First Win in the Camping World Series!

- Blog by Paulie Harraka, as seen on NASCAR.com

(August 17, 2009) - While the past week was full of fun events, it was highlighted by our win on Saturday night in the NAPA/Toyota 150 NASCAR Camping World Series race. This was my first win in the series and I've decided to highlight Friday and Saturday's events in this blog.

 

I arrived in Denver on Friday afternoon, just in time to grab lunch with a good friend of mine who recently moved there. After a quick meal, I headed off to Stapp Interstate Toyota for a two-hour appearance there. When I got there, our hauler was sitting right in front and my NAPA AutoCare Toyota was on display. After signing autographs and shaking hands for about two hours, it was off to Colorado National Speedway for a NAPA event.

NAPA's Western Region headquarters are in Denver, which is about 30 minutes from the Speedway. As such, Bill McAnally took that opportunity to host a large hospitality event for NAPA. We had dinner at the race track and then I gave about 30 ride-alongs in our two-seater NAPA Camry. That was a blast.

 

About halfway through the NAPA group I learned that Kara, the office manager at Bill McAnally Racing, had never gone for a ride. I asked Bill if we had time to get her in. He replied with a grin and said, "If you can get Kara inside the race car, I'll make sure we've got the time." That was all I needed. I started the ride off with a huge burnout leaving the pits and didn't look back, running four laps about 6 inches off the wall. Kara screamed the entire time. It was perfect.

 

The team and I headed back to the hotel after that and just hung out there formulating strategies for the next day.

 

Because three of the past four races have been on road courses, most of my shock inventory had been converted to road course configurations. As such, I had plenty of work to do when we got to the track Saturday morning. When building shocks, you don't just build four for the car -- you build four to start with and about 10 more variations so that you have other shocks to try, depending on what I feel inside the race car. In all, I built eight different shocks Saturday.

 

Just as our first round of practice was about to start, the rain began to fall. Fortunately, it didn't last long and we were able to get practice in, although the sessions were cut from one hour each to 45 minutes each.

 

As soon as I hit the track, I felt really comfortable with the car. I would say that the car was the best we've been at the beginning of practice at any track so far this year. We spent both sessions trying to get as smooth of a ride over the bumps in Turn 2 as possible, without sacrificing the ability of the car to turn in the center of the corner. By the end of practice, I felt as though we had a very strong race car.

 

In qualifying, I put down what I felt was a decent lap. I didn't think it was good enough for the pole and figured it would put us about fifth. To my surprise, we ended up second. Teammate Eric Holmes, in the other NAPA car, was on the pole.

 

After qualifying, I headed to NAPA's hospitality area. I've never seen such a huge group of people from one sponsor: 1,500 people. I signed autographs there and interacted with everyone before heading over to the NASCAR autograph session, which all drivers must attend for the general admission fans.

 

Enough rain fell right before the race to delay the event for a little while, but it cleared up pretty quickly. When the green flag finally did fall, Eric jumped into the lead and I fell into second behind him. Although there were a few cautions, Eric and I ran first and second for the entire first half of the race. I would run hard enough (about 90 percent) to open up about five car-lengths over third, then back down to about 80 percent, saving as much as I could for the end.

 

The field was bunched back up because of a spin at halfway and a number of our competitors moved to the high line. As the bottom began to lose grip, I fell as far back as fourth. Another caution flew on Lap 92.

 

It seemed like the bottom grove started to gain grip after the rest of the field moved up, so I stayed down there. It paid off as I was able to pass for the lead on Lap 109. I was able to quickly open up a 10 car-length lead. Although Jim Warn, who had worked up to second place, was able to catch me with about seven laps to go, he didn't have enough to get around me. Picking up my first win in front of 1,500 of our friends from NAPA couldn't have been any sweeter.

After the race, we did the traditional "hat dance" with hats from NAPA, Toyota, Camping World, the Drive for Diversity program, and many of the series sponsors. Celebrating with the team in Victory Lane was a blast.

 

After the race, the track staff opened up the pits for fans to walk around. I stayed around until every last fan got an autograph and, if they wanted, a picture with the trophy.

 

This win is significant in a number of different ways. It moved us up to fourth in points, as well as into the lead in the rookie of the year standings. In addition to being my first win in the NASCAR Camping World Series, it was the first NCWS win for the Drive for Diversity program. Finally, it was the first win for Mike Curb, our car owner, in the NASCAR Camping World West Series. For anyone who doesn't know, Mike was Richard Petty's car owner for the King's 200th win.

 

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.