Opinion: Sarah Fisher's Groundbreaking Transition

Today's big IZOD IndyCar Series news came out of the Sarah Fisher Racing camp, as team namesake Sarah Fisher announced her retirement from IndyCar competition. While her No. 67 Dollar General Dallara-Honda will return to competition next season for nine races, Ed Carpenter will be its new driver.

Fisher steps aside after 25 years competing in various forms of racing, dating back to her early childhood. Ever since her early start, she's been a go-getter and an overachiever, scoring everything from multiple World Karting Association championships to IndyCar drives, all the way up to a Formula 1 test with McLaren-Mercedes in 2002. Off the track, she's even written a book, entitled "99 Things Women Wish They Knew Before Getting Behind the Wheel of Their Dream Job". You name it, she's done it.

She first began contemplating a transition out of the car earlier this year, when she gave Graham Rahal a three-race deal to drive the No. 67 to keep him in practice as he looked for more consistent employment. With three full seasons gone by since her last top-10 finish, a seventh place in IndyCar's first Iowa event, and a family-owned team running a part-time schedule against such superpowers as Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske, her prospects for taking the checkers as a winning driver were slim.

But Fisher showed that she could still hang up front with the big boys at Chicagoland this year. She took the lead under caution thanks to an alternate pit strategy, holding it for 10 laps. Although Ryan Briscoe got by her soon after the green flag waved again, she managed to hold her position in the top five for quite a while afterward. If anybody ever doubted that she still had the skills to run up front, even after her brief NASCAR sojourn in the middle of the decade, Chicagoland was their rebuttal.

Now, Fisher transitions into her most difficult and important role yet: full-time team owner.

Yes, this will be Sarah Fisher Racing's fourth IZOD IndyCar Series season, so it's not as if Fisher hasn't had to face those difficult ownership decisions before. Things will certainly be less tense around the SFR shop than they were in 2008, when she and husband Andy O'Gara formed the team out of pocket. That year, a sponsorship disaster with RESQ Energy Drink and an Indianapolis 500 accident nearly sidelined the team for good before it could even get off the ground.

Things have been looking up ever since Dollar General stepped in for two late 2008 events. The team expanded to two cars for 2010, adding Jay Howard to a limited slate of events, and of course had the popular Rahal compete in three events.

Now with Carpenter behind the wheel for the team in 2011, and the elimination of the perpetually off-the-pace second car, Fisher can fully focus on building a strong race team that will compete for IndyCar wins and championships for years to come. Carpenter and Fisher alike have been featured in successful and popular IndyCar marketing programs over the past few years; while Fisher has become a prominent face in Dollar General marketing, Carpenter has represented longtime Indy sponsor Menards and newcomer Fuzzy's Vodka in the past few years. The tandem of two affable American racers with old-school roots (both came from USAC backgrounds) should prove interesting to new potential sponsors.

Of course, Fisher's transition to full-time ownership represents a step forward for IndyCar for more reasons than that. Most forms of motorsport have never seen a top team led by a female owner, IndyCar included. Fisher has the potential to do that with SFR.

IndyCar has already asserted itself as a predominant form of racing for minority drivers, especially women; a record five female drivers attempted to qualify for the 2010 Indianapolis 500, with four - Fisher, Danica Patrick, Simona de Silvestro, and Ana Beatriz - competing on race day. But of the four, only Fisher was financing her own car (not counting Patrick's equity stake in her Andretti Autosport team). And Fisher almost put two cars in the race, with Howard only failing to make the race due to faulty Bump Day strategy. That's a big deal for such a small team, no matter how many cars show up.

Fisher has been embracing the ownership role more than that of driver as of late, anyway. Putting Rahal in the car was a solid move that led to the team's first-ever top-10 finish, a ninth place run at St. Petersburg. It was a decision to improve her team's performance, not to feed her ego and keep her in the car, and it paid off. Fisher gave her sponsor a top-flight driver and a chance to make some noise in their brief time together, and garnered a lot of respect from IndyCar fans and competitors - not only for employing the best driver not to have a full-time ride, but also for knowing when to step aside for the benefit of her team.

Now, the team has a chance to score some underdog oval wins with Carpenter, who came tantalizingly close to pulling out another surprise Kentucky victory this year. And Carpenter has another chance to learn the road courses, his longtime Achilles' heel in IndyCar competition.

