Paulie's Blog: Four cities in a week packs schedule (cont'd)

My uncle lives about 20 minutes from Daytona Beach, so I had breakfast with him on Thursday morning. My uncle was one of the first to teach me the basics of stock cars, as he's worked as a race car builder and crew chief since the early 1970's. After breakfast, I headed to Daytona International Speedway to spend some time in the Sprint Cup garage. I spent the rest of my afternoon there, seeing a number of my friends and working on a few things that would allow me to run some Camping World Truck races next season.

After spending the day at the Speedway, I had dinner with some fellow members of the D4D program, including drivers Mackenna Bell and Michael Cherry, as well as representatives from the 909 Group and NASCAR. The Drive for Diversity program has been a huge part of my career, helping me climb the ladder by providing me with an opportunity to show my abilities as a race car driver.

• West: News, Results, Schedule

After dinner, we all headed to New Smyrna Speedway, a local short track, where some of NASCAR's diversity initiatives were taking place. For the first time in probably two years, I was able to sit back and watch a short-track race. The Late Model Pro Truck race that night was won by Ben Kennedy, who led every lap after starting from the outside pole. Congratulations, Ben!

The better part of Friday was spent traveling from Daytona to California, as it ended up being a three-flight trip. I landed in the evening and had dinner with my girlfriend before heading over to the hotel to catch up with my team. Since I had missed our customary team dinner the night before the race, I spent about two hours standing around the parking lot talking with my guys. We laughed a lot and discussed our plan for race day.

We left the hotel at 7 a.m. Saturday morning for Toyota Speedway, where we would practice, qualify and race all in one day. Since I didn't have the time to build all of the shocks for Toyota Speedway (Irwindale) at Infineon, I had to get to work early to build a few shocks. Fortunately, I was able to get everything done that I wanted to before the driver's meeting.

Toyota Speedway is much different than any other track we race on, as it's a short track that you run around the top of. We made steady gains on the car throughout first round of practice, ending up ninth in the first round and fifth in the second. We were just a little too tight in qualifying and wound up eighth.

An awesome crowd of people came out for the race. The cars for all three races (Camping World, All-American Series and a local class) lined up on the front straightaway for an autograph session. We spent an hour signing autographs, taking pictures, and doing interviews. It was awesome to see how many people came out for the event!

When we finally got in our cars and got ready to race, I couldn't wait for the race to start. I knew we had a good race car and couldn't wait to get going. As soon as the green flag dropped, we started marching forward. We were up to sixth by the time everything got sorted out. Since you run the top at Toyota Speedway, it is a bit challenging to set up a pass there. It took me a while, but I was able to figure out the best way to pass and eventually work my way around David Mayhew to break into the top five. I also was able to work past my teammate, Eric Holmes, putting us in fourth before the end of the first segment (the race was split into two 100-lap segments with a 10-minute break at halfway).

We were a little bit too loose in the first segment, so we made a small air-pressure adjustment for the second one, as well as put right-side tires on. Those changes seemed perfect, as we were really good at the start of the second segment. However, as the segment went on, our Toyota got just a bit too tight. I was able to jump into third and tried hard to get around Jeff Barkshire for second in the closing laps. Unfortunately, we were just a little too tight and I couldn't make my way around him, so we settled for third. Overall, it was a great night, as we moved up to fifth in points, only eight points out of fourth.

On Sunday, I spent the day relaxing with my girlfriend's family on their boat. I tried kneeboarding and wakeboarding for the first time. I did about six faceplants before successfully getting up on the wakeboard, but it was a ton of fun!

On a final note, voting for most popular driver for our series has begun. Check out the poll on NASCAR.COM to vote. If I may, I'd like to suggest the driver of the 12 car.

Have an awesome 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.