IndyCar: Team co-owner Sarah Fisher to compete in this month’s Chili Bowl

By Jan 6, 2015, 11:30 AM EST
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source: Getty Images
Sarah Fisher has not raced since the 2010 IndyCar finale at Homestead (above). But she’ll be competing later this month in the Chili Bowl Nationals midget car event. Photo: Getty Images.

For the first time since the 2010 Verizon IndyCar Series season finale, Sarah Fisher will be behind the wheel of a race car.

The IndyCar team owner, who recently merged her squad with Ed Carpenter’s to form CFH Racing, will be driving the No. 67RW midget sprint car later this month in the prestigious Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hartman Oil, owned by Kansas businessman Wink Hartman (the ‘H’ in CFH), will be Fisher’s main sponsor. The program will be fielded by RW Motorsports.

Fisher has long been a fixture in IndyCar racing, both as a driver (83 starts from 1999-2010) and an owner. She holds several accolades including: Most Indianapolis 500 starts by a female driver (nine), first female driver to win a pole position for a major open-wheel event (Kentucky 2002; 221.390 mph), and first female team owner to win an IndyCar race (Kentucky 2011, with Carpenter as her driver).

But the Ohioan’s roots lie largely in the sprint car world. After racing quarter midgets and karts while growing up, she embarked on a successful sprint car career in her teenage years before making her IRL debut in 1999 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Now, after a successful test session last October, she’ll be making her debut in the biggest midget racing event of all. The Chili Bowl begins Jan. 12 with Fisher competing in qualifying on Jan. 15. Points received during qualifying will determine her starting position for the feature race day on Jan. 17.

“Competing in the Chili Bowl has always been a bucket list item for me and with the support of Wink, I am able to fulfill another dream,” Fisher said in a release. “By attending the event last year to cheer on my brother-in-law, Kyle O’Gara, I was able to experience the atmosphere and see how much fun it was. I wanted to be racing in it the next time I came back.”

“…I have raced on dirt in the World Of Outlaws and the All Star Circuit of Champions, but being in a midget on dirt is a new experience for me and I am very excited for the challenge!”

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

By May 29, 2023, 6:01 PM EDT
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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33.  Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports