Sarah Marie Fisher (born October 4, 1980) is an American retired professional race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League (IRL, now IndyCar Series) and the Indianapolis 500 intermittently from 1999 to 2010. She also raced in the NASCAR West Series in 2004 and 2005. Fisher took part in 81 IndyCar Series events, achieving a career-best finish of second at the 2001 Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami—the highest placing for a woman in the IRL until Danica Patrick's victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300. In 2002, Fisher was the first female driver to win a pole position in a major American open-wheel race and competed in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, more than any other woman. Fisher was born into an Ohioan family with a background in racing; she began competing at the age of five when her parents entered her in a quarter-midget race before progressing to karting three years later. She won three World Karting Association championships and she subsequently progressed into sprint car racing, where her success was moderate. Fisher made her IRL debut at the final race of the 1999 season. During her 11-year professional career, sponsorship problems limited her participation in the series. In 2008, Fisher established and drove for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing until her retirement at the end of 2010. In retirement, Fisher focused full-time on Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, with drivers Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden achieving modest success with the team. She retained ownership of the team until she merged it with Ed Carpenter Racing, creating CFH Racing in 2010. In 2016, Fisher sold her stake in CFH Racing to focus on a full-time career in business in Indiana but remained with the team to help with sponsorship development. That year, she was hired as the IndyCar Series' official Safety Car driver, a role she shares with former driver Oriol Servià. Early life and junior career Sarah Marie Fisher was born on October 4, 1980, in Columbus, Ohio. An only child, she hailed from a family with a racing background; Fisher's father Dave, a self-employed mechanical engineer, competed in go-kart events against race car drivers Mark Dismore and Scott Goodyear. Her mother Reba, a middle-school teacher in technology, is the daughter of Evelyn Grindell, one of Ohio's early woman aviators, and drove go-karts in the backyard of her house. The couple met at a go-kart street race in