HILLIARD, Ohio - The checkered flag flew over the Rahal Letterman Racing headquarters in Hilliard, Ohio this week for the first time in more than three seasons, following a time-honored team tradition that sees the team fly the checkers for the week after a victory.

But while last week’s breakout result at Watkins Glen earned new respect for the team and driver Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone), the fact of the matter is that respect is the only thing that carries over from Watkins Glen to Nashville Superspeedway this weekend.

The team heads back to the oval tracks after its road-course win last weekend and must follow up on the victory with another strong performance if it is to build on the momentum that last week’s first-place result provided.

“It’s been a great week for me and I have been doing a lot of running around with media and sponsors but it’s time to get back to work,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s not like I get to start first or run fewer laps because we won last week. That’s the great thing about this series, you have to prove it every week against the best drivers in the world. I am looking forward to the challenge and I know the team is more than ready to keep it going.”

The 1.33-mile superspeedway with the concrete surface is new to Hunter-Reay, which will afford him the opportunity to take part in a portion of the rookie practice session slated for Thursday afternoon. This will be the last time that the Texas-born driver will have that chance however, as Nashville is the last track on the schedule that Hunter-Reay has yet to compete on.

Hunter-Reay’s victory last weekend earned him a jump of four positions in the IndyCar Series point standings, boosting him from 13th to ninth, putting him in the top 10 for the first time since after the season opener in Homestead. The challenge now becomes to put strong finishes together for the first time this season for the team as the Ethanol-sponsored car has yet to score back-to-back top-10 results in 2008. Another solid finish would go a long way toward pushing the team into the top five in the series standings as the gap between fifth-placed Marco Andretti and Hunter-Reay in ninth is just 21 points.

“We gave ourselves a great opportunity to make some moves with our Watkins Glen win but we can’t get complacent or take anything for granted,” Hunter-Reay reported. “We believe that the road courses are our strength and we have four more coming up, but if we can get a good result on the oval this week, it puts us in great shape for the back end of the schedule.”    

Hunter-Reay will be allowed to run in 30 minutes of Thursday’s two-hour rookie practice session at Nashville, which will serve as the only track action of the day on Thursday. Teams are slated to receive two hours and 45 minutes of practice time leading into tomorrow’s four-lap qualifying, while the 200-lap Firestone Indy 200 takes place at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday night and can be seen live on ESPN.
 

Rahal Letterman Racing Nashville Notes:
 
The 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway is unique among racing circuits as it is the only one on the schedule with a concrete surface instead of asphalt. The characteristics of the track makes it harder on the Firestone Firehawk tires that the Indy Cars run on, and can reduce the track to a one-groove layout simply due to the pieces of rubber that the abrasive surface shaves off the tires during the race. The track opened in 2001 and has hosted the IndyCar Series in every year of its existence. Scott Dixon is the only driver to win more than once in the previous seven events and he is also the only driver to have won more than one pole. The track is also unique for its winner’s trophy, which is a guitar - befitting the Tennessee capital’s status as Music City.
 
Ryan Hunter-Reay will make his 60th open-wheel start this weekend and his first as an IndyCar race winner. Hunter-Reay won his first IndyCar race and his third major open-wheel event with last weekend’s victory at Watkins Glen. This weekend’s trip to Nashville will bring a formal end to his rookie status in the IndyCar Series as the concrete speeddrome is the last track on the schedule at which he has never raced. He joined the team last season in Mid-Ohio as a replacement for Jeff Simmons.
 
Team Facts - Rahal Letterman Racing has made 11 starts at Nashville dating back to 2003. The team is the only one in track history to sweep the front row in qualifying when Buddy Rice and Vitor Meira qualified 1-2 respectively in 2004. RLR has made three front row starts at Nashville, the last coming in 2005 when Danica Patrick started second. Patrick also has the team’s best Nashville finish when she placed fourth in 2006. The team has six top-10 finishes in Nashville with five different drivers. RLR has qualified in the top 10 for eight of those 11 starts.
 
Team Stats - In its 17 seasons of Indy Car racing RLR has made 570 starts, collected 78 podium results (top-three), 150 top-five finishes and 312 top-10 results while leading 3,592 laps. The team has scored victories in nine of its 17 seasons and has scored poles in 10 years. The team has never gone through a racing season without leading a lap and has scored at least one podium result in 16 of its 17 seasons. Rahal Letterman Racing has won 20 races and 29 pole positions since its inception in 1992 as Rahal Hogan Racing. Of the team’s 20 wins, seven have come on oval tracks of a mile or longer, the last of those being Buddy Rice’s 2004 victory at Michigan. Of Rahal Letterman Racing’s 29 pole positions, 17 have come on ovals of more than a mile, the most recent being Scott Sharp’s pole at Texas one year ago.