Sarah Fisher raises the pole award for the IRL's Belterra Casino Indy 300, after becoming the first woman to win the pole position in a major auto race Saturday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        SPARTA, Ky. — Sarah Fisher is no longer just a good driver — for a girl. Now she is the fastest driver in Kentucky Speedway history entering today's Belterra Casino Indy 300.

        Fisher will start on the inside of the front row, the first female in open-wheel history to win a pole, after her track-record qualifying speed of 221.390 mph Saturday.

        “I'm ready to go race,” Fisher said after qualifying. “I've never been this excited to race. It's amazing how much fun it is when things are going right.”

        Things were far from right at the beginning of this season when Fisher was released from her Walker Racing contract after the team failed to secure a sponsorship. That left Fisher, one of the Indy Racing League's most popular drivers, without a team for the first time since her rookie year in 2000.

        So it wasn't hard for Fisher, 21, to say yes to Dreyer and Reinbold Racing in April when the team needed a substitute for the injured Robbie Buhl.

IF YOU GO

Event: Belterra Casino Indy 300, Sparta, Ky.     Time/TV: 1:30 p.m., Ch.9, 2     Track: Kentucky Speedway     (tri-oval, 1.5 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns).     Race distance: 200 laps, 300 miles.     Defending champ: Buddy Lazier.     Noteworthy: Lazier has won the first two IRL races at Kentucky Speedway and can become the first IRL driver to win the same event three years in a row.     IRL point standings: 1. Gil de Ferran, 377; 2. Helio Castroneves, 365; 3. Sam Hornish Jr., 359; 4. Felipe Giaffone, 330; 5. Alex Barron, 261; 6. Airton Dare, 246; 7. Scott Sharp, 230; 8. Jeff Ward, 223; 9. Al Unser Jr., 207; 10. Tomas Scheckter, 202.

        “It's been a long year for me,” Fisher said. “Not having a job in the beginning of the season was really hard. I've always wanted to produce the type of results I produced in midgets and sprint cars. It's been difficult to do that. But the team has gotten me back to square one.”

        Fisher doesn't have a signed contract for next season with Dreyer and Reinbold yet, but team officials should put one together by the end of the season. It certainly helps that she won the first pole in the team's history.

        On a day when car handling was better near the end of qualifying, Fisher declined to make her run after an early warmup lap and came back an hour after Eliseo Salazar, who will start in last place, began the competition at 5:45p.m. She said she got the dream lap she has wanted since she joined the IRL on her second go-around.

        “I don't know what it is,” Fisher said. “I just think this track fits my style to a T.”

        It's not surprising the performance came at Kentucky, where Fisher finished third in 2000. Other than one day of testing at Nazareth, Pa., before she joined Dreyer and Reinbold, Kentucky is the only track she has tested at all season.

        Boat Indy Racing driver Billy Boat will start next to Fisher after he posted a 221.364 mph qualifying speed, which also broke Scott Goodyear's 2-year-old track record.

        “We can't complain,” Boat said. “All I can say is I got beat by the girl the least.”

        Fisher isn't the first female in auto racing to win a pole; Shawna Robinson won a NASCAR Busch Series pole in 1994. Fisher downplayed her achievement.

        “I couldn't really care about history,” she said. “Being a woman in racing is nothing that I've never looked at seriously. I've always just been a driver.”

        Fisher said the pole doesn't rank with returning to the IRL this season as her best moment in racing. A win today probably would top that, though. Fisher's career-best finish is a second-place showing at Miami in 2001.

        The IRL's points leader, Marlboro/Team Penske's Gil deFerran, struggled with control Saturday despite a positive test run last week.

        He will start 10th, on the inside of row five, while teammate Helio Castroneves is on the outside of the second row.

        “I'm a little disappointed with (Saturday's) run,” deFerran said. “The track was completely different from our last practice session. It's hard to know where to aim when you don't know what the track is going to be like.”

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