Q. Sarah, you’ve got a very unique role as a driver and a team owner. Let’s kind of focus first on the driver side of things. Tell us a little bit about how excited you are to get back in the car this weekend at Kansas.
SARAH FISHER: I’m very excited. You know, it’s like you stare at a car all winter long and come in here every day and just make things happen, and there’s so much more to running a business than I ever knew existed. So looking forward to this weekend, and knowing that I’ll be in that race car. That’s probably my most relaxing time as an athlete. I just really enjoy that.
I really enjoy working with Tom Brown, our engineer, and of course my husband, Andy (O’Gara), who runs our team. It’s just the most rewarding time, and I can’t wait.
Q. Without really the chance to do any really off‑season testing, how have you as a team and really as a driver been getting ready for the race?
SARAH FISHER: That’s kind of tough. We haven’t done any rolling tire testing, if you want to call it that, but we have been doing a lot of R & D in other areas. The part that suffers really is just that on‑track relationship between myself and my engineer and that on‑track experience that’s just so valuable.
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But in other areas, areas that we can afford I guess you’d call it, we try to make the best of what we have, and we try to do a good job making sure that those areas that we can make better are the best we can provide.
Q. You’ve raced at Kansas four times previously but not last year, 2007 being the most recent year there. What are some of the keys to doing well there?
SARAH FISHER: I think you’ve got to have a car that goes everywhere. I studied quite a bit the 2008 race, and (Scott) Dixon just could go anywhere he wanted. That car could go. Granted, he was able to do that all year long, but just having a good basic strategy and trying to be up front all day but making sure that that car can go anywhere on that racetrack.
Q. Kansas is the first oval on the schedule this year and the only oval before the Indianapolis 500. Even though the tracks aren’t at all similar, why is it so important really to run at Kansas as a way maybe to lay the groundwork for the month of May?
SARAH FISHER: Well, I think last year during the month of May, even though we didn’t have the funding up front that we needed to really put on track a thorough car, everything that we did was as prepped as we possibly could with what we have. But when you’re able to run a race before the Indy 500, you’re able to get all the pit stop qualms and the on‑track, day‑of mental challenges that you deal with, you’re able to sort that out ahead of time and sort of get into a rhythm before you reach that big race.
So this is going to give all of our guys, myself, my engineer, a chance to sort of figure things out, get in a roll, be in that rhythm leading into the month of May.
Q. And I would take it, too, this month there’s a couple less practice days that first week even leading into qualifying. I would guess it’s even more important to kind of get the car shook down and everything gelling together heading into that first weekend of qualifying.
SARAH FISHER: Absolutely. I think practice has changed quite a bit overall in the series this year. Looking at the Kansas schedule, there’s only, I think, an hour and a half for us. We have an additional half hour or so, being that we’re not in the top 10, which is to our advantage, and then you qualify. And then there’s a warm‑up, which never used to be in place; well, maybe like five years ago. So the practice format has changed all around, including Indy, and there’s much more limited track time.
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You have to roll off the track prepared, and you have to be as ready as you can be. Staying at the shop until 10:30, 11:00 o’clock last night getting some setup stuff done, and just making sure we’re as prepared as we possibly can be to take advantage of that full amount of time.
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