NASCAR Cup Series

Fisher thinks giving Rahal her keys the best move

Published Mar. 24, 2010 9:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

Always fond of going around ovals, Sarah Fisher seems to be putting added emphasis this year on making the most of the two opportunities she'll have to race her car in road-course events.

``I need to put my best face forward for those shots,'' Fisher said.

And her best face, at least for the time being, belongs to a 21-year-old guy.

Fisher is turning over the keys to her No. 67 car to Graham Rahal for the next two Indy Racing League events, starting with this weekend's stop in St. Petersburg, Fla. for the Honda Grand Prix.

The way they see it, this couldn't work out any better for either side. Rahal, two years removed from a record-setting win at St. Petersburg, finds himself without a full-time ride these days and Fisher didn't feel like she was as prepared to race this weekend as she thought necessary.

So in the short term, the best thing for Sarah Fisher Racing is not to have Sarah Fisher driving.

``It is tough,'' Fisher said by telephone from her office before traveling to Florida. ``But big picture, I want my race team to survive for many years. And ultimately, I'm not going to be at the wheel, for whatever reason. This was a step toward being successful as a business, not necessarily for my selfish career reasons.''

Her business seems to be on the cusp of flourishing, even in uncertain economic times.

Before last year's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Fisher announced that she'd be able to add a second car to her team for 2010 and was going to drive in nine races this year, up three from what she was able to afford in 2009.

Turns out, she won't drive in nine during 2010, but insists that driving is still as important to her as ever.

``I'd like to put a full-season effort together before I'm completely done and have a real shot at the road courses,'' Fisher said. ``The main reason why I wanted to do this is, I haven't really had a chance to prepare for this as well as I wanted to. And there's so much information to learn if you're not a road-course racer. That's not my specialty.''

Enter Rahal.

He clearly loves St. Pete. Not only did he win there in 2008, he was on the pole there in 2009.

And if he can get Fisher's car to the front this weekend, they'll both be beyond overjoyed.

``I think a lot of the credit has to be given to Sarah, I think, for the way that she's thought about this,'' Rahal said on an IRL teleconference last week. ``And no matter what, no matter where I end up in the future, what happens, the way that the team has approached this situation, myself in particular, I think they deserve a lot of credit.''

Fisher really broke onto the driving scene in 1999, qualified for her first Indianapolis 500 the next year and was an instant hit with IRL fans. She finished second at Homestead in 2001, began flirting with NASCAR overtures a couple years later, but a variety of factors - most of them economic - always seemed to hold Fisher's driving career back in one way or another.

She founded her own team in 2008. With a full-time staff of four people, her husband included, it was more work than she ever imagined.

``Both my husband and I have trouble delegating,'' Fisher said. ``We started off so small. There's a lot of things that each one of us did that went above and beyond what our job descriptions would be. So as you grow and you get better and you have people who are there to support you and help you and want to do that, it's tough to turn it over.''

Driving is the same way.

When testing this past offseason, Fisher knew things weren't going well. So she went back to her hotel, contacted Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling - a primary sponsor of Sarah Fisher Racing - and suggested getting out of the cockpit for the road races.

Knowing Rahal was available, Fisher reached out and a deal got done quickly.

``One race, other than the (Indy) 500, I don't want to miss every year is St. Pete,'' Rahal said. ``So when the opportunity came from Sarah and obviously Dollar General for me, I just had to jump right at it.''

His new boss has high goals for the weekend, too.

``I hope we can make some more headlines,'' Fisher said.