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Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Accident can't diminish Richmond experience
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online
I was definitely looking forward to going to Richmond. We had tested there earlier this season and that gave us a starting point for the weekend, and that experience put us on the top of the speed charts early on. Richmond is really a handling racetrack and there are different lines that you can take around the track from your typical oval. Plus, both turns are completely different from each other and you really have to drive the car to make it work for you.
|  | | Sarah Fisher, left, and Jaques Lazier led the field out of the gate in the inaugural IRL race at Richmond. |
We had our first "incident" of the weekend in practice. I was coming around Turn 2 and the back end just stepped out. The car wasn't badly damaged at all; there were just a few pieces of suspension damage. The bad thing about that accident was that because the car didn't blow to pieces, my body absorbed a lot of the impact. In fact, I'm still a little bit sore from it!
Going to the hospital is almost a bigger deal than the accident itself. In these types of cars, if you even hint of pain, they send you there. That's definitely a credit to the great medical team the IRL has, headed up by Dr. Bock. They sent me to the hospital to get X-rays to make sure that nothing was wrong, and everything came back negative and I was cleared to drive.
When we went back out on the track the next day, we worked hard to get a good qualifying set up. Driving the car during qualifying was a lot of fun. That was the first time in a long time that I've had to actually "drive" a racecar as opposed to just putting the pedal to the floor. You have to get on the gas and get off the gas and work with the car to go fast there. That's one of the things I used to do a lot of when I was racing midgets and sprint cars.
We had an awesome car for qualifying and ended up starting on the front row. That's our best start to date. It was a great boost for our team. The only bad part was when we had put the fastest time on the board and had to sit around, waiting the rest of the time to see if someone would beat us. There were a lot of people running around saying "There's a girl on the pole," and I was telling everyone to "Stop, You're jinxing me. It's not over yet."
Then Jaques Lazier beat me and that was OK. He's a very cool guy to race with and it was kind of neat to see him beat me. It's kind of a different front row than you usually see at IRL races on the 1.5-mile ovals when qualifying is all motor.
Next up was the race. The start was great. I had a good run on Jaques and beat him around the corner, when I got my doors blown off by his brother Buddy Lazier. That was a lot of fun and I had a lot of experience starting on the front row in my earlier sprint and midget days, so I like to kind of play with the other guys' heads on starts when I'm up front. But there was no stopping Buddy. He's my hero -- he is the short oval master and I love to race with him and learn from him. He is awesome, and he proved it by winning the race that night.
On to the actual race: We hadn't done a whole lot of full-tank running during practice and I think that is what hurt us during the race. The car had a bad push during my first stop and didn't get much better. We ended up crashing in Turn 2 again and it pretty much totaled the car. If I have a car that ever handles like that again, I'll pull it into the pits and see what we can do to fix it instead of trying to drive it.
I'd like to mention that the fans at Richmond were fantastic. They are NASCAR fans that we are converting to IRL fans. I think the whole experience for them of being able to get up close and personal with the drivers and having them stop and talk to the fans was great. Our autograph session that we have at every race made a big impression and is definitely helping our fan base grow, so we look forward to going back there next year and making even more converts.
Now we're moving on to Kansas Speedway this weekend. It's the Indy Racing League's first stop there and this track is very similar to Kentucky Speedway, where we had our third-place finish last year, so hopefully that will be a good sign for this weekend.
IRL driver Sarah Fisher drives the No. 15 Walker Racing/Kroger Special. She pens a diary for ABC Sports Online throughout the season.
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 Buddy Lazier narrowly escapes a crash that takes out leaders Eliseo Salazar and Eddie Cheever.
avi: 1950 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Sarah Fisher hits the wall during practice for Saturday's IRL race in Richmond.
avi: 1860 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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