Paulie's Blog: First time on bigger track like Phoenix

After starting our season with two short-track races, our No. 12 team headed to Phoenix International Raceway for the third NASCAR Camping World West Series race of the season. This was my first time competing on a track larger than a half-mile, so I couldn't have been more excited. After some huge setup changes in practice, we ended up bringing our Toyota home in eighth.

Because I've never been to a track remotely like Phoenix, I knew I would need to do my research before race day. Fortunately, both Elton Sawyer and Ricky Rudd were willing to spend a significant amount of time on the phone with me on Monday and Tuesday, explaining to me the preferred groove at Phoenix, how the race track changes as it cools, the best ways to pass other cars, and other grooves that may open up. Having input from two drivers as successful and knowledgeable as Elton and Ricky was a huge jump-start heading to the race track.

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I left Duke after my last class on Wednesday afternoon and headed for the airport. Fortunately, I was on a direct flight to Phoenix. Almost immediately after my arrival, crew chief Duane Knorr arrived to pick me up. We headed back to the hotel, checked in, and went out for a team dinner. After a lot of laughs, we turned our attention to race day.

Thursday morning was my first time at Phoenix International Raceway. Looking around, I couldn't wait to get on the track. My first task was sorting through some shocks for the day. After consultation with some good friends, I made a plan for what needed to be built on the plane ride on Wednesday night. Upon entry into the infield, I immediately went to work.

After a quick rookie meeting and a few final touches on shocks, I jumped into the race car. After about five laps on track to shake the car down, I pulled down pit road for the first time. In conversing with Duane over the radio, I expressed how excited I was, 'This place is really cool. I can see how, as a driver, I can really move around and find places to make the car work here. It reminds me a lot of driving a Camping World Truck at South Georgia Speedway, the feel of the car getting into the corner. I'm going to love this place. I can definitely see how a driver could go in the corner too hard here and that getting the car to roll free [slight over-steer] in the Center of Turns 1 and 2 will be crucial. This is going to be fun.' Duane smiled and we went to work.

Over the course of the two practice sessions, we made some really big changes. As soon as I started running the car hard, it became apparent that we were way too tight," meaning that the car had a bad under-steer condition. Bill McAnally offered a few tips on how I could get around a little better and Duane and the guys started making changes to the car to try and help it turn better. By the end of practice, we had made the car a lot better, but we're still not where we wanted to be.

Paulie Harraka undertakes a little shock treatment.

After dissecting the changes that we had made during practice and the effects that they had, Duane and I decided to make three more significant changes before we went out to qualify. One of those changes was a shock, meaning that I had a few minutes to build one. I was able to get it together and, upon dynoing it, found that it was exactly what I wanted.

We were one of the last cars to hit the track for qualifying. I expected that we would put down a solid top-five lap, but boy was I in for a surprise. I spent the first of my two laps continuing to warm the tires up. When I went into Turn 1 on my last lap, the bottom of the race car hit the ground. When that happened, the car slid up the track a bit and then pitched sideways. It was all I could do to keep our Toyota off the wall. We ended up qualifying 21st.

Elton Sawyer, who is now competition director at Red Bull Racing, was kind enough to agree to spot for me. This worked out perfect, as having someone like Elton on the spotter's tower is a big help to a rookie driver. Additionally, my normal spotter, Joe Goodrich, is an awesome tire changer and we would be changing right-side tires during the race.

When the green flag flew, we immediately started moving up. By Lap 10, we were 18th. By Lap 30, we were 14th. When the caution flew on Lap 58, we were 11th. At that point, pit stops began. We pitted and fell back to the 14th position. The guys had an awesome stop, but a number of cars did not pit and thus ended up in front of us. By the time everyone cycled through their pit stops, taking both tires and fuel, we were fifth on Lap 97 with teammate Eric Holmes behind me.

At that point, I probably was a bit too patient. I ran the car at about 85 percent, trying to save as much as I could for the end of the race. Eric got around me on Lap 118 and I fell back to seventh a lap later. In hindsight, I probably should have stepped it up a bit, running the car at 90 or 95 percent to hold onto the fifth position. I was able to get back around one of the cars that had passed me, jumping back into the sixth position on Lap 126.

The last 25 laps of the race were pretty hectic. The caution flew on Lap 129. While restarting in sixth, I got a bit too aggressive with the throttle and spun the tires. I'm still kicking myself for this one, as it resulted in our No. 12 Camry falling back to eighth. We floated between seventh and eighth for the rest of the race.

On the whole, it was a great weekend. Looking at what's happened so far this season, I feel confident in our program. When we unloaded at Kyle, Texas, we weren't a great car, but we learned a great deal about our short-track program there. Then, when we got to All-American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., we used what we learned in Texas to qualify second and finish third. Hopefully, we can apply what we learned in Phoenix to the car we race at Iowa Speedway, a track somewhat similar to Phoenix, in a few weeks.

Our next race is in Madera, Calif., another short track, on Saturday. Hopefully, we'll be able to use what we learned in Roseville to bring home a 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.