Paulie Harraka

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 seven and New Jersey law required that drivers be at least eigh years old), Harraka won.^[8] 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 six World Championships, and 158 total wins in go-karts. In 2005, he moved from kart to legends car racing, where he won multiple races.^[9]

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 eleven out of 23 races as well as the NASCAR Championship.^[10]

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.^[11]

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 three races and has fifteen top-five finishes in thirty total races.^[12] They finished fourth and third 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.^[13] Midway through the season, Harraka left Wauters Motorsports.^[14]

In September 2012, Harraka drove for Go Green Racing in the Nationwide Series at Richmond International Raceway.^[15] In 2013, Harraka made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Sonoma Raceway, driving the No. 52 Ford for Go Green Racing. Before the race started, while exiting pit lane to begin the pre-race pace laps, Harraka slammed into the back of Alex Kennedy, who was also making his debut. Harraka would go on to complete 89 laps en route to a 39th-place finish. ^[16]Harraka’s final NASCAR start came at Dover Motor Speedway driving for TriStar Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.^[17] Harraka then retired from NASCAR to focus on business interests.

Paulie Harraka LLC

In 2011, Harraka partnered with 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 supported Harraka's NASCAR racing activities and entrepreneurial business ventures disruptive to NASCAR.^[18] 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.^[19]

Koloma, Inc

Harraka went on to cofounded Koloma, Inc with Dr. Thomas Darrah, a geochemist from Ohio State University,^[20] and Pete Johnson, a clean energy entrepreneur.^[21] Koloma is "a natural hydrogen company that leverages its technology, proprietary data, and human capital advantages to identify and commercialize these resources on a global scale."^[22][23] Geologic Hydrogen is considered by many to be at the cutting edge of the next frontier of energy.^[24] As Chief Business Officer, Harraka leads all financial, operational, and legal functions for the company, which has raised $400 million in investment capital.^[25]

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)