Who knows, a strong 2011 season could attract enough sponsors for full-time competition in 2012, when new chassis and engines debut. And in the mess that comes with a blank slate, you never know what a little team could pull out of its hat.

Could Sarah Fisher be the first female owner to win an IZOD IndyCar Series race? Perhaps even the first to win an Indianapolis 500? Don't doubt it. She's never been one not to accomplish her goals.

IndyCar Race Review: Kentucky Indy 300

Once again, the Kentucky Indy 300 gave thousands of fans hope at an upset victory. And once again, a Roger Penske-employed driver thwarted any designs that a little guy had at victory.

Panther Racing - former IZOD IndyCar Series champions, but now restricted to an underdog role in the series as ex-CART powers have taken over - qualified first and third for the race with Ed Carpenter and Dan Wheldon, respectively. They combined to lead 104 laps of the race, including 49 of the final 53 circuits.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, Carpenter had the victory stolen from him by Team Penske. This year, Helio Castroneves did the honors, conserving enough fuel in an extended green flag run to coast to the win, and even turn a couple victory laps afterwards.

Last year, Carpenter was beaten to the line by Penske driver Ryan Briscoe in a memorable finish. This year, Briscoe wasn't around to challenge for the win, having crashed out in a three-car wreck before the halfway point, but Carpenter was a contender for much of the night. He even worked his way back through the pack after getting shuffled back early.

But late race, splash-and-go pit stops for all of the leaders shuffled the order, and the victory went to the driver who used the underdog strategy: hang out towards the back and run slow laps to ensure the ability to make it to the end.

It was the second consecutive strong run for Carpenter, whose team is actually a collaboration between Panther and Vision Racing, as well as Wheldon, Panther's lead driver. Last week at Chicagoland, fuel issues knocked Carpenter out of contention, while Wheldon finished second in that event. This weekend, Wheldon led more laps than anybody (93) and made a strong case to remain in the series next year, even as he and Panther will part ways at the end of the season.

In the end, Carpenter finished second at Kentucky for the second year in a row, and Wheldon placed third.

Meanwhile, Castroneves took his second race victory of the season (though, referring to an incident at Edmonton, jokingly called it his third) by running laps almost 10 miles per hour slower than the leaders in the very late stages of the event. As such, when Tony Kanaan pit with less than 10 to go to begin the cycle of splash-and-go fuel stops, Castroneves had conserved enough to stay out on track.

Kanaan, who had qualified miserably off the pace to start in 26th, passed 10 cars on the first lap of the event and eventually wound up fourth, in front of Dario Franchitti. Franchitti further closed the gap on point leader Will Power, who wound up eighth. Power led 83 laps of the 200-lap event, nearly garnering him an important two-point bonus for leading the most laps, until Wheldon topped him late in the event. Power's shrinking points lead is now down to 17 with only two races to go.

Bertrand Baguette had a career-best 10th place finish, which also propelled him past the perpetually unlucky Takuma Sato in the points. After taking out teammate E.J. Viso last week at Chicagoland, Sato failed to even complete one lap at Kentucky, as his car broke loose from him in turns three and four and he slammed into the wall. It was the latest in a long line of incidents for KV Racing Technology this season, where the crash count now tops two dozen.

IndyCar Race Preview: Kentucky Indy 300

Perhaps once a year, a race appears on the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule that produces - or at least gives the hope of - interesting and unexpected results.

For years, Surfers Paradise was that race, producing a different winner every year for over a decade. Two years ago, it was St. Petersburg, where Graham Rahal won in his IndyCar debut. Last year, we almost had two: Watkins Glen, where Justin Wilson gave Dale Coyne Racing its first win in 25 years of racing, and Kentucky, where underdog Ed Carpenter nearly stole his first career victory, only to be thwarted at the line by Ryan Briscoe.

This year, Carpenter's driving like he's got unfinished business at the track.

Now a part-time driver employed by a collaboration between Vision and Panther Racing, Carpenter shocked the world with a qualifying average speed of nearly 218 miles per hour, and will start on the pole for Saturday's Kentucky Indy 300. He beat even series points leader (and sudden oval wunderkind) Will Power to the top spot. Carpenter's teammate, Dan Wheldon, will roll off directly behind in third.

If that wasn't crazy enough, Conquest Racing's new de facto lead driver, Bertrand Baguette, qualified in sixth place, with teammate Tomas Scheckter in 10th. They both outpaced last week's winner, Dario Franchitti, who will start 11th. Baguette even beat Team Penske drivers Helio Castroneves (eighth) and Ryan Briscoe (ninth) in the session.

