INDY 500 Sarah Fisher is hoping to survive Bump Day

She is the only woman and the slowest qualifier for the Indianapolis 500 May 25.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Sarah Fisher knows how she'll spend this weekend.
Watching, waiting, testing her backup car, maybe even holding her breath.
Fisher is the only woman in the Indianapolis 500 field. She's also the slowest qualifier, meaning today's Bump Day could be tense if more than nine cars attempt to make the race.
"It will be hell in a nutshell," she said with a smile Friday after practice ended at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "The only person here who can really tell you what it's like is Billy Boat."
Boat has been the slowest starter in the 33-car field each of the last two years, meaning he would have been the first one knocked out. He still hasn't qualified this year.
Both have good shots
There's a good chance neither will be knocked out of the lineup for the May 25 race because of the numbers.
Fisher was one of 24 cars to qualify last weekend and while her four-lap qualifying average of 224.170 mph is the slowest entering today's final round of qualifications, only nine non-qualified driver-car combinations remain.
If all make it into the lineup, the Indy 500 would avoid starting with less than a full field for the first time since 1947 -- but only barely.
Should any other drivers be added, Fisher could be sweating the results.
"Actually, I don't think it will be as bad as people say," she explained. "This year, we're not as likely to have much bumping in the field."
For much of the week, the most significant question was whether any bumping would even occur.
Only 29 driver-car combinations took laps during the first week of practice, and with the focus on just filling the starting grid this week, some teams have been making moves.
On Friday, Roger Penske's team agreed to lease one of his six available cars, Gil de Ferran's No. 6T backup, to Sam Schmidt Motorsports. The deal is for one race, and Penske Racing president Tim Cindric declined to give financial details.
Schmidt hired Richie Hearn as the driver, which forced Panther Racing owner John Barnes to alter his plan of having Hearn qualify the team's third car.
After talking to several potential replacements, including George Mack and Max Papis, Barnes opted for another driver.
"We're going with Robby McGehee," Barnes said. "We're going to go get him fitted for a seat and he should be on the track tomorrow."
The addition of Hearn and McGehee were the most recent in a series of moves that finally gave Indy Racing League officials the possibility of a 33-car field.
A league spokesman said officials were not worried, and eventually the teams took care of the problem themselves.
Luyendyk shelved
Earlier this week, Mo Nunn Racing hired Alex Barron to replace two-time Indy winner Arie Luyendyk after he decided not to drive because of back pain and recurring headaches following a crashing in practice May 9.
Luyendyk said Friday was the first day he woke up without a headache, but his back was still sore.
Team owner John Menard also hired Brazil's Vitor Meira. Another Brazilian, Airton Dare, joined A.J. Foyt's team.
The other non-qualifiers are full-time CART driver Jimmy Vasser, Japan's Shigeaki Hattori and Jimmy Kite.
Kite has consistently been slower than Fisher, and Panther's third car, which uses a Chevrolet engine, also might not touch Fisher's speed from last Sunday. The Chevrolet engines have not been nearly as fast this month as the Toyotas and Hondas.
But if Fisher remains the slowest after field is filled, her starting spot would be in jeopardy.
She doesn't even want to consider the possibility.
"It doesn't make much financial sense to pay for an extra car, an extra motor," she said.