s been the