If that wasn't out of left field enough for you, Milka Duno legitimately outqualified two other cars - those of Rahal and Tony Kanaan, respectively. Kanaan was an unfathomable seven miles per hour off the pace, reminiscent of his struggles at Indianapolis earlier this year. Rahal was only five miles per hour off in a Sarah Fisher Racing car that has struggled for much of the season with Jay Howard behind the wheel.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will start shotgun on the field after crashing in qualifying and being unable to produce a time.

Paul Tracy, making his first oval start in half a decade, will start 23rd for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, the slowest of the cars that maintained a pace reasonably close to that of the leader. He was the last driver to break 214 miles per hour in qualifying.

Carpenter and Vision Return for Three

Chris Hagan, the sports anchor for Fox 59 in Indianapolis, has reported via his Twitter page that Ed Carpenter and Vision Racing will rejoin the IZOD IndyCar Series for the final three races of the season at Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Homestead.

The No. 20 Dallara-Honda will once again be sponsored by Fuzzy's Premium Vodka, who backed the team in this year's Indianapolis 500. That car, run in partnership with Panther Racing, finished a respectable 17th, only the third car a lap down. Professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, the founder of Fuzzy's Vodka, confirmed the news in an interview with Hagan at a charity golf tournament.

Carpenter has always been an oval specialist, the kind of driver that Vision Racing owner (and IndyCar founder) Tony George had in mind when he first founded his open-wheel series in 1994. Carpenter especially excels at short tracks, where his career average finish is 12.1, and mid-size speedways, where that number is 13.7.

It's no surprise, then, that Kentucky and Homestead are Carpenter's two best tracks, with average finishes of 9.3 and 10.6, respectively. Meanwhile, at Chicago, his average finish is a respectable 13.7, making that track his fourth-best oval, out of the ovals that IndyCar still races. In a combined 18 starts at the three tracks, Carpenter has three of his four career top five finishes and eight of his 27 career top 10s.

Last year, Carpenter scored respectable finishes at both Chicago and Homestead, coming home 6th and 12th, respectably. But Kentucky was the highlight of the small team's season, as the team came within .016 seconds of its first win, only to be nipped at the line by Ryan Briscoe.

Opinion: The Plight of the American Open-Wheel Racer, Pt. 2

Last month, the American open-wheel racer was an endangered species.

Other than Marco Andretti, the futures of most American drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series were shaky at best. Ryan Hunter-Reay was on a race-by-race deal; Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter were on the sidelines after Indy; J.R. Hildebrand and Jonathan Summerton never had rookie-of-the-year campaigns materialize; Danica Patrick was still testing the NASCAR waters in order to potentially make the jump.

What a difference a month makes - Hunter-Reay has a deal to keep him at Andretti Autosport for the balance of the year, Hildebrand will make his IndyCar debut for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing next month, and Patrick's generally unsuccessful NASCAR runs make you wonder if she'll reconsider.

Hunter-Reay is the biggest feel-good story of the year in IndyCar. On a limited schedule with Andretti, he won the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, only to have a couple potential sponsorship deals fall through after that victory. The former series Rookie of the Year and IZOD spokesman been one of the most consistent drivers in the series all season, but even having everything going for him couldn't keep him in the car beyond Watkins Glen. The signing of Adam Carroll, a talented Irish driver with the chops for Formula 1, also seemed to hurt Hunter-Reay's case.

Then, good karma came back to repay Hunter-Reay. Andretti's existing sponsors, including IZOD, Snapple, Ethanol USA, Inland Industrial Services Group, and the Michael Fux Foundation, announced just before Watkins Glen that they had stepped up funding to keep Hunter-Reay in the car for the rest of the season. Not only that, they created the charitable initiative Racing for Cancer, dedicated to Hunter-Reay's mother, who passed away in the offseason.

Of course, Hildebrand is a bit of a feel-good story himself. The man they call "Captain America" won last year's Firestone Indy Lights title for Andretti, but besides some time testing Marco Andretti's car this year, he'd been generally out of open-wheel, instead competing in the American Le Mans Series. But with Mike Conway still on the sidelines at DRR, and two tracks coming up that Hildebrand performed well at in Lights last year, he became the perfect fit for the No. 24 team.

