Newman/Haas was one of the most successful teams in the history of CART, its drivers winning eight championships and over 100 individual races. The team's drivers over the years included
Mario Andretti,
Michael Andretti,
Nigel Mansell,
Paul Tracy,
Cristiano da Matta,
Sébastien Bourdais,
Justin Wilson, and
Graham Rahal.
1983–1988 At its inception, the team was a single-car outfit with championship veteran
Mario Andretti, the
Formula One World Champion, hired as lead driver. Team co-owner
Carl Haas brought in
Lola as chassis manufacturer for the team, re-introducing the constructor to the sport. Haas spearheaded Lola's first full-time, full-scale assault on the Indy car market and the car was quickly picked up by other teams. By the end of the decade, Lola would be one of the dominating chassis manufacturers in the paddock displacing
March. Andretti won two races in
1983 and finished a strong third in points for the first-year team. In
1984, Andretti won six races, nine poles and scored a total of 10 top-ten finishes to win Newman/Haas's first CART season championship. In
1985, Andretti started off with three wins and a second place in the first four races of the season. He became mired in a mid-season slump and later suffered a broken collarbone, dropping him to fifth in points at the end of the season. While Andretti recovered from injury, F1 World Champion
Alan Jones (who would be the lead driver for the Carl Haas owned
Haas Lola Formula One team starting later in 1985) drove one race in substitution finishing 3rd at
Road America in what would be his only CART start. Andretti's second place at the
1985 Indianapolis 500 would tie for the team's best result in that event but was widely overshadowed as a highly disappointing defeat. Andretti lost the race to
Danny Sullivan. In
1986, Andretti suffered a crash during practice at
Indianapolis, forcing him to start in a back-up car. He dropped out and finished 32nd. Andretti went on to win two races and finished 5th in points. For
1987, the team switched to the
Ilmor Chevy Indy V-8 powerplant. Andretti won the season opener at
Long Beach, the powerplant's first Indy car victory. Andretti won one other race but suffered more disappointment than success, including another loss at
Indy.
1989–1992 Newman/Haas expanded to a two-car team starting in 1989, adding
Michael Andretti. The father and son duo of Mario and Michael Andretti excelled as one of the top teams on the Indy car circuit over the next few years. In their first season as teammates, father and son finished 6th and 3rd in points, respectively. Michael Andretti won the
1991 CART championship and finished second in points in 1990 and 1992. Starting in 1992, the team switched to the new
Ford Cosworth XB engine. Despite consistent success on the CART circuit, both Mario and Michael still
failed to achieve victory for Newman/Haas at the Indy 500. Michael finished second in
1991, and dropped out while leading with 11 laps to go in
1992.
1993–1994 driving for the team in 1993.
Michael Andretti left the team to drive for
McLaren in Formula One for 1993 and was replaced by English driver
Nigel Mansell who arrived on the CART circuit with much fanfare. In his rookie season, Mansell,
the reigning Formula One World Champion, won five races and had ten top-3 finishes, clinching the 1993 CART title to become the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and Champ Car titles at the same time. Mario Andretti also returned to victory lane, winning what would be his final Indy car victory at Phoenix. Both Mansell and Andretti were strong contenders at
Indianapolis. Andretti led the most laps, but slipped to 5th due to a penalty and handling problems. Mansell, still largely unfamiliar with rolling re-starts after a safety car period (safety cars would not be introduced into F1 until ), was passed for the lead on a restart with 16 laps. He later brushed the wall, and finished 3rd behind winner
Emerson Fittipaldi and second-placed
Arie Luyendyk. In 1994, the attention focused on Mario Andretti who announced he would retire at the end of the season. He embarked on a year-long "Arrivederci Mario" tour which celebrated his career. The 1994 season, however, was more maligned for the team. Andretti scored no wins and only three top-five finishes. Mansell slumped as well, scoring no wins and with his contract till the end of 1995, eventually left Indy cars at season's end to return to Formula One after
Bernie Ecclestone bought Mansell's contract out. Both Andretti and Mansell had miserable results at Indianapolis in 1994. Mario dropped out and finished 32nd in his final Indy 500 after only 23 laps due to a fuel system failure. Mansell was later knocked out of the race in a bizarre crash with
Dennis Vitolo.
