USA Today
By John Kekis, AP Sports Writer
MONTREAL — NASCAR's Drive for Diversity reaches another milestone Sunday when Paulie Harraka makes his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
"I'm excited. I've definitely been looking forward to this opportunity," said the 20-year-old Harraka, who is of Syrian descent. "It's a good opportunity to learn a lot."
The program, dubbed D4D, seeks to develop minority and female drivers and crew members. Drivers take part in an evaluation combine in the fall for the opportunity to compete with an established NASCAR team at the developmental levels the following race season.
Harraka, who will be a junior engineering student at Duke University this fall, is the first D4D driver to win a race in a NASCAR regional touring division. He won twice and was 2009 rookie of the year in the NASCAR Camping World West Series.
The first test at NASCAR's second level proved somewhat difficult for the driver from Wayne, N.J. He was 36th-fastest in Saturday's first practice in 17 laps around the tricky 14-turn layout in the No. 87 Chevrolet for owner Joe Nemechek. That was nearly 4 seconds behind pace-setters Jacques Villeneuve and defending race winner Carl Edwards, and Harraka followed that with a 37th in only four laps in the final session, more than 5 seconds behind leader Max Papis.
"It's not intimidating, but it's a little frustrating because we don't have the car where I need it," Harraka said "The guys are working really hard just to try and figure out what we need to do. We've made a lot of changes. Hopefully, they're the right ones."
The crew hit on something. Harraka was second-fastest of six cars in his qualifying group and will start 31st.
Harraka and the D4D program will be featured in a documentary series called "Changing Lanes" that's scheduled to debut next week on BET Network. The eight-episode season follows a group of hopefuls vying for a spot on Max Siegel's NASCAR Revolution Racing team.
The diversity program is in its sixth season.
