S arah Fisher had a birthday this week, but that wasn’t the big celebration in her life.

Her IndyCar Series team is expanding — again.

Sarah Fisher Racing will be a two-car team in 2010, and Fisher will drive in more races than she has in a season since creating the small, family-owned organization two years ago.

Fisher, 29, will compete in nine races, three more than she will have been in this season after Saturday night’s Firestone Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In four of those, including the Indianapolis 500, she will have Jay Howard as a teammate.

Fisher’s No. 67 car will continue to be sponsored by Dollar General with help from Tire Kingdom, which will be the primary sponsor on Howard’s No. 66 car.

Fisher isn’t even trying to conceal her excitement.

“We’re going to get to bring a couple of more people on board (as employees), and to see us grow, it’s really incredible,” she said in preparation for today’s official rollout at Homestead.

Fisher owns the Indianapolis-based team along with her father-in-law, John O’Gara . They enter this weekend’s race with a staff of nine, including Fisher’s husband, Andy O’Gara , the team manager.

The signing of Howard was natural, Fisher said, given that he spent a good part of the 2008 season with Roth Racing, located next door to Fisher’s team on Rockville Road. The use of No. 66 not only ties in with Fisher’s number, it, like Fisher’s, is a tie to his early days as a driver.

Howard will compete at Indy, Texas, Mid-Ohio and Chicagoland. Fisher’s schedule still is being worked out, but it will be a mixture of ovals and road/street circuits.

Adding Howard became possible in August when Fisher received a surprise gift — a new Dallara — from longtime sponsor Hartman Oil.

Fisher doesn’t have a top-10 finish in five races this season, but her car, a 2003 model that Howard will use, has been competitive. She qualified 11th and finished 13th in her first race, in April at Kansas, qualified 14th at Texas and finished 12th at Kentucky (on the lead lap).

For a start-from-scratch operation, it’s progress — with more to come, it appears.

“I couldn’t be happier,” she said.

This weekend, Fisher’s car will be pink as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She also will have pink Firestone tires.

All IndyCar officials will be wearing pink shirts during Saturday’s race (5 p.m., Versus), and Alex Lloyd ’s first race with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing will be with No. 40202, the text-to-donate number for the fundraiser “Stand Up To Cancer.”

Fernandez out of business

Fernandez Racing, which at its zenith employed 52 people for two IndyCar and one American Le Mans Series program, will participate in its final race this weekend as the ALMS concludes its season in Monterey, Calif.

The team will release the last of its 19 employees Oct. 31 because of a lack of sponsorship. The shop, owned by team co-owner Tom Anderson and his wife, Cheryl , will be leased “with or without the equipment.”

“We shook the trees pretty hard for eight months, but we haven’t sold anything,” Anderson said.

The season-ending Grand Am Series race in Homestead also could have a farewell as Penske Racing is expected to convert its sports car program to an IndyCar operation for Will Power .

Etc.

A spaghetti dinner is scheduled Saturday at Decatur Intermediate School (5650 Mann Road, Indianapolis) as a benefit for Nic Nihiser , a member of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s marketing department. The father-to-be was critically injured last month riding his bicycle downtown. The event begins at 4 p.m. . . . IndyCar pit reporter and Indianapolis native Brienne Pedigo celebrated the birth of her first child last week; it’s a boy, Greysun James Christopher .