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Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Running out of luck on my home track
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online
My work for the race at Kentucky Speedway started on the Sunday before the race. Since Kentucky is kind of my "home" track, I did a lot of promotions prior to the race. The first one was at Kings Island, the big amusement park in Cincinnati. I signed autographs for two hours on Sunday afternoon and got to go on all the rides afterward as a bonus.
|  | | Sarah Fisher endured another tough week, finishing 19th at Sunday's Belterra Casino Indy 300. |
Next up on the agenda were two appearances on behalf of Firestone at Car Care Centers in Louisville and Cincinnati. I give presentations about car care to adults and Girl Scouts across the country at many of the cities we race in. We had a great turnout of Girl Scouts on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll be doing this again in St. Louis on Aug. 21 and 22. Check our Walker Racing website later in the week for the exact locations (www.walkerracing.com).
On Thursday, I participated in the Indy Racing League's media day. The track did an excellent job of getting a lot of media there even with competing events around Kentucky. After the media interviews, Greg Ray, Eliseo Salazar and I gave media pace car rides. This was my first chance to actually drive on the track after modifications were made to the surface to make it smooth for us to drive on, and I was very happy with the work they did. The track was very drivable and I'd like to thank Kentucky Speedway for all the hard work they did.
Thursday evening, I had a Kroger autograph session in Louisville and we got back pretty late, just enough time to grab dinner and hit the sack before the race weekend began.
Friday was our first practice day and also our first race weekend with new IRL team manager Tim Bumps. We got our game plan for the race in order and started working on our race setup. By the end of the day, we had a pretty solid racecar under us and it seemed like our entire team and Tim were working together very well. The IRL had mandated a 12-degree wing angle for this race so all the data we had from our testing earlier in the season and last year was not very usable, so we were pretty much starting from scratch.
We had a final practice session on Saturday morning before qualifying and the changes we had made to the car the evening before made it less comfortable for me to drive, so right before qualifying, we went back to the way the car was in practice on Friday. During qualifying, the car was comfortable to drive, but we were definitely missing something because we ended up 20th.
After that, I participated along with all the other IRL drivers in the taping of the ABC driver intros. That is always fun, and this time they had Scott Sharp as the driver who introduces the field. I got to do a little "bit" with Jason Priestley in the intro about Scott that was pretty humorous, if you happened to see it. I'm sure Scott will get me back soon.
On raceday, the Kentucky Speedway hosted a fan brunch and all the drivers signed autographs for an hour, from 10-11 a.m. We had a terrific turnout that included a lot of kids, which I always love to see. My dad Dave brought his Sarah Fisher merchandise trailer to the Kentucky track, and it seems like he's been selling a lot of T-shirts and hats because I signed a lot of them during the session.
Since this track is close to where I grew up, a lot of my family came down for the race. I got to see my grandma Grendel (Mom's mom), my Fisher grandparents and several other relatives came as well. It's great to have family support like that.
After the autograph session, I started to get ready for the race. We had our final team meeting to discuss our strategy and then the drivers' meeting. After that, I cleaned and prepared my helmet and made sure I had plenty of tear-offs on it for the race. Then, I got dressed in my uniform and just chilled, so I could focus on the job ahead.
When the race started, my car was pretty comfortable and we only made a small wing change adjustment on the first pit stop. The guys did a great job on the pit stops as always and we made up a couple of positions on the rest of the field. My car stayed consistently stable throughout the race; we just weren't very fast. We were making steady progress until our last pit stop on Lap 154 when I broke the gearbox on the way out of the pits.
I feel bad for the guys and all the hard work they did during the weekend. On the good side, our team is jelling well together with our new staff addition and we are making steady progress in the right direction.
We had a good test at St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, and I'm looking forward to going back there. That track reminds me of Richmond. It's a driver's track, and we will do well there.
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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