Sarah Fisher Racing team manager/chief mechanic Andy O’Gara and team owner/driver Sarah Fisher are unique at the Speedway. They also are husband and wife. Sarah also serves as team accountant and Andy is shop manager at team headquarters, just a few miles southwest of the Speedway. Fisher qualified on May 10 and is 21st in the provisional Race Day lineup. She drives the No.67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing entry.
Q. Who’s the boss?
Sarah Fisher: “Neither one of us are really the boss. We both want to see the big picture, and we know what it’s going to take to get there. There’s really no bossing anybody around. We all work as one unit. We have a whole lot of responsibility on all our shoulders, so organizationally we don’t look at it that way.”
Andy O’Gara: “Everybody’s duties go far beyond that (titles). Johnny O’Gara (Andy’s father) oversees the operation and helps us with the major decisions. He is a phone call away. My responsibilities have picked up a bunch. My day-to-day duties haven’t changed a whole lot - it’s just as stressful as it always will be.”
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Q. Are your management philosophies the same?
Andy O’Gara: “Our outlook, goals, plans and the future haven’t changed. The biggest thing Sarah and I said from the get-go was that we want to put 100 percent effort, as nice as we can do it. We don’t have to run every race. Realistically, we are comfortable running the Indianapolis 500 only. Feasibly, we have to run every superspeedway to be competitive here and to keep building our program. We don’t want to do it under-budget and put a product on the racetrack that isn’t something we are proud of. We’ve got the right group of people to go out and the right bits to go out there and run on top. Our philosophies are the same.”
Q. At home, do you leave racing behind?
Sarah Fisher: “There isn’t much time outside the racetrack, at least this month. We get home around 10 or 11 (p.m.), and we’re totally wiped out (because) we’re giving everything to this team that we can. When we’re at home, we’re planning for the next day. We learned some things that day, and we start a to-do list of the things we want to accomplish the next day. We really enjoy what we do. We like knowing that this is our team. We don’t have a dividing line at home.”
Andy O’Gara: “Racing is always 24/7. It’s very rare that we go through the day without mentioning something that would make the team better. We’re as hard on each other as anybody around here. That’s because we see the best in each other. If you see an area where I can improve or where we’re slumping; I would expect anybody, including my wife, to give me a kick in the pants. I think everybody on this team feels the same when it comes to them. We’re a team, and we have 10 of the closest people around us who are like family. We talk about it 24/7. If we didn’t talk about it, that’s when things would be abnormal.”
Q. What are your expectations on Race Day
Sarah Fisher: “It’s going to be a lot different for me this year. Last year I was under a whole, whole lot of stress. In order to make Kentucky (Speedway), I had to bring the car home last year after Race Day, and we weren’t able to do that. I’m a lot more relaxed in the race car this year. You can hear it in my voice. I think that will attribute to a lot better finish. When we come home top 10, it will be a win for us.”
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Andy O’Gara: “I’m positive. I’ve worked for Sarah for six years, and I know what she likes in a race car. I hear the confidence in her voice. We have a great race car. We’re starting a little far back, but we can work our way into the top 10. Then we can be up there fighting a little bit at the end. I see nothing right now that we won’t be or can’t be there.”
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