By alley - Mar 9, 2016, 4:25 PM ET

INDYCAR: Indy 500 prep continues for Grace Autosport

Grace Autosport owner Beth Paretta says a lack of recent updates should not be mistaken for a lack of progress. According to the former Fiat Chrysler executive, nothing has changed with the team's plans to make its debut at Indianapolis with driver Katherine Legge.

"I've been a little quiet lately because we've been busy working on a lot of deals behind the scenes," Paretta (pictured at left ABOVE, with Legge) told RACER. "Although some teams prefer to put out press releases every time they sign a sponsor, we've made the decision to hold some of those for bigger releases as we get closer to the race. Everything we've announced previously is unchanged, and we'll have more to announce soon."

Paretta, Legge, and some of the women expected to work for the team in a variety of crew-based capacities have been actively promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to young girls through Grace Autosport's educational initiative. From its participation at those STEM tradeshows and conventions, and general interest the female-driven team, it's believed Grace's commercial base has also been growing.

"This, for us, is a lot more than a race entry for the Indy 500," Paretta added. "We aren't just trying to put a team together to go do one race. It's a new race team, it's an educational platform, it's new partners, new sponsors, a whole media campaign to build, and it's 70 to 80 hours per week to make it happen and make it happen for more than the 100th Indy 500.

Everything we're trying to build is designed to start at Indy and grow and become more. There are a lot of moving parts, and personally, I've been working on it for 15 months to engage and sign sponsors, which we've done, to create a STEM program, which is a success already, to create a documentary series, which has been filming, and the racing part is a big component in all of that, but it isn't the only part of the equation. Everything we're doing is so Grace Autosport continues beyond this year's 500 to become a full-time racing team."