It’s all Matt Puccia says Greg Biffle of his big turnaround, early success
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[/media-credit]Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus. Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli. Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham.
Those are just some memorable driver and crew chief combinations and ones that happened to be pretty successful. By the end of the 2012 season there might be a new pair to add to the list: Greg Biffle and Matt Puccia.
They would be the Roush Fenway Racing team who is leading the NSCS points after the first five races. While they haven’t yet won a race, Biffle continues to sing Puccia’s praises for having the team off to a fast start.
They’ve led the point standings since Las Vegas following another third place finish. Sitting on the outside of the front row for the Daytona 500, then winning the pole at Bristol has also helped Biffle and company ride the success wave.
“I’ve had a lot of success and I’ve had a lot of failure in racing over the years,” Biffle said on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re focused and prepared, getting prepared every week, to go do the best we can. I know and probably the team knows, we won’t lead the points the entire season or up to the Chase, however you want to say it.
“I know that we’re probably not going to lead the points the whole way. So I’m happy and proud of our team fighting to stay in the points lead running as good as we can every week. But the reality is I know that we may not. If and when that happens, certainly I’m not going to let that take the wind out of our sails. We’re going to work as hard as we can to keep the points lead, keep in the top five, keep in the top three.”
Should he continue to lead the points, Biffle called it a bonus. The goal right now is to show up each week and try to win the race. Then go on to make the Chase, which will only happen if the team continues to the positive attitude they have, even if they aren’t leading the points.
But should they, the credit will go to Puccia. After joining the team midway through 2011 he’s taken the team from pretenders to serious contenders. Their great relationship and how easily the two have gelled have them in prime position to do what teammate Carl Edwards did last season, challenge for the championship all the way down to Homestead.
Only Biffle believes that Puccia is the man to not only get him that far but lead him back to the promise land. The Washington native is attempting to become the first NASCAR driver to win a championship in all three series.
“That guy, I promise you, if anybody can take me to winning a championship, it’s Matt Puccia,” said Biffle. “He never gives up, never leaves a rock unturned. He’s the hungriest guy I’ve ever seen in my whole life and is the most focused to win a race. I cannot wait. I can’t wait till we win a race because he deserves it.
“In my opinion, I’m a little prejudice, but he’s working harder than anybody in the garage, all 42 other crew chiefs. I feel like he’s working the hardest. When he does win, when we win here hopefully in the near future, it will be well-deserved. I think he’s totally capable of winning a championship. Very good under pressure, is not going to waiver from his plan, and his stuff is going to be the best prepared out of the 43 cars when it shows up.”
The same should apply this weekend when the series rolls into Martinsville, the second short track of the season. At Bristol two weeks ago the team won the pole and led the first 41 laps but faded out of contention and finished 13th.
A week ago he started fourth and finished sixth, yet never led a lap at a track he’s won at before. Acknowleding that he had a top 10 car in both events, Biffle still said the team was unsatisfied with the results. Upset they weren’t as competitive as they thought they’d be.
Attention now turns to Martinsville, where he has yet to win. Last fall Biffle started and finished 15th and carries an average finish of 22.4 at the paperclip. The most important stat that stands out: only two top 10 finishes, that being a 10th place in 2010 and his best finish coming in the fall of 2007 when he finished seventh.
It has Biffle’s hunger for more than a Martinsville hotdog burning badly.
“I want a grandfather clock so bad, I got a spot picked out for it,” he said with a laugh. “You look at the stats, Martinsville hasn’t been out best place as a company, let alone me as a driver. Although I’ve run very well there in the Trucks and Nationwide, qualified third, ran good.
“So if the car’s right – we have a light weight car we’re bringing, we’ve been working on brakes extensively – if all the stars line up, we’ve led some laps there too, we have a chance. Not sure if we have a chance of winning but we have a solid chance of running in the top five.”
A belief Biffle hasn’t had before, this year however, it’s apparent that he’s excited to head to the track every weekend, no matter which track it is. He’s got a team he wholeheartedly believes in and a crew chief who it seems he wouldn’t trade for anything. Martinsville will be a challenge he knows, but so far Biffle and Puccia have met every challenge head on and haven’t slowed down.
“A lot of credit is due there,” said Biffle of Puccia. “A lot of credit is due to the shop, our engine program, fuel injection. This has been a really seamless transition for us. It’s been a good year for our cars mechanically, our cars aero-wise and competition.
“Matt has got a plan and he’s leading this team like a 10-year veteran crew chief or a five-year veteran crew chief that’s won multiple races or championships. It’s just clear he’s got a great group of guys together. I give him a lot of credit for where we’re at today.
“I’m telling you, I’m not doing a lot different behind the wheel. I’m giving it a hundred percent all the time, focused. My head’s in the game, paying attention to the car’s setup, stopping in the pit box. I’m doing all the things that I had been doing. It’s just the results are different.
