INDIANAPOLIS -- One year ago, on the racy oval at Homestead Speedway, Sarah Fisher finished second in an Indy-car race and became the talk of the motorsports world.

This weekend she's returning to south Florida and the track of her finest hour but without one key ingredient -- a car to drive.

Incredibly, the most popular and visible driver in the Indy Racing League will be a spectator for Indy-car's 2002 season opener because her team, Walker Racing, has no sponsor.

"I've been on the phone non-stop and Derrick's (Walker) people have been on the hunt as well but nobody seems to be daring enough at this point to commit the kind of money we need to do the season," said Fisher, whose 2001 backer (Kroger Foods) opted not to re-up.

"We thought we had a deal with a big company but it fell through and right now it looks pretty hopeless. As it exists right now we have no team and no prospects."

	Fisher had previously been sponsored by Kroger.

Since her IRL debut at age 19 in the 1999 finale at Texas, Fisher has been a favorite with the fans and media. She receives the largest ovations during driver introductions, is constantly in demand for television, magazine and newspaper interviews and outdistances her competition in merchandise sales.

More importantly, she's qualified for the last two Indy 500s, scored a second and a third in IRL competition and is the first female with an open-wheel background who's got a legitimate chance at becoming a success.

Tony George, IRL founder and president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has reportedly spent millions of dollars since 1996 keeping various IRL drivers and teams up and running.

Nobody has sold the IRL more than Fisher and nobody is more valuable to the series future so why hasn't George stepped in to rescue her?

"Tony hadn't been informed of my situation until I talked with him recently so I let him know," said Fisher, who grew up racing midgets and sprint cars in Ohio. "He's helping me by putting me in touch with some of the right people because he wants me to be in the series.

"But I'm not asking for a handout. It's our job to find sponsorship, not Tony George's job to support us or sponsor us.

"I suppose it's up the Speedway. If they want to help us I'd really appreciate it. But I don't expect it."

Walker, who also campaigns a car in Championship Auto Racing Teams, was approached by CART president Chris Pook about putting Fisher in the Toyota Atlantic series this year with an eventual eye on joining CART's FedEx Championship.

"If that was my goal, to run CART, it was everything you could want, great equipment and CART paying for everything, it was very flattering," she continued. "But I've come to love the IRL, the people, the decision making and I want to be part of it.

"Right now, the Atlantic series wasn't the best option but I'm not going to say never. Because if we're not at the Indy 500 and it's June and I still don't have anything, Atlantics might be good.

	“	I want to race and I am not going to take a whole year off. That's not on the agenda.”
		—Fisher

"I want to race and I am not going to take a whole year off. That's not on the agenda."

It's imperative for Fisher to get seat time. After her impressive showing last year at Homestead, she crashed at Indy on lap 7 and her confidence plummeted with her performance the rest of 2001.

Walker and Fisher blame the lack of chemistry with her former engineer so the question is: with no ride at the moment would he let her go to another team?

"I suppose I'd listen to offers but I've spent a lot of money on Sarah and I can't see how it would do much good for me to be trying to find her a sponsor while she's driving somebody else's car," said Walker.

Fisher intends to remain loyal.

"Many people called me about driving for them but I'm just not going to abandon Derrick," she said. "On one hand it might be kind of unfair but he's committed a lot to me and I can see his reasoning.

"Derrick has been so good to me and I'm his driver. That's the way it is."

Painting her house in Indianapolis (several times) and burning up the phone lines hasn't prevented Fisher from contracting a bad case of race car withdrawal.

"I'm the same way I've always been," she declared. "I don't want to work at McDonald's but they can take my salary, all I want is a good race car and a good engineer in the IRL.

"But, man, I miss my sprint car. It was harder to drive than an Indy car but everything else was so much easier."