WTHR NBC Indianapolis: Sarah will be a daily sports analyst for
Channel 13 at 5:50 with Dave Calabro.
Most Popular Driver Voting: Be sure to stop by the IRL Crew tent
every day you are at the track to vote for your favorite driver in the
IRL IndyCar Series.
Checkers/Rally's: Sarah Fisher Collectible Cup on Sale now!
here
Sponsors: Please take a few minutes to thank all of our sponsors
here |
Sun, May 30
 Due
to rain, the race started just over two hours late. The race was
then red flagged on Lap 29 because of rain. After the all the rain
delays, Sarah landed in the 21st position under yellow. Although
Sarah drove a steady race, she had problems with an interloper on her
radio frequency. Sarah was
three laps down from winner and pole sitter Buddy Rice. Rice and
13 others were on the lead lap completing 180 laps of 200 at the
speedway.
Teammate Scott Sharp finished in the 13th position and on the lead lap.
“I’m glad that the Bryant team finished and everybody here at Kelley
Racing prepared the first class equipment and they have first class
people. To bring a crew in who has never worked together and to just gel
like they did to produce the pit stops they did was awesome. They did an
awesome job. I just wish we were faster. We trimmed it out the last half
of the race. We trimmed the wing down but we were running flat and
that’s all she had. We started to trim it out just playing with the
draft. I wish we would’ve been faster but there are a lot of things out
of your
control as a driver. Kelley Racing has done a nice job of putting first
class equipment together so
we’re going back happy with what we achieved.” |
Thurs, May 27
 Miller
Lite Carb Day is the final day of practice before the 500 mile race and
Sarah was out on the track fine-tuning her car. She only completed
11 laps with speeds of 208. 861 good for the 32nd position on the speed
charts. After the practice session, she was back out on the track
leading a parade of vintage Indy-style cars around the track. She
was driving the No. 61 Bryant Heating and Cooling Systems car which was
the same car in the 1958 Indy 500. Sarah also helped
Checkers/Rally's present The Cure Autism Now foundation with a check for
$100,000. Helping Sarah hold the check is Cure Autism Now
Ambassador Anthony Edwards. Edwards is the former 'Mark Greene' on
NBC's popular television show "ER." Other celebrities out at the
track today included
 actor
Morgan Freeman, "Newlyweds" star & husband of Jessica Simpson, Nick
Lachey, Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson’s movie,
“The Passion of the Christ,” and Indianapolis native Rupert Boneham, of
CBS's hit reality television show "Survivor."
“Our goal was to see how the car is and with a little less pressure
today we had a little bit less down force. The car is pretty comfortable
and I’m sure I can drive it for 500 miles. It’s not as fast as we want
but we’re going to deal with what we’ve got. I think the day you’re not
nervous for the Indianapolis 500 is the day you should retire. The
Indianapolis 500 is all about strategy and luck and even though they
change things you still have to plan,” said Sarah. |
Sat, May 22
Sarah completed 94 laps good for the 19th position with speeds reaching
213.323
“I think we’ve been pretty good today. I feel pretty comfortable, really
comfortable in the car by myself. In traffic we just have to use the
tools in the car to get the car to handle how I want it to. When I can
achieve that, the car will be great in traffic. I’m pretty comfortable
where I’m at and I think we’re ready to go. We didn’t have any miles
left on the engine so we’re not going to run tomorrow, next time we go
out will be Carburetion Day.” |
Fri, May 21
Sarah completed 49 laps with speeds reaching 212.637 in the 25th
position.
“We basically base-lined the car this morning and then went out this
afternoon and made a big change. It wasn’t quite what we wanted from the
car so we were going to try and go back on that change for the last part
of the session and just didn’t get done in time. We’re trying to work on
getting a fast race car.” |
Thur, May 20
 Sarah
didn't make it out onto the track until late in the afternoon and
completed 78 laps with speeds of 212.030 in the 25th position.
“Today we made progress as far as the comfortableness of the car. We got
a little bit faster at the end and the car is running well. You have to
have a race car that is underneath of you. I’m not going to trim it out
like we did last year to run closer to the same speed. I’m going to have
a good race car and be there at the end.” |
Wed, May 19
 Sarah
ran a total of 78 laps reaching speeds of 213.672 good for the 22nd
position on the speed charts.
“Today we worked all day on the race setup. I’m not real happy with the
car yet. There’s still some room for improvement. We ran in the heat of
the day, which we’re expecting for race day. It allowed us to see how
the high temperatures affect the car and we’re trying to figure
everything out for race day.” |
Sat, May 15
Pictures
 Sarah
qualified for her fifth Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average of
215.771 good for the 19th position on the grid on the inside of row
seven. Buddy rice took the pole with a four-lap
average of 222.024. It is of note that Honda took the top eight of
nine positions on the speed chart during qualifications. There
were a hand full of notable figures at the speedway today--among them
REO Speedwagon members as well as Ashley Judd.
