INDIANAPOLIS — Sarah Fisher thought she had survived racing’s toughest hardships — the crashes, driving second-tier cars and finding work when few jobs were available.

The past two weeks have changed her perspective.

After starting her own team this season, Fisher planned to run three IndyCar races with the financial help coming primarily from ResQ, a sports drink company, and Gravity Entertainment. But when neither sponsor paid the bills, the 27-year-old Ohio native had to scramble for cash at the same time she was trying to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Welcome to life as an IndyCar driver-owner.

“Getting money is the hardest thing in the world,” Fisher said Wednesday when rain washed out all but 45 minutes of Indianapolis 500 practice. “You don’t want to upset the sponsors.”

Fans who voted Fisher as the Indy Racing League’s most popular driver three times are now waging a grass roots campaign to help her cash-strapped team get back in the black.

They began donating money to Fisher last weekend, and a local sports radio station started a telethon to help raise more money for Fisher’s team.

Fisher and her husband, Andy O’Gara, risked their life savings to put Fisher’s No. 67 car in the May 25 race and are now looking at what could be an even shorter season than anticipated.

She’s been meeting regularly with potential sponsors and announced Wednesday that she had finally secured two deals — one with IUPUI, a local university, and another with Hartman Oil out of Kansas.

Yes, the two deals would certainly help offset any losses Fisher may incur this month at the historic 2.5-mile oval. Running the entire month at Indy is estimated to take more than $1 million, although the continual rain has at least saved some tires.

Rain washed out 2 1/2 days of practice last week, and the second day of qualifications Sunday.

More rain is expected Thursday afternoon, the next time drivers are expected to be on the track.

Pole winner Scott Dixon had the fastest lap Wednesday, going 222.834 mph on a day many drivers were cautious because of a cool, drying track.

Still, the rainouts aren’t helping Fisher trim her car for the final two days of qualifying this weekend, nor is it helping her get ready for race day.

So she’s focused on finding money to keep her dreams alive.

“At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we know we’re not going to be in a big hole at the end of the deal,” she said. “Right now, it looks like a small hole and, hopefully, it will be no hole.”

Fisher has a respectable resume.

She finished third in 2000 at Kentucky, then produced a second-place finish at Homestead in 2001 — both records for a woman in IndyCar racing at the time. The next year, she became the fastest female qualifier ever at Indy, going 229.439 mph — a distinction she still holds — and then became the first woman to win an IndyCar pole, at Kentucky in 2002.

The past several seasons, however, have been a struggle. She made one IRL start in 2004, finishing 19th at Indy, and only qualified for two IRL races in 2006.

Last year, she drove in all 17 races for Dreyer & Reinbold, finishing a season-best seventh at Iowa.

But this year, she came to Indy with visions of expanding her team and now is simply trying to climb out of the deficit left by her previous sponsors.

“We put everything we had into this,” she said. “The IUPUI deal helps, but it’s not enough to do Chicago or Kentucky. So we’re talking to a bunch of people.”