Paulie's Blog: Hitting our stride, third at Roseville (cont'd)

Before the race, Bill McAnally Racing PR representative Kaye Reshaw took me between hospitality and VIP areas signing autographs. Toyota and NAPA each had a large number of guests in their suites, so I spent some time with each of them. I met a lot of excited race fans. Then, we headed to Toyota's fan experience to sign a few more. The fans really are the lifeblood of our sport and I enjoy spending whatever time I can with them.

After the autograph session, I went in the trailer and started building some Penske shocks for our next race, which is at Phoenix International Raceway next Thursday. After getting two front shocks done, it was time to head out for driver introductions. The crew and I had a last-minute chat before the national anthem and I climbed into the car. After getting strapped in and hearing the command to fire up the cars, we were rolling.

Starting on the outside at Roseville isn't a huge disadvantage. In fact, I believed that I might be able to get into the lead from second, knowing how fast the outside groove in Turns 1 and 2 can be. Unfortunately, the engine had a pretty serious stumble when I first got on the gas. When I rolled the throttle down further, the engine finally picked up and I ended up spinning the tires. Joe Goodrich, my spotter, did a fantastic job of helping me get in line. I didn't want to race anyone hard in the early laps and settled into fifth.

Knowing that we had 150 laps in the race and only one set of tires, I cruised in fifth for about the next 90 laps. About Lap 90 I started pressuring the No. 2 Toyota of Mike David for fourth. David had gotten tight and I knew that I could get around him without using up my tires too much. After about 10 laps of running right on his tail, I was able to get underneath him cleanly and move into the fourth position.

At that point, the No. 17 of David Mayhew was running in third. I ran Mayhew down in about eight laps and again just sat behind him. It became apparent that I had the advantage in the middle of Turns 3 and 4, so I played my strength. When Mayhew entered Turn 3 just a little high, I stuck the nose of my Toyota underneath him. He came across it and it got him just a little bit loose. That was enough for me to get underneath him and I cleared him in a few laps. While running third, the caution flag flew.

When we went green again, I went to work on passing Jason Bowles for second. Unfortunately, that stumble from the initial start would become apparent anytime I had to wait too long before getting into the throttle, which is usually what you have to do when passing someone. This made it extremely hard to pass Bowles, and I knew that the only way to do it would be to turn him sideways. I put a lot of pressure on Bowles, hoping for a mistake, but decided that we really needed a good points night and that it wasn't worth turning Bowles in order to get the spot. We ended up finishing third.

All in all, it was a great night for our team. Duane and I definitely understand each other better and the team is really coming together. I hope you enjoyed the blog and I'm looking forward to Phoenix. Since you won't read my next blog until next Monday, I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Sunday with their families.

Paulie Harraka, a native of Fairlawn, N.J., is a student at Duke University. He is a member of the Drive for Diversity program and races in the Camping World West Series for Bill McAnally Racing. Harraka won the 2008 track championship at All American Speedway.