Paulie's Blog: Busy week bouncing from east to west

The past seven days certainly have made for a busy week. I ended my last blog from Newark Airport, where I took a flight to Charlotte for a few days, then drove to Duke for a day before flying west. After a number of appearances, race day came at Douglas County Speedway. Unfortunately, a car in front of us lost an oil line and soaked the track, leaving all the cars behind him to try and keep it together. We ended up getting caught up in the melee and hit the wall, making for a really long night! It was a tough ending to an otherwise great week!

Arriving in Charlotte on Monday, I had a number of things to do and people to meet. I headed to Mooresville, which is where a number of Cup Series teams are based. After making a few stops there, I had dinner with Elton Sawyer (former NNS driver and director of competition at Red Bull), his wife Patty (former NNS driver), and two of Patty's close friends from the broadcasting industry. Some readers may remember the show NBS 24/7 on SPEED, which Patty was heavily involved in. We went to an awesome steakhouse for dinner and had a great time, telling all sorts of stories and laughing harder and harder!

• West: News, Results, Schedule

While in Charlotte, I stayed with Wayne and Kyle Rapachietta, two of my close friends. I headed back to their place after dinner and stayed up pretty late answering e-mails and planning a few things for the next day. I don't know what time I finally went to bed, but it was probably too late.

Tuesday was much like Monday, with meetings starting at 9 a.m. As an up-and-coming driver, I'm doing everything I can to develop relationships with sponsors and race teams. That means meetings with potential sponsors, marketing agencies, and the management at top teams. Although I don't have to do this, it definitely helps my chances at making it to the top! Additionally, it's always nice to see your friends, and I've got some great friends in the Charlotte area. One of my stops Tuesday afternoon was to the Roush-Yates engine shop, where Doug Yates gave me a tour. The building is responsible for all of the Cup engines for the Roush Fenway and Yates teams, but it's big enough to build many more than that. What a beautiful facility!

From there, I made a few more stops before ending my day at a NASCAR event. For 2009, all of the NASCAR weekly and touring banquets -- the Whelen All American Series, the Camping World East and West Series, and both Whelen Modified Tours -- have moved to Concord, N.C. NASCAR held a great event, bringing team members, NASCAR brass, and area government officials together. It is awesome to see the support that our sport gets from that area and I'm excited to have all of the banquets in one area!

Wednesday was planned as the day to film at Duke for Three Wide Life, a television series that focuses on what happens with drivers and team members away from the track. According to their site, "Three Wide Life is meant not only to entertain the race fans, but to also educate new viewers about the drivers, the business, and the people behind the teams." The show is produced by a Charlotte-based marketing agency and I was able to jump in a car with some of the show's crew to ride to Durham, which is about two hours from Charlotte.

Filming for the episode was a blast! Show host Tony Rizzuti and I filmed all across campus! We started out with the Duke FSAE team (which I discussed in my blog a few weeks back). The University was even gracious enough to allow us to drive the car (complete with burnouts and donuts) on campus, creating some awesome footage! After filming with the car and in the garage, we headed over to Cameron Indoor Stadium, which is where the Blue Devils basketball and volleyball teams play. Tony and I did an interview about my roots in racing, my recent success, and how my Duke education ties in to my life as a racecar driver. From there, we walked to the chapel, with Tony and I continuing our discussion about Duke all the way there. I felt bad for the cameramen; they were circling around Tony and me for the whole walk!

It was a little after 3 when we got to the chapel and the guys had plenty of footage to put the episode together, so we ended there. I really had an awesome time filming with them and will let everyone know when the show will air.

I stayed on campus at Duke and met with a few people on campus during the remainder of the day. To be honest, it was a bit odd being on campus in June, as it almost felt empty. There are students taking summer school classes, so the student center still has some activity, but no one is living in the dorms, making an entire half of campus empty. My roommate for next year doesn't live far from Duke, so he and I met up for dinner. I was also able to catch up with another one of my good friends from the area before heading to sleep. I left Raleigh-Durham early Thursday morning for Medford, Ore. This trip was a killer. It took three plane flights to get me there! Arriving in Medford around 2 p.m., I was picked up by the shuttle for Lithia Toyota, where I would be signing autographs. The dealership was a beautiful place and all three of the BMR haulers were already set up. I signed a bunch of autographs and helped sell a few Camrys before heading north to Roseburg. I ended up driving the pace truck from the dealership to the track, which was an hour and a half drive.

I was able to check out the race track before grabbing a quick dinner and checking into the hotel. Once I got settled into the room, I went back to answering e-mails and doing paperwork. I got to bed around 1 a.m. and decided not to set an alarm clock so that I could sleep in! That didn't work out, as I got a phone call from Bill McAnally at 6 the next morning asking "Hey, do you want to do a radio show to help promote this race?" I'll take any opportunity I can to help promote my sponsors and our series, so I agreed to meet Bill in the lobby in an hour.

Bill and I went first to a radio station, where we each spent about 10 minutes on the air pumping up the race and giving away tickets, which was a lot of fun. From there, we headed back to the track. A local network television station was there and I was able, once again, to get on the air and tell people about the race. Opportunities like this are great, as they get more people in the stands and allow me the opportunity to tell my story and talk about NAPA AutoCare and Toyota. I headed back to the hotel to work on a sponsorship proposal for the end of this season and possibly next season.

For this weekend, we've got a new associate sponsor on all of the Bill McAnally Racing Toyotas. We would like to welcome Copart, a Web-based automotive reselling agency, to the BMR family.

Saturday was race day and I headed to the track with the team early in the morning. We were fighting some pretty big issues in the first round of practice, making only minimal gains. So between practices we made some huge changes. The car was definitely a good deal better, as I could finally put all of the power down on the curved front stretch. The team made some more changes during the session, improving the car even more. Unfortunately, we were one of the first cars to go out for qualifying. We had a decent lap, landing us eighth on the starting grid.

After an autograph session at the Toyota display and an appearance at NAPA's hospitality area, I headed back to the pits and got ready for the race. Driver introductions were fun, as I received two awards from Iowa, one for being the highest finishing rookie and one for passing the most cars. After getting strapped into the car, we were told to fire the engines and started rolling.

Starting on the outside at Roseburg is tough, so I knew I would need to get to the bottom quickly. I was able to do that, sliding down in front of the No. 21 car down the backstretch, putting us into seventh. Just as I was starting to work under my teammate, Moses Smith, a car that was about to get lapped lost an oil line, covering the track with oil. We all went sliding and, as I begun to slow down, the car behind me got into the back of my NAPA Toyota. I don't blame him, as there was nothing any of us could really do, but that ended up putting us in the wall. The car was pretty severely damaged as I limped back to the pit area.

The guys did what they could, but the rear end was knocked out of alignment by about an inch when I headed back onto the track. That meant 140 laps of just riding around, hoping to pick up whatever positions we could. It certainly made for a long evening, but sometimes that's what it takes. I was sure to stay out of the way of all of the lead lap cars, as I know how frustrating it is to be racing for third place and have a lapper get in your way. It was certainly a rough night, but that's part of racing.

Our next race is at Infineon Raceway on June 20, the day before the Cup Series runs. In the meantime, I'll be continuing to fly back and forth between coasts and do everything I can to make that first win come as soon as possible!

Have a great week!

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.