biography

Paulie Harraka has been called many things, but common has never been one of them...

Beginning in go-karts, Harraka began a racing career that took motorsports by storm. Within 3 years, and before his 10^th birthday, he was National Champion. The next year, he was World Champion. 6 World Championships later, and after a move to ¾ scale Legends Cars, Harraka still found himself in the Winner's Circle. He also found himself at a crossroads: he had just graduated high school with a 4.38 GPA.

To Harraka, it was obvious: take the advice of Mike Krzyzewski and "Erect no artificial walls that might limit potential, stifle creativity, or shackle innovation." So what did Harraka do? "I wanted to be the most complete racecar driver in the world," he explains. "So I went to Duke University to study engineering, sports psychology, leadership, and business. And I interned in R&D at Joe Gibbs Racing, following it up with a stint in Corporate Marketing at NASCAR's Manhattan office."

Harraka is now a senior at Duke, getting ready to graduate. But don't think he stopped racing to do it. He traveled, almost every weekend, to a NASCAR race. While a student at Duke, he won countless NASCAR races, the Championship in NASCAR's Whelen All-American Series, and 2 different NASCAR Rookie of the Year titles. He's still climbing NASCAR's ladder, and is the sport's brightest young star.

Beyond that, he's a Celebrity Ambassador for Childhelp, a national nonprofit that works with abused, neglected, and at risk children. No wonder Harraka's been featured on everything from ESPN and Sports Illustrated to Fox News and The New York Times.