Paulie Harraka
Paulie Harraka | |||||||
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Harraka at Dover International Speedway in May 2014
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Born | Wayne, New Jersey, U.S. |
September 15, 1989 ||||||
Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||
Weight | 165 lb (75 kg) | ||||||
Achievements | 2008 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Champion | ||||||
Awards | 2009 NASCAR Camping World West Series Rookie of the Year | ||||||
NASCAR Cup Series career | |||||||
1 race run over 1 year | |||||||
2013 position | 75th | ||||||
Best finish | 75th (2013) | ||||||
First race | 2013 Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma) | ||||||
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NASCAR Xfinity Series career | |||||||
5 races run over 4 years | |||||||
2014 position | 64th | ||||||
Best finish | 64th (2014) | ||||||
First race | 2010 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal) | ||||||
Last race | 2014 Buckle Up 200 (Dover) | ||||||
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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career | |||||||
11 races run over 1 year | |||||||
Best finish | 28th (2012) | ||||||
First race | 2012 NextEra Energy Resources 250 (Daytona) | ||||||
Last race | 2012 Pocono Mountains 125 (Pocono) | ||||||
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Statistics current as of May 31, 2014. |
Paul Peter "Paulie" Harraka (born September 15, 1989 in Wayne, New Jersey) is an American stock car racing driver and entrepreneur. A graduate of Duke University and a former representative of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program.
Contents
Personal life
Harraka was born in Wayne, New Jersey, the first and only son of parents Paul Harraka and Donna Dikdan. His parents separated during his infancy, and later divorced, but held joint custody of Harraka throughout his childhood and adolescence. Harraka’s mother remarried, and Harraka has two sisters[1] from his mother and stepfather. Harraka attended Wayne Valley High School from his freshman through junior years, but spent his senior year at Lake Norman High School to be closer to NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing, where he worked as an engineering and research and development intern.[2] During this time, Harraka lived with Kenny Francis, crew chief for Kasey Kahne.[1]
After graduating from high school with a 4.38 GPA. Harraka opted to attend Duke University, stating “I think that in the modern age of racing, knowing all aspects of the business is crucial to being successful."[3] After beginning his studies in Mechanical Engineering, Harraka transferred to Duke’s Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, where he studied Markets and Management, Sociology, and History.[4] Harraka is one of only two NASCAR drivers with University degrees, the other being Ryan Newman.[5]
Racing career
Early career
Harraka first sat behind the wheel when he received a backyard fun kart from his family and started driving it around abandoned buildings. Harraka entered his first race on June 1, 1997 at Flemington Speedway, and despite being underage (Harraka was 7 and New Jersey law required that drivers be at least 8 years old), Harraka won.[6] In a karting career that spanned from 1997 to 2005, Harraka amassed a World Karting Association Triple Crown, the Holley Future Star Award, 13 National Championships, and 6 World Championships, and 158 total wins in go-karts. In 2005 he moved from kart to legends car racing, where he won multiple races.[7]
Harraka also won a popular karting event at Mark Dismore's karting facility in Indiana, the RoboPong 200 (now known as the Dan Wheldon Cup after the 2005 winner was killed in October 2011) karting event, teamed with on-sabbatical NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd.
NASCAR
Harraka was invited to the Drive for Diversity Combine in the fall of 2006, where he impressed team owner BIll McAnally. McAnally hired Harraka to compete for his California-based team, despite Harraka still being in high school in New Jersey. Harraka traveled back and forth between New Jersey and California every weekend, and ultimately finished second in the All American Series in Roseville, California that year, winning the Rookie of the Year title. Harraka returned to the team in 2008, this time holding the duties of both driver and crew chief. The team would win 11 out of 23 races as well as the NASCAR Championship.[8]
At the end of 2008, McAnally elected to move Harraka up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series for the final two races of the season as preparation for a full run in 2009. In the last race of the season, second race for the team, he qualified on the pole and led 40 laps.[9]
Over the next two seasons, Harraka competed full-time for McAnally, first under the NAPA Autocare banner, then with NAPA Filters sponsorship, with crew chief Duane Knorr. The team has won 3 races and has 15 top 5 finishes in 30 total races.[10] They finished 4th and 3rd in the series championship in 2009 and 2010, respectively, with Harraka winning Rookie of the Year in 2009 and Move of the Race in 2010.
Harraka took 2011 off from racing to further his studies, but did run the K&N Pro Series West race at Infineon Raceway. For 2012, Harraka competed in the Camping World Truck Series, running for Rookie of the Year driving for Wauters Motorsports.[11] Midway through the season the team chose to skip races at Michigan International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway to regroup;[12] however before the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Harraka parted ways with Wauters Motorsports after numerous crashes, spins, and poor finishes.[13]
In September 2012, Harraka drove for Go Green Racing in the Nationwide Series at Richmond International Raceway.[14]
Returning to Go Green for selected races in 2013, Harraka made his Sprint Cup Series debut at Sonoma Raceway in the team's No. 52 Ford.[15] Unfortunately, he was involved in a strange accident with Alex Kennedy on pit road prior to the start of the race, causing damage to both cars. While leaving pit road, the cars in front of Harraka slowed to a gradual stop; despite being a good ways behind these cars, Harraka did not stop and plowed into Kennedy. The team spent the first 21 laps of the race making repairs, but were able to get back on the track and finished 39th.
