SONOMA, Calif. - It is in the nature of an athlete to be disappointed any time that he or she feels that they didn’t achieve a result they believe they should have - even if the result turns out to be one of the athlete’s best.
 
That is how a sunny Saturday in Sonoma went for Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone), who posted the best road-course qualifying result of the year for Rahal Letterman Racing in earning the seventh starting spot for tomorrow’s IndyCar Series Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway. But despite the fact that he hung up a strong result, Hunter-Reay was more upset about what could have been than he was about how well things had gone for the rookie driver.
    
The Floridian carded a time of 1:17.8865 (106.309 mph) on his single qualifying lap around the 2.26-mile road course, a time that was .21 seconds shy of landing him a spot in the Firestone Fast Six, the IndyCar Series qualifying method that would have given Hunter-Reay a second shot at his first series pole.
    
"It's a shame because two-tenths of a second would have been enough to get us in the Firestone Fast Six,” Hunter-Reay said. “As we have done everywhere, we have been getting quicker and quicker throughout the weekend and the guys gave me a good car today. It's a long race tomorrow and we are in a pretty good spot. Passing opportunities will be hard to come by here, but we'll be ready to take advantage any time we get a chance.”
         
The Motorola Indy 300 will take place tomorrow evening with the 80-lap event slated to begin at 3:30 Eastern Time. Fans can see all the action live on ESPN.