KENTUCKY PREVIEW - HILLIARD, Ohio - After last week’s manic mission to Michigan, the Rahal Letterman Racing team will head to Kentucky Speedway looking for a less-stressful event after a race in which the two IndyCar teams changed a driver helmet, a nose cone, made a tricky ride-height adjustment, downloaded and reinstalled data in the car and - just for good measure - made a three-tire change during a stop.
 
However, the duo of Scott Sharp  (#8 Patrón Dallara/Honda/Firestone) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) will likely not trade Michigan stress for Kentucky calm unless it comes with similar results. The RLR squad heads to this weekend’s Kentucky Indy 300 coming off a pair of top-six finishes including a third-place result for Sharp that earned him his second podium of the season, and more importantly, moved him to within 17 points of sixth place in the season standings.
    
For Hunter-Reay, he looks to continue the strong start to his blossoming IndyCar career and could possibly leave Kentucky with the lead in the fight for the Bombardier Learjet Rookie-of-the-Year Award. Despite joining Rahal Letterman Racing just two races ago, Hunter-Reay has finished seventh and sixth respectively in his first two starts and has already halved Milka Duno’s lead in the rookie points. Despite making just two starts to Duno’s six, Hunter-Reay is just 27 points behind the Venezuelan - who will not be competing in this weekend’s event.
 
“I'm actually really enjoying how compact the IndyCar Series schedule is, I'd be pretty bummed if we had a few weeks off right now,” said Hunter-Reay. “I've spent time with the team in Columbus over the past week and we have gone over lots of data from Michigan and we are looking to make that next step forward.  I feel I am back into the rhythm of oval racing and expect another solid top ten this weekend for Team Ethanol.  At this point we need to be smart and steadily move forward through the Kentucky race weekend, just as we have over the past two events.  I'm loving this, we have lots of work to do, but I genuinely believe in everything that goes on here at Rahal Letterman Racing and I feel that we can continue moving to the front.”
 
The 14th race on the 2007 IndyCar schedule will take place Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and can be seen live on ESPN2. The Indy Cars will run a two-day show this weekend  with each driver slated for two hours of Friday practice that leads into the run for the AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award, which takes place at 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time. As always, fans can follow all of the action via the timing and scoring feature on www.indycar.com.
 
 
Rahal Letterman Racing Kentucky Notes:
 
This will be mark the seventh time that the Indy Cars have visited Kentucky. The 1.5-mile oval has hosted some of the major milestone events in series history, including Sarah Fisher’s pole in 2002 where she became the first female driver to win a pole in a U.S.-based open-wheel racing series. No driver has ever won more than one pole at Kentucky, although Rahal Letterman Racing has won two, and Sam Hornish Jr. is the only polesitter to win the Kentucky race - that coming in 2003. Fisher still holds the track record in Kentucky with her 2002 pole run.

 
Ryan Hunter-Reay made his IndyCar Series debut at Mid-Ohio, scoring a seventh-place finish to match a RLR record for the best result by a driver making his debut with the team. He finished sixth last week at Michigan and is the first IndyCar driver to earn finishes of seventh or better in his first two starts since Felipe Giaffone in 2001.t He is the first to score top-10 finishes in his first two IndyCar starts since fellow former Champ Car star Patrick Carpentier in 2005. He has never competed at Kentucky Speedway and his last trip to a 1.5-mile oval came in 2004 when the Champ Cars ran at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he finished 10th.
 
Team Facts - RLR has competed in four of the six IndyCar Series events to take place at Kentucky since the facility opened in 2001. The team has done well on the 1.5-mile tri-oval, scoring poles with Buddy Rice in 2004 and Danica Patrick in 2005. Rice went on to finish second to Adrian Fernandez in 2004 in the closest finish in Kentucky Speedway history. Rahal Letterman Racing has won 19 races and 30 pole positions since its inception in 1992 as Rahal Hogan Racing. Of Rahal Letterman Racing’s 19 wins, three have come on 1.5-mile ovals. Of Rahal Letterman Racing’s 30 pole positions, nine have come on 1.5-mile ovals including Scott Sharp’s Texas Motor Speedway pole this season. In 76 IndyCar Series races RLR has captured 10 pole positions, won three times, collected 16 podium results (top-three) and 35 top-five finishes while leading 689 laps.