After sitting out the first two street course races at St. Petersburg and Long Beach, Sarah Fisher will return to the IndyCar Series for this weekend’s Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway. Owner/driver Frisher will be at the wheel of the No. 67 Dollar General Dallara-Honda. Sarah Fisher Racing is running a limited schedule of races that will include Indianapolis, Kentucky and Chicago in addition to Kansas.
“I’m very excited,” said Fisher. “It’s like you stare at a car all winter long and come in here every day and just make things happen, and there’s so much more to running a business than I ever knew existed. So, looking forward to this weekend, and knowing that I’ll be in that racecar, that’s probably my most relaxing time as an athlete. I just really enjoy that.
“I really enjoy working with Tom Brown, our engineer, and of course my husband, Andy (O’Gara), who runs our team. It’s just the most rewarding time, and I can’t wait.”
While Fisher’s team has missed the opening races, she emphasizes that she’s been working all out to prepare her team for Kansas and the month of May at Indianapolis.
“I think a lot of people think I just sit around all day and do nothing, but my schedule is completely full,” she said. “It’s just a balance of what is the most important thing that you have to get done that day and then taking that hour, hour and a half to work out and keep yourself in shape because that will mentally prepare you for all the rest of the stuff. Whether it’s business stuff that you have to handle or a personal appearance that a driver would normally do, I do all those things. Yesterday it was helping get the bus ready and making sure that everybody in the shop has something to eat that day. We’re short-staffed, so everybody has to be all hands on deck right now, and that includes me.”
Fisher reckons her Dollar General squad is poised to offer a top-10 challenge to the IndyCar Series regulars at Indy.
“We’re as prepared as we ever have been today,” she declared. “It’s just a very nicely prepared car. Everything on it we know 100 percent about and are just completely prepared for. We’ve done our homework in the off-season, I believe, as much as we can, and we’re looking forward to Indy. I think we’re going to have a good result, and I would be pretty upset if we were outside of the top 10. I fully expect us to do that well, even as a small team that doesn’t compete full-time.”