Mid-Ohio yielded a third-place finish last year for the young American driver, while Infineon Raceway, his self-proclaimed home track, was the site of his fourth and final victory of the year. There is also the outside shot that he may run at Edmonton for the team, the final race before Conway's return that does not yet have a driver under contract. Hildebrand won at that track in Lights last year as well.

But while these instances are progress, the sport still does not have many American drivers under long-term contracts. Patrick and Marco Andretti over at Andretti Autosport are the only drivers with guaranteed futures at the moment. The team will certainly try to bring Hunter-Reay back, but it all depends on sponsorship. Hildebrand's deal, for the moment, is for two races only.

Rahal is still looking for a bit of certainty after having driven three different cars over the course of this season, with some spotty results. Carpenter and Vision Racing, the team owner by ex-IRL czar Tony George, have not been heard from since the end of May. Townsend Bell runs Indianapolis only these days, Davey Hamilton's bid to run races after Indianapolis was dashed by de Ferran Dragon Racing's totaled racecars, and Sarah Fisher still has a long way to go sponsorship-wise to bring her team to full-time status.

Worse, while the trend of open-wheel stars jumping to stock cars may continue with Patrick, few NASCAR competitors seem willing to go to at least Indianapolis and compete for the proposed $20 million prize that would come with winning the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, two of NASCAR's finest that grew up with 500-mile dreams in the state of Indiana, have passed on the idea. Juan Montoya, perhaps the driver with the best shot, doesn't seem too keen on it, either. Robby Gordon hasn't been able to make something happen, and ex-F1 pilot Scott Speed and Team Red Bull, despite potentially making a great fit, have not commented on the possibility. Meanwhile, at the press conference introducing the New Hampshire IndyCar race for next year, Dario Franchitti downplayed the possibility of making such a run.

The series also has to bring in more American equipment in order to maintain relevance in the United States. Yes, Firestone is an Akron-based tire company with a storied history at Indianapolis. But Dallara is an Italian chassis manufacturer, and Honda is a Japanese engine builder. As many Americans as there are who drive Hondas, it doesn't hurt to have an American brand promoting the sport, something that disappeared in open-wheel once Ford pulled out of Champ Car at the end of 2006.

The new-for-2012 engine regulations, providing for (as a maximum) a 2.4 liter turbocharged V6, should open up that category to more American brands. But if the series sticks to a single chassis manufacturer for 2012, the only American company with widespread fan support that is in the running is Swift, which also provides chassis for the Japanese Formula Nippon Series.

Part of the reason why NASCAR flourished and American open-wheel racing declined was the preservation of American values in one niche as the other moved towards becoming a minor-league F1. NASCAR remains to this day dominated by Americans. The sad reality is that, in order to firmly entrench a sport in a country's consciousness, you have to embrace some of that country's core values - Americanness, if you will - even when they may bring the product down a little bit.

Part of the reason why IndyCar is great stems from the fact that these are some of the "fastest drivers in the world," representing every inhabitable continent and over a dozen countries. But American fans need more American drivers to back. The series also visits Canada, which has Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani; Japan, besides all the engines in the series, can get behind Hideki Mutoh and Takuma Sato; although Australia is now off the schedule, fans down under can embrace two-thirds of Team Penske; Brazilian fans have about a third of the series to get behind.

American fans don't really have those drivers or that equipment to strongly identify behind in IndyCar right now; they just have the races on their own soil. Danica is too polarizing a figure at this point, when plenty will bash her for her lack of on-track production, instead of just appreciating the strides she's helped make for women in motorsports. Marco hasn't won in nearly a presidential term, and Hunter-Reay needs a long-term deal to keep him in the sport. We can't even bring up Rahal until somebody signs him to a solid deal, either. The quick fix of NASCAR drivers in the 500 seems unlikely.

Has the series made progress over the past month? Yes. The American open-wheel driver is now a "protected" endangered species, with every intent on rebuilding its population over the next few years. But wholesale changes may still need to come before the sport can once again rival NASCAR in popularity - and that means a little more red, white, and blue on the track.

Vision Racing Finds Sponsorship For Indianapolis 500

Vision Racing will finally return to the IZOD IndyCar Series at this month's Indianapolis 500 after a five-race hiatus, carrying the primary sponsorship of Fuzzy Zoeller's Premium Vodka on their No. 20 Dallara-Honda.

