There are times when Joe Hartley feels like a mackerel in a sea of sharks.

Except this little fishie bites back.

Hartley has shown this season he definitely has the ability to run with the big boys of the NHRA POWERade Series tour, scoring a career-high five round wins while running in four of seven national events. He's achieved a career-best elapsed time while also scoring a round win against three-time defending Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher and advancing to the first final of his career.

Yes, for this family-operated organization, it’s been a very enjoyable start to the 2007 season.

"It's just a family team here," Hartley said. "To at least be at the same level and beat some of these guys (like Schumacher) is just a rewarding experience. To just qualify out here is a feat. There are so many good cars out here, so to do what we've done feels pretty awesome.

"We do it on our own. We don't pay anybody the big bucks to tune our car. So to tune it on our own and have the success we've had is pretty awesome."

It's been a tough trek for Hartley Racing to reach this level of competition.

Joe Hartley showing the ability to bite back

There are times when Joe Hartley feels like a mackerel in a sea of sharks.

Except this little fishie bites back.

Hartley has shown this season he definitely has the ability to run with the big boys of the NHRA POWERade Series tour, scoring a career-high five round wins while running in four of seven national events. He's achieved a career-best elapsed time while also scoring a round win against three-time defending Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher and advancing to the first final of his career.

Yes, for this family-operated organization, it’s been a very enjoyable start to the 2007 season.

"It's just a family team here," Hartley said. "To at least be at the same level and beat some of these guys (like Schumacher) is just a rewarding experience. To just qualify out here is a feat. There are so many good cars out here, so to do what we've done feels pretty awesome.

"We do it on our own. We don't pay anybody the big bucks to tune our car. So to tune it on our own and have the success we've had is pretty awesome."

It's been a tough trek for Hartley Racing to reach this level of competition.

It starts with team owner Allen Hartley, who's been involved in racing since the early 1970s, first as a driver and in recent years as a team owner. His driving resume includes winning two national events in the Top Alcohol ranks in 1996. He turned the driving duties over to Joe in 1998 and the team moved over to Top Fuel prior to the 2000 season.

"It was just the natural progression," said Joe Hartley of the move to Top Fuel. "You always want to go forward, to move up. And at the time, there were some other factors (in Top Alcohol). It seemed like every time we started to make some headway in the A-Fuel car, NHRA would make some rule changes in the Top Alcohol class to even out the field. We got sick of fighting with it, so we said, 'Let's go somewhere where they are not going to mess with us.’"

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It was a tough chore for the team, which must, because of budget constraints, limit its racing to an average of 8 to 10 national events a season. And while trying to earn their keep against the elite teams in the sport, the round wins were few and far between as they lined up against the likes of Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Doug Kalitta, and Kenny and Brandon Bernstein.

But they never lost hope. They were too busy enjoying the life of nitro racing.

"My dad is just the eternal optimist," Joe Hartley said. "He always tries to have a positive outlook on everything. He believes no matter how bad the weekend went, if we're still in one piece, if the car's still in one piece, we can learn from the mistakes and progress.

"It's difficult because we don't get a lot of runs being a low-budget team, but we just try to stay positive and try to move forward."

And the Hartley Racing team has made a big leap this season. The black and red family dragster has almost doubled its previous round win total with a 5-3 elimination record so far this season. In addition, a career-best elapsed time of 4.559 seconds earned Hartley the No. 10 qualifying position at Las Vegas in April. Hartley also made his first final-round appearance, finishing second to J.R. Todd at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals near Houston.

"The biggest difference for us is just hiring more full-time guys," Hartley said. "Guy Kent, who was with us before, worked with (Kalitta Motorsports) for three years and came back this year. A lot of the knowledge he brought over on just maintaining the car and ensuring that the same parts go in the car every time has made a huge difference.

"I'm not saying what we had before was bad, it's just taking it to that next level, which is what a lot of these professional teams do. And the results are showing."

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They showed big time in Houston when Hartley advanced to his first final.

Hartley qualified No. 9 with a steady 4.618, then chopped down the competition on race day. He beat Hillary Will with a 4.820 in round one, put Whit Bazemore on the trailer with a 4.894 in the quarterfinals and ended David Grubnic's day with a 4.632 in the semifinals.

His string ended in the final against Todd, but he still made a very respectable 4.645 pass.

"That was pretty cool, obviously," Hartley said of his first run to the final round. "It was just one of those days where you are kind of in the right position. There were a couple of guys who didn't quite have the greatest day and we were on the winning end of those deals, winning some tire smokers.

"But we've been on the other end of that quite a few times, so to make it to the finals was pretty awesome."

He hopes to take it one step further at some point this season.

Due to the team's financial limitations, Hartley is only scheduled to compete in six to eight more races the rest of the year. But he does believe, with the team's early-season success, he can take that extra step to the winner's circle.

"I'd love to have one of those Wallys," said Hartley, whose next event will be the O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kansas, in early June. "I'd also really like to run (in the 4.4 range). It's difficult to do, but under the right conditions, I can see us doing it. We're going to be going to the right tracks that we could pull it off, if everything works right.

"We got a taste of it in Houston. I don't know if we'll ever be able to get the opportunity again, but that is definitely one of our goals."