(Phoenix, March 23, 2003) Bringing home a top
ten finish, Sarah Fisher roared past a competitor on the final lap to finish in
the 8th position in today’s Purex Dial Indy 200 at Phoenix International
Raceway. The race nearly finished under caution, with only 2 laps of green
following a nasty accident involving Michael Andretti and Gil de Ferran.
The first race to carry the GM Upromise sponsorship saw Fisher riding in second
place for more than 20 laps before a pit error dropped her back in the field.
The team’s strategy was to try to keep things open with the fuel mileage
scenario, Chief engineer Mark Weida knew the team had to do three stops, and
simply tried to take advantage of the stops under yellow, hoping to run with the
leaders through the race.
“We knew when Kaanan came in that he was going to try to make it to the end,”
said Weida. “We stayed out, and the two of them ran away from everyone else, but
we had to stop again. We were 20 laps short of being able to finish the race.
Then I made a mistake and sent the car (out of the pits)—the car dropped and I
saw the left front guy pulling back. I didn’t realize he was pulling back to
pick up a dropped nut and so I sent the car without the tire fully attached. But
we rolled the car back, replaced the tire, got the car back out and hung tough
to finish eighth. We were a lot faster than most cars, especially on longer
runs.”
