Sarah Fisher pulling out as IndyCar owner, starting Speedway go-kart facility

One of IndyCar's favorite teams is changing for the upcoming season. Former driver Sarah Fisher is ready to switch her career into a different lane.

One of the most popular figures in IndyCar is no longer running a race team in the series. The team Sarah Fisher co-owned with driver Ed Carpenter and Kansas oil man Wink Hartman announced Thursday that only Carpenter still has an ownership interest in the team.
 
The "CFH Racing" sign still hangs on the race shop on Main Street in Speedway, but the IndyCar team with that name is no more.    

"It's definitely amicable," said Fisher. "There are no hard feelings anywhere. It would be wishful to keep it going, but I think it just had to go this route in order to have a good path moving forward. Everybody's happy with that. We just want to see it move forward and do well."

Fisher, who drove nine times in the Indianapolis 500, formed her own race team in 2008. Hartman became part owner of the team in 2011. They combined efforts in August 2014 with Carpenter and won two races with driver Josef Newgarden in 2015.

But after just one season of CFH Racing, Carpenter returns to Ed Carpenter Racing. Carpenter, Tony George and Stuart Reed are the owners of ECR. 

"In racing, things change," said Carpenter, standing in the race shop where everything is still labeled CFH Racing. "You have to be ready to adapt. Last year about this time, we were talking about a new team named CFH. Now today we're talking about going back to a former team in Ed Carpenter Racing. We definitely didn't see this coming when we came together to form CFH last year. But the way things shook out with the partnership and what Mr. Hartman had going on and everything else, it just made sense to go back to Ed Carpenter Racing for 2016."

Fisher is definitely not getting out of racing. She and her husband, Andy O'Gara, are the owners of Speedway Indoor Karting, just a couple blocks down Main Street from the race shop. The indoor karting facility opens April 1 with an oval and a 14-turn, two-level road course. 

Construction began 13 weeks ago on the 60,000-square foot facility that includes conference rooms and the 1911 Grill restaurant. The nearly $5 million project opens in time for the 100th Indy 500.

"There are no investors," said Fisher. "All the stress of that is something else. But it's just awesome. It's a state-of-the-art indoor karting facility with two simultaneously running go-kart tracks. We're just really excited to have some fans getting involved in racing again right here next to IMS."

So Sarah will still be close to IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500.

"I love IndyCar racing," said Fisher. "I came back and fought my way back after choosing a couple routes in the past. I have space in the back of this facility that a USAC team will be in for sure. I will definitely be around in May. I plan on still helping Ed a little bit on the business and marketing and partnership side with the partners that have supported us along the way." 

Carpenter continues as IndyCar's only owner/driver, competing in all five oval events in the No. 20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet. 

"The important thing to me is in the shop and everything going on here nothing has really changed," said Carpenter, who owns three IndyCar wins and won back-to-back poles at the Indy 500 in 2013 and 2014. "The preparation has been ongoing all off-season. It's really just branding outside the building and it makes headlines. We're changing names today. But it's the same group of people that we've been working with."

Josef Newgarden will race the No. 21 Chevrolet throughout the entire season for ECR. The team would still like to find a driver for the No. 20 car for the street/road course events.

"I may never have had the chance to race an Indy car if it was not for Wink Hartman, Libba Hartman, Sarah Fisher and Andy O'Gara," said Newgarden in a team news release. "They really were a huge turning point in my career and helped me break into the professional level. Their support was everything and more that a young driver could ask for. Moving forward, I'm extremely excited about 2016 with Ed Carpenter Racing. I enjoy working with Ed Carpenter so much, as both a teammate and a team owner. I look forward to putting 100 percent into the season and trying to achieve greater and bigger results." 

Ed Carpenter Racing begins the season with testing at Phoenix International Raceway on February 8. The first race of the 2016 IndyCar season is Sunday, March 13 in St. Petersburg, Florida.