Newman-Haas Pulls Out of IndyCar: Was It Simply Time?:
Last week’s announcement that Newman-Haas wouldn’t field IndyCar entries in 2012 wasn’t a major shock to those who follow the sport closely: The fact that the team hadn’t aligned with an engine manufacturer for the season suggested something was up.
But still, given the team’s impeccable history, losing Newman-Haas is a blow for a series that doesn’t need any more bad news. As chronicled in our January issue, IndyCar has enough problems going forward into 2012, among them the death of 2011 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon in that enormous crash at the season-ending race in Las Vegas; the very noticeable absence of series executive and former champion Al Unser, Jr., who was charged with driving while intoxicated and then suspended by IndyCar; and—biggest of all—the defection of star player Danica Patrick to NASCAR.
Newman-Haas was formed in 1983 by actor and racer Paul Newman, who teamed with the taciturn, cigar-chomping Carl Haas, a former racer turned team owner. Battling monster teams owned by Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi, Newman-Haas was considered something of an oasis in American open-wheel racing—certainly, it was backed by sponsorship, but it always felt more like a franchise that was begun and operated for the love of the sport, and not just a business. That attracted top drivers such as Mario and Michael Andretti, and, in 1993, Nigel Mansell, who left Formula 1 as the 1992 champion to move to the U.S. CART series, an unprecedented development that confounded Formula 1 purists and substantially boosted CART’s credibility.
As CART and the Indy Racing League fragmented, Newman and Haas stuck with the more traditional CART, largely because it primarily embraced street and road courses even though it also raced on ovals. CART, weakened, became Champ Car, and led largely by the presence of Newman-Haas—soon to be Newman-Haas-Lanigan, as Mike Lanigan took a share—it soldiered forward until succumbing to the Indy Racing League and re-merging. Driver Sébastien Bourdais, a master at road and street courses, had less interest in the oval-heavy schedule and departed after 2007.
Newman-Haas never seemed comfortable as part of the IRL, which is now known as IndyCar, although it fielded cars for Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson beginning in 2008, and both won against substantial odds. Adding to the sadness and tension in 2008 was Paul Newman’s failing health; he died on September 26. Lanigan departed in 2010 to team with Bobby Rahal.
For the 2011 season, Newman-Haas had James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia in its cars, and while competitive, Penske- and Ganassi-owned teams dominated.
Going into 2012, with Paul Newman gone and Carl Haas’s health challenged—he will turn 92 in February—it appeared to simply have been time to end the Newman-Haas saga. After all, in 2008, the team was required to junk all its equipment and invest in IndyCar hardware and software, and now all IndyCar teams must do the same for 2012, as the series is moving to new cars and engines from three manufacturers instead of just one.
Even if their namesake team carried on, absent Paul Newman and Carl Haas—undeniably the heart and soul of one of the most respected teams in American motorsports history—it wouldn’t really be Newman-Haas any longer. The team’s management has said it may return in some form, likely sports cars. But when the IndyCar series takes to the grid for its March 25 season opener on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg without any Newman-Haas cars, it will mark the official end of nearly 30 years of racing tradition, a tradition that includes eight championships and 107 victories.
The unofficial end, though, may have happened in 2008, when Tony George and the IRL won the battle over Champ Car. Paul Newman would understand: Open-wheel racing isn’t the same now as it was when he invested in Newman-Haas in 1983, and maybe it’s best that this particular book has reached its end.
Source : Google Reader