“I thought it was all right. You always want to be a little bit faster,
no matter how fast you are. And I’m sure Buddy Rice wants to be faster
than what he did. I’m very thankful at this stage to be with
 Kelley
Racing. To have one job a year is pretty stressful and to be out of the
car but to be invited back is really an honor. We’ve been working a lot
on race setup. I want a comfortable car; I want to be able to go out
there and put the hammer down on Race Day and hopefully be in the top 10
at the end of 500 (miles). That’s my goal, and we’ve got ‘em in the
field, and we’ve got step one accomplished.” (About the challenge of the
colder weather and the new track today): “I drew number 60 so I
qualified toward the back. It really wasn’t a challenge. There’s so much
math in these cars that you can figure out how to have the same race car
from a sunny day to a cold, dark, damp day. With a little bit o f that
math and a little bit of confidence and knowing where you’re car is at
and that it’s stable enough to take those changes, it really didn’t
affect us much. If anything, it made it a little better.”
“Pole day is great and everyone wants to win but it’s all about putting
the best racecar on the track and doing the best we can on May 30th. I
think we’ve had a great effort with the Bryant/CAN for the laps we got
in this week. Now we’re focused on the race car and we’ll have a great
car at the end of the month. The biggest obstacle was getting on the
track. Having the first race coming back be the Indianapolis 500 is
difficult for anybody. We wanted to have a slow progression and get
faster and faster and we were able to do that.” |
Fri, May 14
 Today's practice session was cancelled after just five minutes of
practice with Sarah completing six total laps. There were less
than ten cars that were able to complete laps with Sarah having the
fastest time with 212.616. Today’s fast lap by Sarah Fisher is the
first time ever that a woman has been the fastest in practice at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sarah will attempt to qualify for the
88th running of the Indianapolis 500. Her positions are: No. 39=
60th, No. 39T= 36
“There is nothing better than getting laps in at the Speedway and in the
last two days I think we’ve gotten maybe 12 laps combined. So it’s been
tough to sit and watch and just hang out in the engineering office. We
have learned some things in the first couple of days on track that we
need to transfer to our qualifying set up. I’m pretty disappointed that
we didn’t get to run today, I was looking forward to at least getting an
hour on track to try some of the things that we have learned. But hey,
we’ve got tomorrow morning to practice and nothing says we have to go
out immediately and qualify. We’ll see what happens.” |
Thur, May 13
 Rough
day at the track for team Kelley Racing drivers Scott Sharp and Sarah
Fisher. After a four hour rain delay--Sarah was only able to
get in 6 laps with speeds of 208.667. Teammate Scott Sharp reached
speeds of 217.183 but crashed late in the afternoon.
“We didn’t get a whole lot done today with the Bryant/CAN car. We did an
installation check this afternoon and then we tried to do one outing and
had an engine problem and Toyota wanted us to make an engine change. We
then came back out late in the day and did our install check and were
preparing for a run when my teammate (Scott Sharp) didn’t fare so well.
At least we know that we’ve got our engine installed with no leaks and
we’re good to go for tomorrow.” |
Wed, May 12- Audio
here
 Sarah
and Team Kelly Racing moved back on the speed charts posting only speeds
reaching 213.671 which filled the 27th position on the speed charts.
Teammate Scott Sharp: 217.975.
“Today we were kind of lost in the morning and we were chasing things.
This afternoon we came back out at the end of the day to do some full
tank runs and really had a good car. We found out some things at the end
of the day that were spectacular. So we are definitely looking forward
to running the car with those changes on it and I think we will be in
good shape.”
Photo Gallery: Check out photos from the practice session
here |
Tue, May 11
 Sarah completed 78 laps today with speeds reaching 216.069 good
for the 23rd position on the speed charts. Teammate Scott Sharp
hit speeds of 216.787.
“We kind of got lost after coming back out this afternoon. We tried some
splits and springs, but we aren't to the point of fine-tuning yet. We're
still trying to get something that is fast and consistent and everything
all in one package. We had to backtrack a little bit on some of the
changes we made, but I think we made good progress. We were fighting the
wind in our last outing and despite that, we were still consistent.” |
Mon, May 10
Again today, Sarah was able to complete 63 trouble-free laps at the IMS.
She finished out in the 27th position posting speeds slower then
yesterday at 215.004 while teammate Scott Sharp was at 218.559 in the
9th position.
“Today seemed like a struggle for the Bryant/CAN team. We had a
car that was workable this morning and this afternoon we just kind of
struggled along with it a little bit. We finally got a handle on it in
the last couple outings of the day. The car was much more drivable and
consistent at the end of the day and that is our focus for right now, to
be consistent. I think once we have that, the speed will follow. In
analyzing where we’ve come from we’ve gained a mile per hour each day
and if we can continue to do that we’ll be in good shape on Saturday.” |
Sun, May 9 (Mother's Day)
Indianapolis Star Opening Day
  Sarah,
driver of the No. 39 Bryant/CAN/Dallara/Toyota/Firestone entry,
completed 63 trouble-free laps today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
She ended the day in the 18th position with speeds reaching 215.358,
just behind teammate Scott Sharp, 215.637.
Sarah was the first one to take the track in honor of Mother's Day as her
mom was given the privilege of waving the green flag (story).
“Today we got off to a little bit of a rough start. We started off quite
a bit different from where we had been at the open test. This afternoon
we got a little frustrated with that and went back about halfway on what
we had been running at the test and it was a huge change. We got the car
back to a good position but we only had 20 or 30 minutes to tune on that
package so we’ve still got some work to do. It was a rough start today
but at least we ended the day on a good note” said Sarah. |
88th Indy 500
