Sarah Fisher Racing (SFR) returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for the second time under the leadership of veteran IndyCar racer, Sarah Fisher, just before lunch on Thursday morning, following a washout on Wednesday. Fisher clocked her quickest lap of the day on Lap 41 of 92, with a speed of 221.655 miles per hour (mph), under cloudy conditions in her No.67 Dollar General Honda powered Dallara.
“Today offered us great testing opportunities and we were very thankful for that”, said Fisher, who will attempt to qualify for her 8th Indianapolis 500 on Saturday, marking the most number of starts for a woman in the 93-year history of the race. “Our morning session was definitely more productive for us in the Dollar General machine. We have to keep learning and working on the car as we prepare for qualifications and, ultimately, the race. There are some things we can we do better, and those are the areas we need to focus on as we move forward.”
After announcing IMCU would return as a sponsor for the race, SFR hit the famed Brickyard track, following the wave of the green flag by Purdue Basketball Head Coach, Matt Painter. While Fisher spent the first few laps getting re-acclimated to the 2.5-mile oval, her engineer, Tom Brown, radioed to let her know she was “totally flat” by Lap 2.
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“It was a good first day,” said Brown. “We got through a lot. We know some things we won’t be doing in the future, but that’s what our practice days are for.”
Fisher was 10th quick, most of the day, but eventually got bumped to 18th, having not moved the needle on her speed after 1:45 p.m., fighting track conditions that had drastically changed, jumping nearly 20 degrees from the start of practice.
“Right now, we’re working on race trim to mechanically free up the car,” said Brown. “We drove around, most of the day, and avoided the drafts. There’s little point in chasing them until after we qualify.”
Andretti Green Racing’s Marco Andretti topped the speed charts at 225.478 mph, making him the fastest on opening day, for the second year. SFR and Fisher will return to the track tomorrow at 12 p.m. for the final full day of practice prior to their attempt at the Peak Motor Oil Poll Award, presented by Auto Zone, on Saturday.
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