Entrepreneurship
Paulie Harraka LLC
In 2011 Harraka sought out a group of Fortune 500 CEOs, venture capitalists, and professional sports executives as a partner to launch innovative technology platforms that challenge conventional approaches to the sport and business of NASCAR. The investor group, Paulie Harraka LLC, both supports Harraka's NASCAR racing activities and entrepreneurial business ventures disruptive to NASCAR.[16] In November 2013, Harraka delivered a talk chronicling his entrepreneurial ventures at TEDxBeaconStreet in Boston, making Harraka the only NASCAR driver ever to deliver a TED presentation.[17]
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Sprint Cup Series
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | NSCC | Pts | |||
2013 | Go Green Racing | 52 | Ford | DAY | PHO | LVS | BRI | CAL | MAR | TEX | KAN | RCH | TAL | DAR | CLT | DOV | POC | MCH | SON 39 |
KEN | DAY | NHA | IND | POC | GLN | MCH | BRI | ATL | RCH | CHI | NHA | DOV | KAN | CLT | TAL | MAR | TEX | PHO | HOM | 75th | 01 |
Nationwide Series
NASCAR Nationwide Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | NNSC | Pts | ||||
2010 | NEMCO Motorsports | 87 | Chevy | DAY | CAL | LVS | BRI | NSH | PHO | TEX | TAL | RCH | DAR | DOV | CLT | NSH | KEN | ROA | NHA | DAY | CHI | GTY | IRP | IOW | GLN | MCH | BRI | CGV 29 |
ATL | RCH | DOV | KAN | CAL | CLT | GTY | TEX | PHO | HOM | 124th | 76 | ||||
2011 | Randy Hill Racing | 08 | Ford | DAY | PHO | LVS | BRI | CAL | TEX | TAL | NSH | RCH | DAR | DOV | IOW | CLT | CHI | MCH | ROA | DAY | KEN | NHA | NSH | IRP | IOW | GLN | CGV | BRI | ATL | RCH 25 |
CHI | DOV | KAN | CLT | TEX | PHO 21 |
HOM | 130th | 01 | |||||
2013 | Go Green Racing | 79 | Ford | DAY | PHO | LVS | BRI | CAL 35 |
TEX | RCH | TAL | DAR | CHA | DOV | IOW | MCH | ROA | KEN | DAY | NHA | CHI | IND | IOW | GLN | MOH | BRI | ATL | RCH | CHI | KEN | DOV | KAN | CHA | TEX | PHO | HOM | 85th | 9 | ||||||
2014 | TriStar Motorsports | 44 | Toyota | DAY | PHO | LVS | BRI | CAL | TEX | DAR | RCH | TAL | IOW | CLT | DOV 19 |
MCH | ROA | KEN | DAY | NHA | CHI | IND | IOW | GLN | MOH | BRI | ATL | RCH | CHI | KEN | DOV | KAN | CLT | TEX | PHO | HOM | 64th | 25 |
Camping World Truck Series
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | NCWTC | Pts | |||||||||||||||||
2012 | Wauters Motorsports | 5 | Ford | DAY 19 |
MAR 22 |
CAR 26 |
KAN 27 |
CLT 30 |
DOV 17 |
TEX 28 |
KEN 17 |
IOW 33 |
CHI 19 |
POC 24 |
MCH | BRI | ATL | IOW | KEN | LVS | TAL | MAR | TEX | PHO | HOM | 28th | 223 |
* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points
ARCA Racing Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
ARCA Racing Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ARSC | Pts | |||||||||||||||||||
2012 | Venturini Motorsports | 55 | Toyota | DAY 26 |
MOB | SLM | TAL | TOL | ELK | POC | MCH | WIN | NJE | IOW | CHI | IRP | POC | BLN | ISF | MAD | SLM | DSF | KAN | 128th | 100 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://insiderracingnews.com/Writers/RG/111212.html
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/10drivernj.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Paulie Harraka driver statistics at Racing-Reference
- Use mdy dates from February 2012
- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Living people
- 1989 births
- People from Wayne, New Jersey
- Racing drivers from New Jersey
- NASCAR drivers
- ARCA Racing Series drivers
- Duke University alumni
- American people of Syrian descent
- Sportspeople from Passaic County, New Jersey
- Businesspeople from New Jersey
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- 21st-century American racing drivers
- American sportspeople of Arab descent