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Friday, December 13, 2002
Our final chance
By Sarah Fisher
Special to ABC Sports Online
Going into the race at Chicagoland Speedway, we had pretty high expectations after our test there the previous week. The car was very good right out of the box at the test and we just worked on little things to make it even quicker during the entire day. So we felt very prepared for the race weekend.
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SARAH FISHER |
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Car: No. 23
Team: Allegra/Dreyer and Reinbold
Hometown: Commercial Point, Ohio
IRL starts: 31
Best start: 1st (Kentucky, 8/11/02)
Best finish: 2nd (Homestead, 4/8/01)
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Our SmartBlade team went up to Chicago two days earlier than usual as we had media and sponsor activities planned for that time. I drove up to North Brook, Ill., early on Wednesday morning from Indianapolis to the Smart Blade/Old World Industries Headquarters where our team was set up to do some pit stop demonstrations during an employee lunch there. We had our transporter and racecar there and our team gave the employees an inside look at what goes on with an IRL car. It was my first visit and I was able to meet a lot of the employees and see how enthusiastic they were about being involved with our IRL program.
After that we headed over to do an interview with a cable TV station and then downtown for a sponsor dinner that night.
Thursday was a pretty full day as well. I did a lot of print and TV interviews for my personal sponsor, Raybestos Brakes, in downtown Chicago, which went over very well. It's very gratifying to me to see the amount of knowledge and interest that Chicago has in the IRL and our program. It's proof that our series is growing by leaps and bounds. I love Chicago, but the worst thing about it is the traffic -- it took us two hours to drive from downtown back to Joliet after our interviews. I don't think I could make that drive everyday!
Friday morning was our first time on the track, and our first practice went well. We started with the same set-up we ended up with at the test and just made a few adjustments from there. During the second practice, we worked on race set-up and did some full tank runs to prepare for Sunday's race.
Saturday morning was qualifying and when it was my time to go out, the car was great, but we just didn't have enough power to go any faster. My foot was stuck to the floor but that's all the power the car had and we would up starting 12th. Our final warmup was that evening and then we had the driver autograph session after that. I pre-signed a bunch of autograph cards because we knew we had to leave the session early to drive to a SmartBlade dinner in downtown Chicago. I really appreciate all the fans who showed up at the autograph session and that they understood when we had to leave early. We are working hard on next year's sponsorship possibilities and hopefully that dinner with the SmartBlade folks helped.
On Race Day, we had our usual drivers meeting and then since the race started at noon, there wasn't much down time in between. We had a lot of sponsors at the track that morning, so I talked with a lot of them, and then had a short break for about 10 minutes before it was time to go out for driver introductions.
When the race began, my car was perfect. Once again, I could drive it anywhere I wanted, but we just didn't have enough power to set the other guys up and pass them. We came in for our first pit stop and changed tires and added fuel only, and then were out on the track under a caution period when Dan Wheldon, who was behind me, radioed to his crew that my car was spraying something.
My team brought me into the pits and they discovered that I had a terminal oil leak, so our day was done. It was very disappointing for me, my team and all our sponsor folks from SmartBlade and Raybestos who were at the track cheering us on when our weekend ends that way. We had a great car and a great opportunity to win that race -- but we have one chance left this season next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway and we're going to do our best to make it happen. See you then.
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