Indy notebook: Fisher’s tough month ends with crash

INDIANAPOLIS — Nobody had a worse May — or a worse race day — than Sarah Fisher.

First, her sponsors backed out of their deals after Fisher and her husband poured their life savings into her new race team. Then, armed with a new set of sponsors for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, Fisher endured a whole new set of problems, culminating with her No. 67 car being taken out in a crash on Lap 106.

Like the rest of the month, it wasn’t even her fault.

“I’ve been known my whole career to be able to get out of incidents like that,” Fisher said, crying. “That’s the crazy thing about this sport. This is going to set us back a little bit. I think I’ve experienced every emotion there is to it.”

Fisher crashed three times in her first four career starts at Indy, but this race day might have been the worst of all.

When Mari Hulman George gave the traditional command for drivers to start their engines, Fisher sat on the starting grid waiting for her crew to fire the engine as the other 32 cars pulled away.

Once she got started, Fisher used the pace laps to get back into her No. 22 starting position.

But just 13 laps into the race, Fisher spun entering the third turn, stalling the car and gliding to a stop in the grass near the pit entrance. Fortunately, she didn’t hit the wall, and after the crew checked the car and got it restarted, Fisher made it back onto the track.

It still wasn’t over.

When race leader Tony Kanaan hit the wall in turn three, he slid across the track right in front of Fisher — who had nowhere to go — and sent her sliding into the side wall near pit road.

“It’s just racing,” she said. “Tony was racing real hard for the lead and got high, and just spun right there in front of me.”

Kanaan, knowing the circumstances, tried to console the 27-year-old who was voted the Indy Racing League’s most popular driver three consecutive times this decade.

“I feel bad for her,” Kanaan said. “She worked so hard this month — her husband and her family, to put this deal together. She deserved a lot better than that.”

Now Fisher must deal with the ramifications.

She had hoped to run two more races this season on the IndyCar circuit, but Sunday’s misfortune and 30th-place finish might have ended that dream, too.

“I really wanted to go to Kentucky, and now I don’t know if we’re going to do that or not,” she said.

It was the second consecutive year, three women started the race. Danica Patrick finished 22nd after being taken out in a pit crash, while Venezuela’s Milka Duno was 19th after crashing on Lap 169.

DANCING WITH THE PACK: Two-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves may be a masterful dancer.

But his fleet feet couldn’t help him get to back to Victory Lane.

Castroneves, who finished first, first and second in his first three starts and started fourth Sunday, couldn’t keep up with the drivers from Andretti Green or Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

He never led the race and finished fourth, despite staying out trouble.

SKULL GAME: As if the new Indiana Jones movie hadn’t gotten enough hype, Marco Andretti added his own touch before Sunday’s race.

Of course, the 21-year-old son of team owner Michael Andretti and grandson of 1969 Indy winner Mario Andretti, was driving a car whose primary sponsor was the movie.

But Andretti took commercialization to a new level during driver warmups. He wore an outfit designed to make him look like Indiana Jones, the movie’s title character.

PIT STOPS: When Tony Kanaan took the lead on Lap 94, he set an Indy record by leading in his seventh consecutive 500. Before Sunday, he and Rick Mears shared the record at six. … Buddy Rice also led early Sunday, marking the first time since his win he’s held the lead at Indy. … Bruno Junqueira has led at least one lap in four of his five Indy starts. … Junqueira’s team and crew members from the pit fire team rushed to put out the fire in A.J. Foyt IV’s car on Lap 39. … Rookie E.J. Viso was penalized and sent to the back of the field when a tire from his team rolled across pit lane on Lap 41. … Thirty-nine of the first 90 laps were run under caution. … The youngest driver in the race, 19-year-old Graham Rahal, was the first car out. The oldest driver in the race, 49-year-old Marty Roth, was the second car out.