Sarah Fisher

Fisher grew up in Commercial Point, a small farming village south of Columbus. Her family had deep roots in motorsport: her father Dave competed in go-kart events, her mother Reba also drove karts, and her grandparents owned a go-kart track in Richwood. Fisher began racing at age five in a quarter-midget car and moved to karting at eight, joining the World Karting Association and winning the Grand National Championship in 1991, 1993, and 1994.

In late 1995, John Bickford — stepfather of Jeff Gordon — recommended Fisher to the Lyn St. James Foundation Driver Development Program. Shortly after, her father purchased a sprint car and she drove eight World of Outlaws races. She progressed through 360 and 410 cubic-inch machinery, competing in all 62 events of the 1997 All Star Circuit of Champions season with a best finish of second at Eldora Speedway. By 1999 Fisher had transitioned to asphalt ovals in USAC Midget competition, winning five feature races and breaking the Winchester Speedway lap record.

Fisher's Winchester victory attracted Team Pelfrey owner Dale Pelfrey, who signed her to a three-year contract in August 1999. After an IRL rookie test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway supervised by Johnny Rutherford — making her the youngest person to pass such a test at the time — she made her IRL debut at Texas Motor Speedway, becoming the youngest driver to start an IRL event.

She subsequently joined Walker Racing for 2000, working under four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser as driver coach. That season Fisher became the third — and youngest — woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, starting nineteenth. She also became the youngest woman to reach a podium in the IRL and the youngest female to lead a lap in the series, doing so at Kentucky Speedway.

The career highlight of her driving years came at the 2001 Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Fisher finished second — the highest placing for a woman in the IRL until Danica Patrick's 2008 victory in the Indy Japan 300. Fans voted her the IRL's Most Popular Driver in both 2001 and 2002.

At Kentucky Speedway in 2002, Fisher set a track record at 221.390 mph to claim the pole position for the Belterra Casino Indy 300, becoming the first woman to win a pole position in major American open-wheel racing. Later that year she drove a McLaren MP4-17 in a demonstration run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course during the United States Grand Prix weekend.

Sponsorship problems constrained Fisher's schedule for much of her IRL career. She raced sporadically between 2002 and 2007 with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing and briefly with Kelley Racing, accumulating 81 IndyCar Series starts in total. The most consistent form of the later period came during 2007 with Dreyer and Reinbold, where she recorded top-ten finishes at Iowa Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.

Fisher made her stock car debut in 2004 at the request of Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress, filling in for Kerry Earnhardt in a NASCAR West Series race at Phoenix. The following year she drove a full NASCAR West Series season for RCR's development programme through NASCAR's Drive for Diversity initiative. She led the opening laps of the Coors Light 200 at Evergreen Speedway — the first laps led by a woman in NASCAR West Series history — and finished the season 12th in points. She was named the 2005 NASCAR West Series Rookie of the Year.

In February 2008 Fisher established Sarah Fisher Racing with her husband Andy O'Gara, competing part-time in the No. 67 car funded partly by fan contributions. At the 2009 Indianapolis 500 she qualified 21st and finished a career-best 17th, simultaneously setting the record for the most Indianapolis 500 starts by a woman with eight. She received the Scott Brayton Award that year, voted on by the media.

Fisher announced her retirement from driving at the end of the 2010 season, having started nine Indianapolis 500s in total. She then focused full-time on team ownership, forming a partnership with businessman Wink Hartman to create Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in late 2011. The team competed full-time in IndyCar, with Ed Carpenter taking the team's only IndyCar victory at the 2011 Kentucky Indy 300, and Josef Newgarden scoring two second-place finishes in 2013 and 2014. In 2015 the team merged with Ed Carpenter Racing to form CFH Racing. Fisher sold her share in January 2016.

In March 2016 Fisher accepted an invitation from IndyCar president of competition Jay Frye to serve as the series' official pace car driver, taking over fourteen of sixteen races from the retiring Johnny Rutherford. She has shared those duties with former driver Oriol Servià since 2018 and was honorary pace car driver at the Indianapolis 500 in 2022.

Fisher was appointed to a three-year term on the National Women's Business Council in May 2011, representing women in the entertainment and sporting industries. She co-authored a book, 99 Things Women Wish They Knew Before Getting Behind the Wheel of Their Dream Job, in 2010, and founded the Speedway Indoor Karting track in Speedway, Indiana, which opened in early 2016.