Not that anyone has noticed, but there’s a little thing called the United States Grand Prix going on this weekend over at some place called Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Why doesn’t anyone care? Why does F1 seem to be the soccer of auto racing in this country? Does the rest of the world know something we don’t?

Americans seem to be pretty stubborn when it comes to being told they’re missing out. No, we’re not, we say. Everyone else is wrong.

Formula One, we’re told, is the No. 1 form of racing in the world. Of course, I’m not sure you can call it racing sometimes, because there are more lead changes in one lap of the Indy Racing League than in one race in F1.

(Then again, no one seems to care too much about the IRL, either, despite its incredible races the last couple of months.)

But the casual motorsports fan, and even the casual sports fan, probably won’t watch a second of Sunday’s race. Maybe they could tell you who Michael Schumacher is, but naming a second F1 driver is like naming the second man on the moon.

And a third? Even more obscure than the third man on the moon.

(That’s Buzz Aldrin, by the way. Second moon guy, not F1 driver. Third man on the moon? Pete Conrad. I’m a NASA buff. Wanna know the fourth? OK, I’ll stop.)

Some say the answer to ending F1 anonymity is getting American drivers in the sport. Perhaps that’s true, but Michael Andretti’s season with McLaren did little to dent American’s cavalier attitude.

But Formula One officials aren’t exactly knocking down the doors of American drivers. Their sport is doing just fine, thank you, in the rest of the world. Who cares if us Yanks don’t get it?

Well, a few of us Yanks care. Maybe that’s why Sarah Fisher got a demonstration run in a 2002 McLaren at Indy on Friday. She only ran three laps around Indy’s road course, and it’s highly doubtful she’ll ever get another chance in an F1 car.

But at least she got some attention. The picture of a smiling Fisher in an F1 uniform next to an F1 car at an F1 race is priceless.

“Very exciting opportunity for me. Because of my partnership with Tag Heuer and their partnership with Team McLaren, it gave me the opportunity to feel what an F1 car is like. Any race-car driver in America will tell you that the ultimate is to at least drive these cars for a couple laps and see what it’s like.”

For Fisher, it was a unique sensation. She was more worried about not wrecking Kimi Raikkonen’s backup car than she was about turning a fast lap. Only one of her laps was “fast,” and that was a gentle fast.

Fisher did hit the button once, at least, feeling the incredible acceleration.

“The first time was like, ‘Whoa, OK. Thank God it’s got traction control,’ “ Fisher said. “It was great. It was fun. I didn’t get to light it up very much. Obviously, I only had three laps to do it, and by the third lap I’m thinking, ‘OK, at Turn 4 I can go in a bit deeper there,’ and they came on the radio and said, ‘OK, park it down on the bricks, you’re done.’“

She’d love to get a ride in Formula One, but who wouldn’t? Fisher is more worried about securing her IRL ride, and she said Friday that was all but a done deal.

But what about the future? If not Fisher, then another American? Sam Hornish? Buddy Rice? Tony Stewart? Jeff Gordon?

Or is there another young driver on the horizon?

Fisher hopes so.

“Because being in the States, F1 is only apparent in one venue,” Fisher said. “It makes it tough for Americans to follow F1 because in the IRL and NASCAR, we give American citizens the sport first-hand. We present drivers and personalities, and we air it all the time for them at the times they are awake and can watch it.

“It makes it tough for Americans to follow F1 because it’s not apparent in their day-to-day, 9-to-5 lives. By doing this, it gives Americans a better chance to watch F1, to make it a bit more popular for areas that were unaware.”