Kansas: Ryan Hunter-Reay preview

In the Points: Hunter-Reay is ranked fifth in the 2009 IndyCar championship.

Last Week at Long Beach: It was a big week for Hunter-Reay at Long Beach. He kicked off the event by celebrating his five-year anniversary with his girlfriend, Beccy Gordon in a very special way...by asking for her hand in marriage. The couple became engaged Thursday evening. A notoriously busy event for sponsor and series appearances, Hunter-Reay signed autographs for his partner IZOD at Macys, spent the night on the U.S.S. Reagan and filmed a piece for the Carson Daly Show, which aired this week. Unfortunately, his on-track experience was less memorable. Hunter-Reay started 12th and held on to finish 11th after a wild day on the track caused handling gremlins on his #21 William Rast machine.

Ryan Hunter-Reay on Kansas Speedway: "This weekend will be my first time back on an oval in nearly seven months, and I am really looking forward to it. Kansas is a great race going into the month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway because it gives us a good baseline to work off of. I am really excited to get in the Vision car this weekend as the team has a record of strong cars on the ovals. They've done a ton of work in that area and it paid off last season, the team had nine top-10 finishes on the ovals, so hopefully we can pick up right where they left off and take it a few steps further to victory lane in 2009!"

-credit: rhrPR