SPARTA, Ky. (AP) – Sarah Fisher roared out of Turn 4 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday and glided over the track’s notorious bumps, the ones she said she dreamt about after announcing her return to the Indy Racing League for the Meijer Indy 300.

Everything was just as Fisher remembered, until her Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara Honda popped out of gear as she crossed the start/finish line following her first qualifying lap.

Still, even two years removed from her last IRL start, Fisher didn’t hesitate, powering through Turn 1 to earn the 12th spot in Sunday’s 19-car field. Helio Castroneves won the pole with an average speed of 218.328 mph over the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

“Luckily I saved it,” said Fisher, whose last IndyCar start was the 2004 Indy 500, when she finished 21st. “I’m not disappointed. We still managed to get our run in.”

And for now, that’s enough. Fisher holds no great expectations for Sunday’s race.

“It’s unfair to think that top five, that’s unfair from any angle,” she said. “Personally I’d like to see a Top 10. That would be a win. If we can do that then we’ll all look like heroes.”

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for Fisher since she announced her one-race tryout with Dreyer & Reinbold after spending last season in NASCAR’s Grand National West series.

Still, she says she feels at home in IndyCars, so much so that when she got fitted for her seat earlier in the week, she fell asleep.

“It’s just so familiar,” said Fisher, who competed on the IRL series between 1999-2004 and was the first female driver to earn a pole when she set a track record during qualifying at Kentucky in 2002.

“It was even better than I remembered.”

Fisher, 25, says she’s better prepared to handle the spotlight now than she was when she first broke into the IRL.

Then again, this time, she’s got another female driver to share the spotlight with, though both Fisher and circuit star Danica Patrick say there is no rivalry brewing between them.

“I don’t look at (Patrick’s car) and go, ‘I’ve got to go faster than her,”‘ said Fisher. “That’s not how it is at all.”

Patrick, who qualified 11th and will start alongside Patrick in row six, said making up the first all-female row in an IndyCar race is no big deal.

“I don’t understand what the fascination is,” Patrick said. “But you know being a girl in general is different. You put a couple in there and it hasn’t happened before really outside the (Indy) 500. I guess we’re refreshing an old story.”

A story that could bring plenty of attention to the IRL. A billboard on an interstate near Kentucky Speedway proclaimed Sunday’s race “Rumble in the Bluegrass” and featured a picture of Patrick on one side and Fisher on the other.

“I think we’re both getting a pretty good laugh out of it,” Fisher said. “I know I am.”

Besides, a rivalry brews over time. Fisher said she’s not certain what her racing future holds no matter how she does on Sunday. She doesn’t view the race as an audition for next year or a battle royal to determine the top female driver in the IRL.

“For people to decide whether I’m a good driver or a bad driver off of this one race, that’s ridiculous,” said Fisher, who is still weighing her options for next season.

Instead, she’ll simply drive as hard as she can for as long as she can. She’s not expecting miracles while working with a new crew for the first time.

“That first weekend it’s like, ‘Hi, my name is and by the way can you make these changes for me,”‘ she said. “It’s a very difficult scenario to put yourself in.”

Still, it’s one that she welcomes.

On Saturday, she took her time in front of each microphone, enduring the questions about her return and the rivalry – or non-rivalry – with Patrick with a smile.

“I just appreciate everyone so much more now,” she said. “This is like being at home.”

AP-ES-08-12-06 1915EDT