Fisher earns 9th place qualification

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sarah Fisher spent her post-qualifying news conference Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway smiling, laughing, joking and savoring every moment.\nFisher qualified ninth for the Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average of 229.439 mph -- easily the fastest by a woman in Indy history.\n"Today, we accomplished exactly what we were aiming for," she said, grinning. "There was still a little left that we could have taken out with the trim but that wasn't the point. We just wanted a steady consistent car, and it was perfect."\nFisher did much better than expected after posting a 226.970 on Friday, her fastest lap since she got the ride with the Dreyer & Reinbold team on Wednesday.\nShe will start on the outside of the third row after out-qualifying former Indy champs Helio Castroneves, Kenny Brack, Buddy Lazier and Al Unser Jr. A fifth, Arie Luyendyk, didn't even qualify Saturday.\nAnd she is only the second woman, following Lyn St. James in 1994, to earn a start in the front three rows at Indianapolis. The only other woman to race at Indy is Janet Guthrie, who broke the gender barrier 25 years ago.\nFisher, who declines to speak in terms of women's records, shattered St. James' mark of 225.346 in 1995.\n"I've been faster than these guys sometimes," she said. "I almost had the pole in Richmond last year."\nFisher started second in that race and had qualified in the top seven four times in 23 previous IRL starts.