HILLIARD, Ohio - Here we stand or here we fall/History won’t care at all - Queen
      

Three consecutive top-10 finishes have earned Rahal Letterman Racing and Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) a solid shot at finishing the 2008 IndyCar Series season in the top 10 in point standings, but the next three weeks will determine whether the Ohio-based squad celebrates at the end of the year, or laments what could have been.
    

Hunter-Reay and the #17 Ethanol car are mired in a three-way tie for eighth in the series standings, knotted with Hideki Mutoh and Oriol Servia at 298 points with just three points-paying races remaining. This weekend’s PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County kicks off the season-ending string of three races in three weeks, with the newly-reconfigured 2.245-mile Infineon Raceway providing the first test of the season’s homestretch. The trio is just 13 points out of seventh place, four more out of sixth, but on the backside is just 16 markers away from needing a third hand to count its position. RLR has finished the year in the top 10 in each of its five seasons since joining the IndyCar Series in 2003 and isn’t looking to end that streak any time soon.
    

“This is the final stretch of the season and the points battle is extremely close, we're focused on picking up another win or podium before the season's out,” said Hunter-Reay. “Last season we really picked up the pace at this track as we barely missed the Firestone Fast Six, but we were unlucky and didn’t get to run but just five laps in the race. “This is another very tricky, challenging and extremely physical race track in some ways like Watkins Glen where we picked up a win.  To add to it, Northern California wine country isn't a bad place to hold a race either!”
   

Hunter-Reay had a strong weekend at Infineon last season in his first IndyCar visit there - at least until Sunday. He qualified seventh but suffered a cut brake line after battling wheel-to-wheel with Marco Andretti on the opening lap, forcing him to retire after just five laps.
   

The 12-turn road course nestled in California’s Wine Country has undergone a couple of changes from last year and now incorporates the drag strip coming out of Turn Six in a move designed to provide a harder braking zone heading into Turn Seven - and thus yielding a better passing opportunity. Hunter-Reay was one of the first IndyCar drivers to test the new layout and was impressed with the change.
   

"I have really been looking forward to going back to Sonoma.  Eliminating the bend to the left and now going up the drag strip makes for a wider passing opportunity, and I think that's good," Hunter-Reay reports. "Any passing opportunity is great for the series and good for the fans who come out and watch."
   

The Infineon weekend gets underway with two-and-a-half hours of practice on Friday, with another 30 minutes of practice on Saturday leading into Firestone Fast Six qualifying that afternoon. The 80-lap race will get underway beginning at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time and can be seen on ESPN.
 

Rahal Letterman Racing Infineon Notes:
 

The 2.245-mile 12-turn road course in Sonoma, California makes its fourth appearance on the IndyCar Series schedule, and fifth overall in Indy Car history, and has yet to see a two-time winner or a two-time polesitter. The picturesque circuit features a number of challenging elevation changes throughout, including a steep uphill climb into a tight section of turns that start each lap. The track was opened in 1968, and hosted its first Indy Car event in 1970 as Dan Gurney won from the third spot on the grid. The IndyCar Series returned to the track 35 years later as road courses began to appear on the league’s schedule.
 

Ryan Hunter-Reay will make his 64th open-wheel start this weekend and his second at Infineon Raceway. He started seventh there a year ago and finished 18th. He has finished in the top-10 in each of his last three road-course starts including the Watkins Glen event where he scored the third Indy Car victory of his career. He has made seven road-course starts in the IndyCar Series. He has top-10 finishes in four of those starts and has five top-10 qualifying results.  He has a three-race streak of top-10 finishes and another this weekend would give him his first four-race top-10 string since 2002-2003 - a streak that started with a victory at Surfers Paradise to end the 2002 Champ Car season.
 

Team Facts - Rahal Letterman Racing has made eight starts at Infineon Raceway in its history. Buddy Rice earned the team’s only podium result when he finished second to Tony Kanaan in 2005. Four of the eight starts have ended in top-10 finishes. Rice started sixth in ‘05 for the team’s best qualifying effort while Hunter-Reay’s seventh-place grid spot gave the team its only other top-10 starting position at the track. RLR is currently tied for eighth in the points, and has yet to finish outside the top 10 in the season-ending standings since joining the IndyCar Series full-time in 2003.
 

Team Stats - In its 17 seasons of Indy Car racing RLR has made 574 starts, collected 78 podium results (top-three), 150 top-five finishes and 315 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 road courses, the last being Hunter-Reay’s Watkins Glen win earlier this season. Of Rahal Letterman Racing’s 29 pole positions, 12 have come on road courses, the most recent being Michel Jourdain Jr.’s pole effort at Long Beach.