Paulie's Blog: Capping off the season with a victory

This week was possibly the busiest yet, but also the most rewarding. After a busy week at Duke, including my first full-scale examination of the semester, I headed out to California for the last race of the Camping World West season.

After a busy day on Friday doing TV shows, building shocks, and crew chiefing a local assemblyman, we put an exclamation point on our season by qualifying on the pole and leading 149 of the 150 laps of the Toyota/Copart 150, ultimately winning by 2.774 seconds.

Harraka wins finale

Paulie Harraka ended his rookie season in the Camping World West series by winning the final race of the year and finishing fourth in the point standings.

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Monday through Wednesday were somewhat standard days at Duke, with classes and plenty of work to do. On Wednesday night, I participated in a discussion, moderated by Father Joe Vetter, the director of the Duke Catholic Center, about carrying out God's will in our daily lives.

Thursday morning was my first big examination of the semester, so most of Wednesday was spent preparing for that. The exam was in a Public Policy course that I'm taking and was centered on Game Theory and Negotiations. I haven't gotten my grade back yet, but I believe I did just fine.

Thursday night is when the excitement began, as I flew out to Sacramento for the final race of the Camping World West Season, connecting in Houston. I finished reading True North, a required book for my High Impact Leadership class, on the flight from Raleigh/Durham to Houston. On the flight from Houston to Sacramento, I put together my shock plan for the weekend, including what I needed to build and what I wanted to start the day.

Friday started before sunrise, as I left the hotel and headed to the BMR shop for our first TV show of the day to promote the upcoming race at All American Speedway. Brian Hickey interviewed me live for the morning show on KCRA 3.

We then did a second interview, which was taped and aired later that day. From there, West series media director Kevin Green and I jumped in the car and headed to the CW31 studios, where I did another live morning show, this time with Mark S. Allen. Kevin and I then headed back to the BMR shop, where I did my final TV interview for the day, this time with Mark Demsky from Fox 40. Links to some of these videos are up on my Web site (www.paulieharraka.com). (Continued)