Veteran Arrow McLaren race engineer Robert Gue is departing the team. His decision to accept an engineering role at another team comes one month shy of his 15th anniversary with the program he joined when it was known as Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
As Gue informed Arrow McLaren of his decision to step away from engineering the No. 6 Chevy driven by rookie Nolan Siegel at the end of the season, the timing of the notification — with five races left to run — led Arrow McLaren leadership to accelerate the change; Gue is not with the team for this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
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On the timing stand for Siegel at WWTR is a prime acquisition for Arrow McLaren with 2015 Indianapolis 500-winning race engineer Brian Campe. After building his reputation in Team Penske’s NASCAR programs, Campe joined its IndyCar effort as race engineer for Juan Montoya, and together they won Indy and ended 2015 tied for the championship with Scott Dixon; the Chip Ganassi Racing driver won the title based on better lower finishes.
Campe would shift to the car of Penske newcomer Josef Newgarden in 2017, where they won the IndyCar championship on their first try. While there, he got to know Gavin Ward, who would take over the engineering reins for Newgarden and win a title together in 2019. After 12 years with Penske, heading back to NASCAR with Hendrick in 2022 was next on Campe’s list.
He made a brief return to IndyCar this year as part of Hendrick Motorsports’ partnership with Arrow McLaren to field an entry for NASCAR champion Kyle Larson in May, and while Campe was not tasked with engineering the car, his influence on the effort — as a bridge between the organizations and as Larson’s race strategist — gave Arrow McLaren a deep look at his array of talents. It also brought Campe back together with Ward, who left Penske and was named as Arrow McLaren team principal in 2023.
Campe’s decision to leave Hendrick and help Arrow McLaren stabilize its No. 6 engineering squad should benefit Siegel in the short term, but Campe’s long-term role in the organization has yet to be defined. RACER understands the team will wait to appoint a permanent race engineer for Siegel’s car as its existing assistant and performance engineers throughout its three-car program will also get a shot at the job for 2025.