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Friday, December 13, 2002
It's fun to be first
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online

We headed into the two-day Kentucky Speedway race weekend with one advantage we hadn't had for most of this season -- we were able to test here the week before, our first test since my first race at Nazareth when I substituted for Robbie.

SARAH FISHER

Car: No. 23
Team: Allegra/Dreyer and Reinbold
Hometown: Commercial Point, Ohio
IRL starts: 29
Best start: 1st (Kentucky, 8/11/02)
Best finish: 2nd (Homestead, 4/8/01)

Testing is definitely a benefit since you can try some different things with the car that you don't have time to do when you are under the time crunch of a race weekend, so we felt very well prepared when we arrived on Friday. The difference that testing makes is remarkable.

Without the benefit of pre-race testing, normally you either unload the car fast or you unload the car slow. At Kentucky, we were lucky that even when we hit the track for the first time, we were P1 (fastest car of the session) on the board, even though we had full fuel tanks and were just leaving off where the test the past week had left us.

We had two practice sessions on Saturday and were pretty confident that we had the car to beat for qualifying that evening. The one thing we could do on Saturday that I was proud of the most was that we were on the top of the board all day long. We weren't just fast, we were consistently fast.

However, when it was our turn to qualify, the track surface was very slippery and there was no grip due to the very different rubber that had been laid down the session before from the stock cars who were also running. I took my two warmup laps and didn't feel comfortable taking the green flag with the way the car was handling, so I radioed back to my engineer Mark Weida that we should wave off and try again later and for me, making that decision was a bit tricky as it was the first time I had to do so.

When I got back to the pits, we were at the end of the line of cars that would be going out to qualify. Plus I would only get one green flag lap to get a really fast speed instead of the usual two because I waved off the first time. That's the way the rules are written in the IRL.

I sat in my racecar and waited for the chance to go out again and just focused on what I was going to do on my one lap. Mark and the team added more front wing to the car to make it more stable, plus I'd have the advantage of the other cars in front of me laying down some good rubber on the track. I was a little anxious about making sure we'd have enough time to go out again, because another IRL rule is that there is only a limited time frame that you have to qualify in, but we made it back out on the track in time, and my car was great.


	Sarah Fisher led the first 26 laps of the Belterra Casino 300.

I knew what Billy Boat's fast time was since he was the provisional pole-sitter and I watched my steering wheel readout so I'd do my best to go faster. The car was great and we were faster than Billy, but had to wait until everyone else in line went to make sure the time held up -- that was really nerve-wracking, plus there were lots of photographers and video cameras in my face while we waited it out, which didn't help the nerves much.

By the time the last car took the checkered flag, we knew we had the pole and it felt great for my entire Dreyer & Reinbold team.

I hugged and high-fived my dad, mom, owners Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl, my engineer Mark Weida and all my guys including crew chief Dan Miller, DAG Jason Lucas, Brian Franzosi, Russ Marr, Andy O'Gara, Mark Talafario, Mark Jr. Talafario, spotter Tony Hirschman and Brian's dad. It was very cool -- as were my two pole trophies, the MBNA Silver Trophy that I didn't let anyone else touch and the one from Kentucky Speedway. We put both of them on display in our transporter that night so everyone could share in the celebration and after the pole winner's press conference, many print, television and radio interviews, we left the track at 8:30 that night, ate a quick dinner at the Belterra Hotel and went straight to bed.

When I got to the track on Race Day, we put the trophies away -- it was a new day and there was a new goal to focus on, winning the race. Final practice went fine until the last couple of minutes. I could smell oil and radioed that information in to the crew and then the car lost power. I brought it in and it was leaking oil all over the track and the pits. The team put a diaper on it and we took it back to the garage, hoping it was something that could easily be fixed, which it was -- just an oil fitting which had come off. My crew fixed it and we were ready to race.

The time until the race began went very fast. In addition to practice that morning, I did a suite visit for a client of my sponsor Raybestos, met a radio contest winner, did several interviews and then relaxed for about a half-hour before driver intros. It was neat to be the last driver to be introduced and then the ride up to the starting grid was memorable too -- it's fun to be first.

Billy Boat and I talked about the start of the race at driver intros and we both agreed on what we would do when the green flag dropped and we both held to that script. I was able to get through the turn first and stayed down alongside the white line to lead the first lap. We actually led 26 laps of the race and were picking up approximately two seconds on the second place car with each lap that we ran until the first pit stop, which came under yellow. Our guys did a great job of changing all four tires quickly and adding some front wing, but we had a problem with the fuel hose dispersing the fuel quickly enough, which set us back in the field.

Throughout the day, we battled a pretty severe push in the car that got better each time I came in for a stop, but we put a little too much wing in at the last stop which made the car too loose and I lost the lead pack of guys I'd been racing with the entire day. I had a great two-way battle going on with Alex Barron for several laps towards the end of the race, which was fun. I had to use my brain to think about how to pass him, and I eventually did. At the end of the day, we came in eighth place, not too bad, considering.

This week, we are off to test at Gateway Raceway in St. Louis in preparation for next Sunday's IRL race, and I hope to get some more good data so we're ready to face the weekend.