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Sarah Fisher Had Them Cheering At Chicagoland & IndyCar Notes

Big Bend, WI (August 30, 2010) – Design Sarah Fisher’s helmet? You Bet. For the second year in a row, Sarah Fisher and Sarah Fisher Racing (SFR) are going pink for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. IZOD IndyCar Series fans will have the opportunity to design the helmet Sarah Fisher will wear in the season finale race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 2nd. The entire team will be painted pink from the car, to the pit equipment – from crew shirts to fire and driver suits! It’s your blank canvas!

Interested in submitting a helmet design for Sarah Fisher? You can use (see http://blog.indycar.com/2010/08/30/design-sarah-fishers-helmet-you-bet/) for your creations. Please submit your designs via e-mail to online@brickyard.com. SFR will narrow the designs down to the top-5 finalists and then post them to IndyCar.com for the fans to vote. Once the fans determine the helmet; it will then be sent to the paint shop and Sarah Fisher will wear it all weekend in Homestead. Designs should be submitted by September 7. Voting online via IndyCar.com will take place September 8th-10th. The winner will be announced on the 10th. Good luck!

Had the opportunity to sit once again in the press box at Chicagoland Speedway (one of the best on the IndyCar circuit). Next to the press box was the Sarah Fisher Racing suite. It was fun watching the enthusiasm as they clapped when Sarah made a pit stop, they were even clapping and cheering when teammate Jay Howard returned to the race after an unscheduled pit stop. However, the enthusiasm was pushed up to the maximum when off sequence pitting put Sarah into the lead. If was refreshing seeing the suite erupt in cheers when she led the pack and had an incredible side-by-side battle with Ed Carpenter for second place.

National Guard-Panther Racing driver is never one to mince words or opinions, in the post-race interview he didn’t when critiquing several drivers. The question, It appeared from our broadcast station up in Turn 3, it looked like everybody was running really clean. You ran side by side, Marco was running three wide, as well, and it looked like everybody was running pretty clean tonight. Wheldon candidly responded, “I thought so. I mean, you have to at these speeds. You know, you don’t want people to give you a ton of room. You can virtually touch wheels, but it’s stepping over the line and being unpredictable, which is not good. You know, I’m not going to hold back. I think Ryan Hunter Reay and Moraes were unprofessional, and they could have hurt somebody to tell you the truth. But there was people like Dario, Marco, I think the people that you see up front regularly that are the ones that everybody can race around.”

Saturday’s Firestone Indy Lights win was important to James Hinchcliffe’s career. It was his first at Chicagoland and third of the season as he won earlier this year at Long Beach and Edmonton. However it was his first win on an oval in Indy Lights, proving that he can win on both ovals and road courses. The personable Canadian would be a fine addition to the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Recommended reading. At Chicagoland we were seated next to Michele-Marie “Meesh” Beer a writer/photographer/blogger from Toronto. She writes for openwheelworld.net and has an entertaining but can be r-rated blog at http://meeshbeer.wordpress.com/ look her up.

Also, for those not aware our Open Wheel Focus podcast dealing with the IZOD IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, ALMS, Grand-Am and USAC racing is now available via free subscription on i-Tunes, please subscribe (even if you don’t listen to every podcast). The podcast is produced in cooperation with RacingNation.com and SportsRadio1250.com. For more information, http://www.sportsradio1250.com/pages/4861739.php

Due to an e-mail glitch, I did not get an e-mail from Texas Motor Speedway General Manager Eddie Gossage until last week. He disagreed with my assessment of his safety crew and the much publicized fire involving Simona di Silvestro last June. He stated, “Texas Motor Speedway does not provide any of the emergency workers, firefighters, protocol, doctors, equipment, etc.” In my column I wrote, “Furthermore, track safety. There were reports that track safety crew were mixed in with the regular Holmatro Safety Team. There are good track crews and there are very good ones. The Texas crew seems to be bearing much of the criticism.” I express regret that this unfairly put the emergency crew at TMS in a bad light.

The 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season continues Sept. 4 with the Kentucky Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at 8 p.m. (ET) by VERSUS. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 212. The race also will be carried on www.indycar.com. The 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season continues with the Drive Smart. Buckle Up Kentucky 100 on Sept. 4 at Kentucky Speedway.

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