Did Andretti/Kanaan pretty much destroy Sarah Fisher's racing team?

Question

It doesn't seem to have recovered from the mishap at the Indy 500....and it wasn't even Sarah's fault this time. She was running a beautiful race up till then. She simply had nowhere to go when Kanaan ran down the track in front of her.

Answer 1

its sad

she should get a full ride again

Answer 2

Andretti made a bad move by wrecking Kanaan. Sarah just had nowhere to go at 240 MPH. It's just too fast to be running through a cloud of smoke. Any small team would have succumbed to that.

Answer 3

agree

Answer 4

Although it was obvious why the story was lost in the shuffle, the project known as Sarah Fisher Racing was officially announced at Homestead on the same day the IRL officially announced the merger with Champ Car.  In that press conference, Sarah said:

"Right now our plan is to run Indy. Indy is our first race. We're trying to build outwards from that. We have things in place. We're in final negotiations, contract-wise, with our primary sponsor. I would love to announce that today, but that's going to be here in a couple days instead.

Things are looking really good. We're trying to build out from there. We would love to run Texas, Chicago and Kentucky. Kentucky is a very favorite place of mine. I'm sure we'll be there. But we're filling out. We would love to have some more opportunities, and we're working on those constructively."

In hindsight, only Texas didn't/won't materialize for SFR this season.  Considering that the primary sponsor Sarah mentioned stiffed SFR (I won't use their name to give those deadbeats free advertising here), I'd say that much did much bigger damage to Texas plans than anybody at AGR did.

FWIW, the rumor going around is that the new CEO of Dollar General is a huge racing fan and he was instrumental in getting the deal for SFR.  Ironically, the drama at Indy (some of which involved AGR), may have actually helped SFR get this new deal.  There are no guarantees for 2009, but it looks interesting.

Answer 5

She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  She was just the victim of another crash.  I think she could have finished relatively high if she didn't get caught up in that crash.

Answer 6

She was just in the wrong place, its racing and stuff like this happens, its just so unfortunate for her. I really like to see her get a full time IRL ride with a good team or a full time sponsor.. I hope something happens for her in 2010.. She is a great gal and knows how to race, with out high fashion and drama.

Go Helio

Answer 7

Agree

SteveC

Answer 8

yeah pretty much. sorry Sarah!  

Answer 9

It was a very unfortunate accident.  She was having a clean race but was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Not her fault at all.  But it wasn't the end for Sarah Fisher Racing.

Her team was only planning to run 3 events to begin with.  They have been to Indy and Kentucky, with the upcoming Chicago race being the last one.  She has a new sponsor in Dollar General, so if they stick around for next season, maybe they can expand the schedule.

Answer 10

Just so we are crystal clear about what happened...Kanaan was a victim of Marco's bad decision just as Sarah was. It just turned out that Kanaan had nowhere to go either. TK tried to stay out of the marbles and off the wall (where Marco put him) and Sarah just got collected.

Marco is a pain and crashes his own team all the time.

That time, Sarah was just unlucky.

Marco was at total fault. TK had no choices either.

Answer 11

No, they didn't, though they did suffer the significant setback with a trashed car.

SFR announced in Homestead a 3-race schedule this year:  Indy, Kentucky, & Chicagoland.  After Indy (and all of the sponsorship struggles her team went through), it was unquestionably a rough few weeks afterwards for her and her team.

Now - let's give some kudos to AGR, and specifically Tony Kanaan.  After the accident (whomever's *officially* was at fault), Tony went above/beyond what another team should do.  He arranged to have a complete Dallara undertray sent to SFR (which is a *BIG* chunk of change), and did have one of her primary Indy 500 (and current) sponsors on his car at the next race in Milwaukee, Direct Supply.  He didn't have to do either, but he stated quite clearly how much he knew about her struggles in May, and his heart hurt more for her 500 race than for his (even though he was rather peeved with Marco).

Enter Dollar General in late July, with a CEO that is a motor sports gearhead.

If you were at Kentucky, you would have been absolutely SHOCKED with how over-the-top SFR went with getting Dollar General's name, colors, etc. associated with the team.  Transporter, carts, car, equipment, uniforms, show car, pit ads, etc ... the list was monsterous.  I'll be honest - when you looked at pits, there are only a handful of pit boxes that clearly stood out:  TK's (bright green), Carpenter's (neon yellow signage), and Sarah's (with Dollar General).  I even think her pit box stood out more than Penske and Target pits, and definately more than Danica's.  And THEN ... Seeing Danica and Sarah go wheel-to-wheel for a few laps ... a puff of white smoke from their tires touching entering Turn 1 ... and seeing Sarah just FLY by her going into T2 ... that was *UNQUESTIONABLY AND UNDENIABLY* the loudest the crowd reacted all race.  It was CRAZY STUPID LOUD, and the fans just ate it up.

She will be returning to the track in 10+ days time in Chicagoland, another good track for her.  She's starting her program the right way - start small, and build from there.  Dollar General is again on her sidepods, etc., and they've been reported as being *very* intrigued about entering IndyCar racing, in order to branch out into different fan bases.  Plus, please note - while she does carry Dollar General as her sponsor, it's more of an agreement like Target ... where it's not necessarily Target as the primary sponsors, but all the secondary sponsors Target sells, which is why you see different liveries driven by Wheldon/Dixon from time-to-time (see Energizer, Poloroid).  SFR has a ton of these sponsors as well (Band-Aid, Arm & Hammer, Lysol - more Proctor&General products), that - with a full-time ride - she could change liveries and give her other sponsors a good boose of ride time, too.

Sarah and her team are actually in a great spot entering Chicago and 2009, so long as Dollar General (or another good sponsor) comes on board.  The team really has a great nucleus of crew members that all know how to go fast, and I think most fans know when Sarah's in a fast car, she's not going to hesitate to race and mix it up with the big boys of IndyCar.