Ed Carpenter will return to the driver's seat, making his 100th career IndyCar start in the process. The car will be run in conjunction with Panther Racing.

Fuzzy Zoeller's Premium Vodka was launched last year by professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, an Indiana native, and the winner of the 1979 Masters and 1984 U.S. Open. Zoeller's vodka distinguishes itself by a filtering process distinct from that of other vodkas, going through crushed volcanic rock and charcoal ten times, according to the product's website. Buoyed by a gold medal awarded by Chicago's International Beverage Testing Institute last year, it is currently available in the midwest, with the intent of national and worldwide launches in the near future.

While the car's livery has not yet been unveiled, preview photos on Facebook show that the car will be midnight black, deviating from last year's day-glo yellow. The team plans on unveiling the paint scheme within the week.

Carpenter, Vision Return At Indianapolis

After shuttering operations earlier this year due to lack of sponsorship, Tony George's Vision Racing team will make a triumphant return to the track at the Indianapolis 500, again with driver Ed Carpenter at the wheel of its No. 20 Dallara-Honda.

Carpenter and Vision will work with Panther Racing as a teammate to Dan Wheldon. According to the Vision Racing Twitter account, the cars will be provided by Vision, while the crew and engineering will be handled by Panther. So far, no sponsors have been announced for the effort.

This means that 34 cars have submitted entry blanks for the race, and we're not even halfway through April. Seeing as plenty of last-minute deals usually come together over the course of the month, this year's may be the largest Indianapolis 500 field in years.

As for Carpenter and Vision, it will be their latest and greatest chance to finally make it to Victory Lane. Carpenter will, if he qualifies, make his 100th career IZOD IndyCar Series start. His best career finish is second, at Kentucky last year, which helped propel him to a career-best 12th place finish in points. Ovals have always been his forte, especially Indianapolis, where he finished 5th in 2008 and has four finishes of 11th or better in the last five years.

Joining forces with Panther was about the best move that Vision could make, as Panther's cars have finished second in the prestigious event in each of the past two years. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team has expanded for the month of May, although the second car did not appear on track in 2008. Last year, the second car was driven by Scott Sharp, the 1996 IndyCar co-champion, who finished 14th.

It will also return George to the track that he ran throughout most of the past two decades. George's contributions to the speedway were immense; while the race lost prestige for a few years as top open-wheel teams preferred to stay in CART, he did raise the American open-wheel driver count exponentially, and brought NASCAR, Formula 1, and IROC to the fabled course. While only NASCAR remains, the Brickyard 400 is considered one of the sport's crown jewels.

Indianapolis 500 practice opens May 15 with rookie orientation. The field will be set on the weekend of May 22-23, and the race itself taked place on May 30.

Plenty of Drivers Sitting on the Sidelines

While most of the IZOD IndyCar Series took to the track for preseason testing today, a handful of solid talent was either roaming the sidelines or nowhere to be found.

Among the drivers pacing the pits were Ana Beatriz, Ed Carpenter, and Mario Moraes. Of the three, only Beatriz has a confirmed deal for this year, and even that is only for the season-opening race at Brazil. Carpenter is actively seeking sponsorship to get back on track. Moraes brings some money from Votorantim, the Brazilian construction company owned by his grandfather, but so far has been unable to secure a ride.

Oriol Servia has also been roaming the pits looking for a ride. He ran five races last season, with only one DNF and a worst finish of 11th in the four races he completed. Servia has mostly kept in contact with the open-wheel world via Twitter, and while he continues to search for a ride, the lack of success has proved to be a point of frustration for the Spanish driver.

Paul Tracy has been spotted at the test sessions, but his voice has been heard by the community over the past few days. He, like Servia has used his account to keep his name out there; most of his tweets bash the insurgence of foreign pay drivers and lack of North American talent in the series. He has implored fans to send a message to the league, particularly incoming CEO Randy Bernard, that the direction in which the sport has been heading needs to change.

Worst of all, popular and talented young American Graham Rahal does not yet have an IndyCar ride for 2010, and it appears he may be meeting with stock car teams in an attempt to secure a drive. Rahal scored two poles, five top-fives, and none top-10s last season on the way to a seventh-place finish in points, but has no sponsorship to bring to team owners. Multiple teams have attempted to put programs together for him, but for almost every group the hang-up has been sponsorship, leaving one of the league's most marketable young drivers on the sidelines.