Daytona Beach, FL (AHN) - Commercial Point, Ohio's Sarah Fisher has been voted the IndyCar Series Most Popular Driver three times in her racing career.

Fisher, driver of the No. 5 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, hopes to make her sixth Indianapolis 500 start this year, a feat she has never let go to her head.

"Having the privilege to compete in the Indy 500 is something you can never take for granted,'' said Fisher.

IndyCar star Danica Patrick, the newest member of Andretti Green Racing, has had her share of success and celebrity, but it has taken time for her to get there.

Patrick, one of IndyCar's most-sought drivers as far as marketability, wasn't openly accepted when she first broke into the series, but talent on the track and the rise of her status has brought her to a new level of acceptance among her peers.

"It's so fun to be around these guys, have guys that call and want to hang out with you outside of just being at the track. We'll go out to dinner together. You'll just call and send text messages to each other,'' said Patrick. "You have more of a friendship than I've experienced before. Of course, not only are they fantastic drivers, but they're also friends, so that's something new for me.''NASCAR has Erin Crocker, a 25-year development driver with Evernham Motorsports, who has yet to reach the celebrity status of a Fisher or Patrick, but has shown she has the ability to compete.Crocker has finished runner-up in ARCA RE/MAX Series events and won poles in that series, but in 37 starts in the NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck Series she has yet to score a top-10 finish.

Women are making their move - slowly but surely - into the racing circles, but nowhere more so than the place where drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney laid the groundwork."The door is open for women. It's been open thanks to Shirley Muldowney. Shirley took the lumps for all the girls, putting up with the bullshit that the men gave 'em, that they didn't belong here,'' said drag racing legend John Force. "They shouldn't have messed with Shirley because to me she's the king, and always will be. She's Babe Ruth to me.''Muldowney was the lone female in the men-dominated sport of drag racing throughout the 1970s and 1980s before retiring. Not only did Muldowney compete, but she became a winner and a three-time NHRA champion in the sport.Today Muldowney is long-time retired, but many have followed her lead on to the drag strips of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA)."I always rooted for all the gals in every different category, of course, Shirley Muldowney. She's a good friend of my dad's. I met her a handful of times. I've seen movies on her, read books about the things she went through. It was a whole different world when she started. She paved the way. I couldn't imagine,'' said Ashley Force, John's daughter and a rookie in the Funny Car ranks. "Right now I go to all the races, all my competitors and other racers are excited to have me out there, excited to have women in the other lane. I can't imagine it not being that way. I'm very lucky to come in at a time where it's not only accepted, but people are happy about it. That wasn't the case back when she started.''

Ashley Force, 24, turned heads this season by entering the 8,000-horsepower Castrol GTX Ford into the Funny Car division. Force is getting most of the attention because of her 14-time champion father, the family's television show "Driving Force,' and because of the equipment she's wheeling, but she is far from alone in the NHRA ranks these days.Eight females are currently competing in the NHRA, whose next stop will be in Gainesville, Fla., March 15-18, at the AC Delco Gatornationals.Hillary Will and Melanie Troxel compete in the Top Fuel Division, Erica Enders runs in the Pro Stock Division and Connie Cohen, Peggy Llewellyn, Angelle Sampey and Karen Stoffer all compete in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class."I think the drag-racing market, Shirley Muldowney gave the start, women in drag racing, and really opened the door,'' said John Force, "and now for the first time in NHRA history, they have four women in all four categories."Ashley Force, a graduate of California State University-Fullerton where she majored in communications with an emphasis on TV and film, made news this season by becoming just the 10th woman licensed to drive a fuel Funny Car.Muldowney was the Funny Car runner-up to Richard Tharp at the IHRA's 1972 U.S. Open Nationals at Rockingham, N.C. and the last female Funny Car driver to qualify for an NHRA national event was Cristen Powell, who last drove in the 2000 O'Reilly Fall Nationals at Dallas, Texas.Force, who also has two sisters - Brittany and Courtney -- that drive in Super Comp and another sister who's married to teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight, appears to be a chip off the old block as she has her sights set on doing what those before her couldn't."(Dad) trained me. It's his own fault now I'm coming after him. He knows every aspect of the business, where the rest of us are just drivers. He runs the business, makes all the decisions. He's got a lot more on his plate than any of us. We get to strap in the car and have fun. He's been my teacher the whole way,'' said Ashley Force. "I think it will be exciting to have the two of us competing with each other. It's not about beating dad or beating Eric (Medlen) or Robert. It's about any of us beating everyone else, getting one of the John Force Racing cars into the winner's circle.'' After spending three seasons in Super Comp, Ashley began driving an A/Fuel dragster for Californians Jerry Darien and Ken Meadows in 2004. Her first national event victory came in her rookie season in the Top Alcohol Dragster division at the 50th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., the world's oldest, largest and richest drag racing event.

She also won that year at Dallas, Texas, and at Pomona, where she shared the winners' circle at the season-ending Auto Club Finals with her father as the only father-and-daughter winners in NHRA history.

In three seasons in Top Alcohol, the former high school cheerleader went to nine final rounds and won five times. She finished fourth, seventh and fifth in national points during her three seasons in the dragster."As far as from a driving standpoint, I gradually moved up through the ranks. There was no other category I could have prepared in. The next step up was either pro dragster or pro Funny Car. I went slowly through the process. I experienced many different sensations in the car last year, tire shake, pedaling it, getting sideways, dropping cylinders, catching fire, setting fire bottles off on accident. I went through a lot of that in testing, getting all the kinks out because your car will not always go A-to-B. That's the easy part of it,'' said Ashley Force. "This is kind of the next step. My Dad felt I was ready. I was ready to make the move. All the puzzle pieces fit together and we decided to make the jump. I know it will be a learning curve, but thankfully I did all those other years in racing.''

In her first race of the season at Pomona, she was briefly bumped out by her dad in a head-to-head battle and then battled back to qualify 15th before being knocked out by her brother-in-law and teammate, Hight."(It) got pretty tense right down in the last day of qualifying at the NHRA POWERade kickoff at Pomona. And, Dad bumped the girl out but the girl bumped right back in. I'm real proud of her, she did a great job,'' said John Force. "It was exciting until I bumped her out. If you've seen my (TV show) on A and E, 'Driving Force,' I'm sleeping on the couch and it didn't help none when I took my kid out in that first session, last session of qualifying. I got back to the starting line and the wife was a little bit upset. My kid went out there, like the tiger she is, she bounced back in the show, and it was a proud moment for me. When she straps in that seat she's a tiger, she's like her old man, and looks a whole lot cuter. She looks like her momma."In the second stop of the season, Ashley Force qualified sixth, but was disqualified in the first round for crossing the center line."I felt really bad because my team gave me such a great race car," Ashley Force said. "I always used to wonder what those drivers were thinking when they went over the center line. Now I can tell it's not that easy (to keep a 7,000 horsepower race car under control). Dad said it's just part of the learning experience." And her sponsors and backers weren't swayed by the early exit."Ashley has been progressing through the Ford and Force program the past few years and we've watched her grow into a very talented drag racer,'' said Ford Racing boss Dan Davis. "She has the skills and the mindset to be extremely competitive.''