Paulie's Blog: Another top-five finish for the team

This week, the Camping World West series went to Madera Speedway in Madera, Calif. for our third short-track race of the season. Our NAPA AutoCare Toyota team was fast all day, qualifying second and finishing fourth. Additionally, Duke's last day of classes was Wednesday and I tested a Late Model in Portland!

The week started when I returned to Duke University from Phoenix for my final few days of classes. Fortunately, I do not have any final exams, so I don't have to study like crazy for any big tests. However, I do have a number of final papers and final projects, instead. This made my last few days of classes extremely busy. On Wednesday evening, I switched gears from "Duke Student" to "Race car Driver" and headed west.

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The first stop was Portland, Ore. The Camping World West Series is racing at Portland International Raceway, a road course, this summer. In order to learn the race track, Bill McAnally gave me and teammates Moses Smith and Eric Holmes the opportunity to learn the track in two-seater late models. Along with a few other West Series drivers, we spent all morning running these cars around the race track and learning the ins and outs of the place. Road courses take a lot longer to learn, as you've got a lot more turns to deal with and, because of the length of the track, you get fewer laps in during a practice session than you've got on an oval. The day was successful, and I feel like I've got a much better idea of what to expect when we return this summer for the race.

From Portland, I flew to Sacramento, Calif., and was picked up from the airport by crew chief Duane Knorr. With Madera, another short track, coming up, we discussed what we had learned in Roseville. The following morning, I headed to the BMR shop to help the guys get ready for the race. Although I don't have any responsibilities in building the cars, I like to be around the shop to spend time with the team away from the race track rush. Additionally, as I've mentioned, I'm heavily involved in our shock program. I built two shorts that I wanted to try at Madera. With the track being about three hours from the shop, we all headed up Friday night and checked into our hotels. After a team dinner, we headed for bed.

Just as all of our races have been this season, Madera was a one-day event, meaning we would practice, qualify, and race all in the same day. As soon as we hit the track for practice, it became apparent how quick the race track was. After just a few laps, Duane and I learned exactly what direction we'd need to go in with our changes. One of the great things about working with Duane is that we tend to think the same way. Often times, I can explain what I'm feeling in the car by throwing out ideas as to what might fix it. Although Duane doesn't always use my ideas, it helps him understand what I am feeling. This was a big help at Madera, as we ended up using a few of my ideas and a few of his. We ended the first round of practice fourth on the charts.

Between practices, we discussed what we had covered, what each change had done, and how we could make the car better. We opted for a few more changes between practices and started the second session on new tires. The second session was only 30 minutes, so we weren't able to make many changes. Most of what we changed helped the car and we felt confident in our car by the end of practice.

The team got the car ready for qualifying and rolled into line for inspection. Unfortunately, we were the third car to go out to qualify. As soon as I got on the track, I went to work trying to get the tires warm, spending my whole warm up lap weaving back and forth. When I took the green, I went into Turn 1 and noticed the car was a little tight, so I let the car wash up the race track to try to put more heat in the right front tire. In Turns 3 and 4, the car was much better. As I took the white flag, I knew my second lap would be better. I took it pretty easy going into Turn 1, which paid off by allowing me to apply a lot of throttle exiting Turn 2. I rolled into Turn 3 pretty smooth, but got just a little too aggressive with the throttle exiting four and spun the tires. We ended up on the pole for much of the session, but I didn't feel like the lap was good enough to keep us there. We were knocked back to second by one of the last cars to qualify. We were happy to have a solid front-row starting position.

Paulie Harraka takes care of a young fan with an autograph.

I'm extremely fortunate to be driving for NAPA AutoCare and Toyota, as both of those corporations put a ton of support into the Camping World West Series. They sponsored both the Roseville and Madera races this season. NAPA also had a hospitality area at Madera, so I headed over there after qualifying to sign some autographs and interact with the fans. What an awesome group of people -- we had a lot of fun.

When the time finally came, we rolled the cars out to the start/finish line for driver introductions. After that, we climbed in our race cars and got ready for the next 150 laps. Rolling around on the warm-up laps, I gave my team a few last bits of information, "I know we've got a race car capable of running up front. You guys have done an awesome job preparing this thing and making it better all day. Thanks! Joe, call the green for me, even though I'm starting second, as it's tough to see the flag man from here. Let me know the gap to the cars behind me all race long and don't worry about pacing me, I'll take car of that based on the gaps I've got. Let's rock and roll boys!"

When the field went green for the first time, a spin resulted in an immediate caution. When the green flag flew again on Lap 5, I ran Jason Bowles, who was on the pole, hard into Turn 1. He washed on just a bit and I was able to hold him down exiting Turn 2. Going down the backstretch, I almost cleared him. By the time we got to the exit of Turn 4, Jason fell in behind me. I pushed the car at about 90 percent and opened up a two-car length lead. We had set our car up to run the bottom grove and, so far, it was working well for us. Spotter Joe came over the radio around Lap 4, "Good job, bud. Clear by 3." When Joe told me that I had three car lengths between myself and second place, I knew I could back off just a bit to save my equipment. We ran that way for the first 25 laps, running just hard enough to maintain the lead.

The caution flew for a spin on Lap 25 and we doubled up for a restart on Lap 29. This time, it was an all-NAPA front row, as Eric Holmes, my teammate and two-time series champion, lined up beside me. Knowing what I was able to do to, Bowles on the outside made me keenly aware that Eric may jump out front on this restart. When the green flew, we both got off the line the same and drag-raced down the frontstretch. By the time we got through Turns 1 and 2 and down the backstretch, it became evident that the best bet for me was to jump behind Eric. I did just that and followed him for about 20 laps. During those 20 laps, the bottom groove started to get slick (or lose grip) and guys started moving to the high side. I looked around for a groove that suited our car well, but found it difficult to find anywhere that worked as well as the bottom did for us. With the bottom groove almost completely gone (it was too slick to race on), I was forced to move to the very top of the track. Running up there, our car was really loose (or oversteering) exiting both turns, especially Turn 4. We fell back to fourth.

The rest of the race got crazy! While running inside the top five, we were spun on Lap 76 by someone who just got too impatient. Our car was continuing to fade and I was having trouble making up the spots we had lost in the spin and was around 10th with 15 laps to go when the caution flew. When the field went green again, I knew it would take everything the car had to get back to the front. This was going to be short-track racing at its finest. By taking all I could, I was able to jump up to seventh position by the time the caution flew on Lap 142. When the field doubled up, I was on the inside, a place I knew wouldn't work. We went back green for a green-white-checkered finish and I immediately jumped up to the top groove, even if I did have to use the fenders a bit to do it. As everyone battled, I jumped to the outside of everyone I could and was able to bring our Toyota home in the fourth position!

This was definitely the most exciting finish I've taken part in that wasn't a battle for the win! It was great to bring home another top-five finish and to jump up to sixth in the points. Our next race is May 17 at Iowa Speedway.

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.