THE EARLY YEARS OF NEWMAN/HAAS RACING To say that Newman/Haas Racing made a splash upon entering the highest echelon of American open-wheel formula racing would be a severe understatement.

By the time he partnered with Hollywood legend Paul Newman to form their eponymous outfit in 1983, Carl Haas had already accrued three decades of firsthand experience in the top-level racing scene as one of the country’s most important suppliers of racing chassis and drivetrains.

If anyone in the American motorsports landscape, but not yet racing, had the means and potential to form a well-run team, Haas was a good bet.

Further, Newman and Haas were simply not the type of owners who were content to pay their series fees, take up a grid spot at the rear, and chalk up a string of mediocre results for a fistful of points in their debut year.

Newman’s celebrity cache could have, under the strain of such typical growing pains for new team principals, stained the entire effort with a stench of vanity.
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