Paulie's Blog: A busy week and more rough racing luck (cont'd)

After one final meeting, I headed to the library in the Duke Fuqua School of Business to pick up some reading materials. There are some things that I've been wondering about in the advertising and marketing industry, so I decided to read up on them. One of the books I found is all about corporate endorsements programs in athletics. It's all part of being an up-and-coming race car driver and a Duke student. Having access to the resources at Duke can really be used to enhance my racing career, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

• West: News, Results, Schedule

The seven-hour drive from Durham home wasn't bad, as it was actually daylight and I was able to talk to people on the phone. Once I got home, I took a shower and sat down on the couch with a nice bowl of ice cream. My mom recorded the Irwindale race for me, which had aired earlier that day, and I wanted to watch it before I went to bed for the night. We got great coverage in the race, and I enjoy watching what other guys are doing and what's working for them.

Friday was a short day of unpacking, catching up and packing, as I headed to the airport that evening for our race in Portland. I spent most of my time on the plane reading the books I had gotten from Duke and working on my shock plan for the weekend. I built most of what I needed while in Irwindale, but I decided that I wanted to have one more option for rear shocks. My crew chief picked me up from the airport and we headed for the hotel to get some good rest.

Portland is one of the events on our schedule that's a two-day show, meaning we practiced on Saturday and qualified and raced on Sunday. First off, Duane [Knorr, crew chief] and I headed to the driver/crew chief meeting, where we were briefed on a few details about the way the weekend would go. Off of the trailer, I wasn't very happy with the car. We made a few adjustments during the practice session and picked up a little bit of speed. Between practice sessions, we decided to make some significant changes, swapping out three of the four springs in the car. About three laps into that session, the engine let go in a big way. Right in the middle of the frontstretch, a rod shot out of the side of the block, creating one hell of a smoke show.

Fortunately, we had all afternoon on Saturday to get the engine changes, so the guys didn't have to rush and were able to be very thorough in their inspection of all of the pieces of the oiling system. We're also lucky to have it happen on the frontstretch, as I could have spun in my own oil and wrecked the car if it had happened in a corner somewhere. The big downside to this was that we missed almost the entire second practice session.

After grabbing dinner with the team, Duane and I sorted out our progress and decided to make a few changes before qualifying.

When Sunday morning came, the guys got right back to work making the final changes and getting the car through inspection for qualifying. I didn't want to push the envelope too hard, as qualifying doesn't mean much at the road courses and we ended up qualifying ninth.

Once the race got going, we gradually marched to the front. We had a great car, and I only asked for a minor adjustment on our stop for fuel. With about 20 to go, we were passing for second when the caution flew. When we went back green with about 15 to go, a competitor turned into me entering Turn 1 and we ended up with a flat tire. We had a car that could have won the race, and undoubtedly would have finished in the top three, but Lady Luck relegated us to 16th. Oh well, you'll have days like that. I'd rather run third and finish 16th than run in the back all day and finish 16th.

It was a rough end to the weekend, but at least we know we had a fast race car. Our next race is at Miller Motorsports Park, which is just outside of Salt Lake City, on Aug. 1.

Just a reminder to visit my Web site, PaulieHarraka.com, and sign up for the drawing!

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.