Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman Page #8

on the pit lane. Almost 15, 20

years later, I asked him

to autograph that photograph.

And when he did, he wrote,

"rear-ended again."

So I'm like,

I think he remembered...

- Yeah.

- Those times,

you know, in the past.

- I don't know.

- Are we ready?

Racing against him,

he wouldn't give you any room.

You had to work for it.

But he knew the reality

in that sport.

You can, at the minimum,

get hurt real bad...

At the minimum.

We ran Jim basically

in the southeast,

and we ran in the northeast.

Now, at a few races...

Mid-Ohio maybe,

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin,

Road Atlanta...

we'd all come together.

We were racing two Trans-Am cars

at St. Petersburg.

Paul was ahead of Fitzy.

Elliot Forbes-Robinson

of the No 11 Porsche,

and Paul Newman

who moved up from sixth to fifth

at the start.

And Fitzy came

down the straightaway

and never braked for turn 1.

There you see Jim Fitzgerald

in the No 38 Nissan.

It looks like he clipped

the wall on the outside there,

as you can see it on the left,

and spun violently into that wall.

That's a very dangerous part

of this track, actually.

He hit the Jersey barrier

and careened backwards

and went into the second one

from whatever speed

to zero in two feet.

You can see Jim Fitzgerald

still inside the car

and not moving.

He broke his neck

when he hit the second barrier,

so he was probably dead instantly.

How did Paul do in that race?

He ran a couple laps and pulled in.

- He couldn't continue?

- No, he couldn't continue.

Now, you know, we have

some go-karts over there.

NBC has these long studios,

and they're all empty.

So the hallway

goes for 1/4 mile that way,

go right, 1/4 mile back.

I said, "let's get

some go-karts, and we'll race."

There's your car right there.

So I'm practicing all day,

and I'm, "this will be easy."

You know, Newman comes in,

looks at it, and he just gets that...

When you see that racer glance,

which I obviously do not have.

Paul, do you have any advice

or otherwise for your man here?

Pray for your life.

He gets in the car and... Zing!

I mean, just a master driver.

He just had that innate ability,

which is frustrating

for people like me,

who love this but realize

I don't have the skill.

I don't have the ability,

but he really did.

I mean, he beat me so

horrendously bad...

Killed me, just killed me.

Paul Newman manages to win.

This Bud's for the

Paul Newman Can-Am racing team.

The Can-Am series

was pretty much ending,

and he had a team,

so I suggested that maybe he

would partner with Carl Haas.

I raced against Paul Newman.

I had a race team at that time

in the Can-Am series,

and Paul had a team.

We weren't particularly friends.

If we were in politics,

We'd probably be

Castor and Rumsfeld.

Carl was the importer of the Lola cars.

Paul was the customer.

The cars were always

delivered late and over weight.

Paul was accusing Carl

of selling him heavy cars,

and, you know, not giving him

any sort of an advantage

because Carl was

competing against him.

For 1982, I wanted to get

my ending program together.

And what you really

need if you want to be

successful in this thing

is you need a good driver.

You need a top driver

and then the rest of will

come to you easier.

I was used a little bit

to bring the team together.

Carl was pretty smart about it.

What he did is he hired me

to drive his Formula 4,

and in doing so,

he had my dad now at the races,

so in the background,

he got closer to my father.

He was world champion on Formula 1.

He won races in NASCAR racing,

he won races in dirt tracks,

he won races in Indy cars,

he won the Indy 500.

He was the best in the world.

I wanted to be part

of a different team

after the '82 season.

I said, "Carl, what about,"

I said, "a partnership with,

like, Paul Newman?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, Carl, you know,

jumped on that immediately.

I won a Can-Am series dive,

Carl called and said,

"how would you like to start

an open-wheel racing team?"

I said, "not a chance in hell, Carl."

He said, "what if Mario was driving?"

I said, "where would

you like to meet?"

It wasn't just that he

was a fierce competitor,

there was a real joy and delight.

The way he got in

that car, I mean,

he just snuggled up to it

like a really good-looking lady,

and he enjoyed everything about it.

When we first started off,

he had a Lola car built for us

and we took the car out racing

to begin with, those first few

races in Indianapolis,

and the car was really bad.

Mario had a crash at Indy.

- He's just...

- oh!

That's the yellow car,

Johnny Parsons, Mario Andretti.

- Oh, no, Mario.

- Andretti he hit the wall.

So we had a bad time.

Carl was all business.

The guy that would do

anything necessary

to get the basic ingredients,

the best pit boss,

the best engineer, you know,

The best driver,

the best everything

as far as running the team.

Yeah!

The flying Frenchman

has done it again.

You can't even describe Carl Haas.

He was that guy who had been

in the racing business forever,

who was very mystic, you know,

was blessing the cars

Before the race,

and Paul being so candid

about, you know, racing

and just, you know, enjoying it.

Paul was the guy

that would just keep everything

under control, if you will.

If I had a misunderstanding

with Carl,

Paul would always be the one to

come in and smooth things out.

19-year-old Graham Rahal

in his first Indy-car

series start will win,

the Honda grand prix

at St. Pete.

He was always that type

of owner that wasn't really

a boss, just more of a friend,

and I just loved being around him.

He was really good to drive for,

'cause he understood the pressures

that the drivers were under.

He would let his guys

do what they do best.

With a very consistent

engineering office,

mechanics mostly stayed the same

for the five years I was there.

So it was just a very

well-sorted team.

Those four years

that we were together before I

left for Formula 1 were probably

my favorite times of racing.

I really felt like it was

a family team from Paul and Carl

to, I mean, obviously,

dad and myself.

I mean, it was just a

perfect situation.

5,000 people here for Andretti.

His first victory at Long Beach.

There's even hugging

and kissing going on.

During the first couple years or so,

Paul and I weren't real close,

but I think we came closer

as time went by.

I had the longest stint

in my career for a single team

by driving for Paul Newman

and Carl Haas.

You couldn't find

any more opposite people

to work together and form one

of the best race teams

in America ever.

Michael Andretti, as he

receives the congratulations

of his pit crew.

This day is all about

Cristiano de Matta,

who has clinched the championship.

And there is the checkered flag

for Nigel Mansell.

Here comes Paul Newman now.

I think you get the idea of

how much it means to this team.

This man in 2004 and again

in 2005 is the series champion.

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