🇺🇸 Sarah Fisher

Sarah Fisher was a professional open-wheel racing driver competing in IndyCar, a national single-class championship mixing amateur and semi-professional entrants with graded professionals on the same grid. Racing primarily on ovals, she competed for Kelley Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing across 83 starts between 1999 and 2010.[1]

Fisher took two podium finishes in IndyCar, with a career-best second-place result at the 2001 Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami. She competed in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, more than any other woman driver at that time, and in 2002 became the first female driver to secure pole position in a major American open-wheel race. Her final season came in 2010, when she started seven rounds and finished 25th in the championship standings.[2]

In a field containing established professionals including IndyCar champions Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti, and experienced drivers like Scott Sharp, Fisher typically finished behind the regulars. She did beat Franchitti twice and Conway five times across their meetings, though the weight of her record was spent racing against drivers who more often finished ahead of her. Her association with the sport extended beyond her driving career; she later became involved in team ownership and mentorship in the open-wheel paddock.