Paulie Harraka Takes Martinsville Truck High Tech
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[/media-credit]Paulie Harraka is not only competing in the Camping World Truck Series and finishing his senior year at Duke but, this weekend, the Rookie of the Year candidate will be taking his Truck high tech at Martinsville.
The native New Jersey driver has a new sponsor partner for his No. 5 Wauters Motorsport Ford F-150, the high tech company MC10. This company reshapes electronics to create thin systems that stretch, bend and flex, including body-worn sensors for high quality data collection.
“We’re really excited,” Harraka said. “MC10 is certainly a company that is at the fore front of high tech development and has such wide reaching applications.”
“When you think about what you could do if you could take all these electronics that we use and make them flexible, you realize there are applications pretty much everywhere.”
MC10, a new company based in Boston, was looking for an innovative marketing platform for their products. After meeting Harraka, they decided that NASCAR would indeed match their company’s needs and agreed to go racing with him at Martinsville, including using him as a bit of a guinea pig for their products.
“MC10 sensors have huge capabilities, from measuring heart rate to anything that we have a way to measure,” Harraka said. “I’ll actually have a sample of their electronics on me during the race.”
“So, the possibilities are almost endless,” Harraka continued. “I know this is the beginning of a long partnership.”
The partnership between MC10 and Harraka actually began at a conference and flourished from there. Although the company was not familiar with NASCAR, it was not a ‘hard sell’ once they reviewed the statistics of the reach of the sport and the loyalty of the fan base.
“When I was up at the Sports Analytics Conference, I met with the CEO of MC10 and he expressed an interest,” Harraka continued. “We explored ways that MC10 technology is applicable to NASCAR.”
“When they began to see how their technology applied to the sport of racing, that’s how the discussion turned to how to promote this,” Harraka said. “And the sponsorship discussion began.”
“While the CEO was not generally a fan of the sport himself, people are generally familiar with the sport and how big the fan base is, how loyal the fan base is and what the reach is,” Harraka continued. “You can bring somebody in and they get it pretty quickly.”
Marrying his business savvy with his racing acumen has been just one of the elements that has made Harraka unique in the NASCAR racing world. And through his education and connections made at Duke, the young driver has been committed to exposing new corporations to the sport.
“One of the hallmarks of what we’ve done is to bring in a lot of business partners,” Harraka said. “And without a doubt, this is a unique way to approach motorsports.”
“On one hand, it’s a great way to raise capital initially,” Harraka continued. “But on the other hand, the big pro to it is to bring these different businesses, with all their accolades, from marketing to venture capitalists, in to learn about NASCAR.”
“They understand very quickly the opportunities and ways to bring their businesses into the sport,” Harraka said. “It’s unique and the payoff is just starting.”
With his new sponsor in hand and planning to attend the upcoming race at Martinsville, Harraka cannot wait to get back to racing after the month-long break since Daytona.
“Daytona was kind of a tease and then you have a lot of time off,” Harraka said. “I would much rather be racing every weekend.”
“But the guys have been hard at work building trucks and getting us ready,” Harraka continued. “After Martinsville, we have a week off but then we go to Rockingham and then, boom, we head to Kansas.”
“So, we go into a little stretch of racing, which is exciting,” Harraka said. “I’m excited to get into the meat of the racing season starting at Martinsville.”
Harraka acknowledged that nothing he learned on the high banks of the superspeedway of Daytona will apply to the paper-clip shaped track at Martinsville. Yet he also feels that he will be returning to his roots, racing on a short track.
“Daytona is most certainly a unique place,” Harraka said. “But all that we learn at Daytona really only applies there and Talladega, so Martinsville will be a completely different animal.”
“But it is definitely one that is more in my element and where I have my experience base,” Harraka continued. “So, I’m excited to get back to a nice little half mile.”
Harraka has no different expectations for his upcoming race weekend than he ever does when he gets behind the wheel. He expects to be in victory circle at the end of the race.
“I expect us to run well,” Harraka said. “I expect that we can run up front and lead laps and that we can bring home a good finish.”
“We’re going to the race track to win and I really do believe that we can come home with a great finish.”
While Harraka may be confident about his race expectations, he is reserving judgment on one Martinsville tradition. He is just not sure about having one of those infamous Martinsville hot dogs.
“We’ll see,” Harraka said. “I’m not sure how my stomach will do with those. So, I make no predictions there.”
Most of all, Harraka looks forward to returning to racing with his new sponsor MC10 on the race truck and cheering him on in the pits.
“I think everyone in this sport recognizes that the best thing for our sport is to bring in more companies that haven’t been involved in our sport,” Harraka said. “To expose them to the power of NASCAR is just exciting.”
“To go outside the reach of a normal motorsports sponsorship and bring in a company totally outside of that to show the value of the sport is great for them,” Harraka continued. “And it’s great for us and for the sport as a whole.”
“I expect that the relationship will grow into a lot of partnerships moving forward,” Harraka said. “We already have some cool things cooking post-Martinsville.”