1995 Michael Andretti returned to the team in 1995. He experienced an unsuccessful season in Formula One (1993) and drove the 1994 season in CART for
Ganassi.
Paul Tracy took over the second team car for one season. Andretti scored one win and a 4th place finish in points. Tracy scored two wins and finished 6th in points. At the end of the season, the burgeoning open-wheel "split" saw Newman/Haas firmly taking the side of the CART contingent. Tracy departed to go back to
Penske 1996–2002 Michael Andretti and
Christian Fittipaldi represented the team together for five seasons with
Roberto Moreno driving as an occasional substitute. Andretti won ten races during this period, finishing second in points in 1996 and continued to remain a top driver on the circuit. Fittipaldi scored two wins and the best finish of 5th in points in 1996. In 1997–1999, the team utilized the
Swift chassis but it did not prove to be very successful. The team went back to
Lola in 2000. Andretti parted ways with Newman/Haas after the 2000 season, in part due to the team's refusal to enter a car at Indianapolis of the rival Indy Racing League. He instead formed a team with
Kim Green as a satellite to his brother Barry's
Team Green. The 2001 season saw another major change for Newman/Haas as they switched engine suppliers from Ford-Cosworth to Toyota.
Cristiano da Matta was brought over from
PPI Motorsports to take over for Andretti and in his very first race for the team, he recorded a victory at Monterrey. Fittipaldi, meanwhile, struggled and finished fifteenth in the points with no victories. Da Matta recorded two additional wins for a total of three on the year and would finish fifth. 2002 was a highly successful year for Newman/Haas. Fittipaldi managed to finish fifth in series points for new sponsor Eli Lilly (longtime sponsor Kmart had pulled out of all of its racing sponsorships, including Haas'
NASCAR team, following its 2002 bankruptcy) but the season belonged to da Matta. After repeating his feat in Mexico in the season opener, he would later score four consecutive wins by taking the events at
Laguna Seca,
Portland,
Chicago, and
Toronto to take a commanding lead in the points. His later wins at
Road America and
Bayfront Park gave him seven for the year and he finished seventy-three points ahead of second-place
Bruno Junqueira in the final points standings. When the 2002 season ended, both drivers departed the team. Fittipaldi became a full-time
NASCAR driver following the season while da Matta was offered a lucrative contract to drive one of two cars for Toyota's factory-backed effort in
Formula 1.
Champ Car World Series (2003-2007) 2003 was a season of upheaval for CART as a whole. Following the lead of
Team Penske the year before, several of the top teams in CART defected to the
Indy Racing League. Newman/Haas did not and remained loyal to what was now called the Champ Car World Series. Not only was there a significant amount of team turnover but both Honda and Toyota also departed for the IRL leaving Ford as the only manufacturer. Newman/Haas also needed a new sponsor as ChevronTexaco, the parent company of Havoline, chose not to continue sponsoring the team. They signed
PacifiCare as a new sponsor and also brought in
McDonald's as initially a secondary sponsor for their second car; the restaurant would eventually take over as primary sponsor the following year. Needing to round out its driver lineup, Newman/Haas signed
Bruno Junqueira and
Sébastien Bourdais. Junqueira had driven for
Chip Ganassi Racing in 2001 and 2002 but was not retained when the team elected to move over to the IRL, while Bourdais won the 2002
Formula 3000 championship driving for
Super Nova Racing. Junqueira won twice at Road America and Denver on route to a second-place finish in the points while series Rookie of the Year Bourdais won at Brands Hatch, Lausitzring and Cleveland while finishing sixth. 2004 saw Bourdais have a breakout season and the team scored a 1-2 finish in the series standings. The Frenchman won seven times in the season, including three consecutive at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto, and won his first championship. Junqueira, meanwhile, scored wins at Montreal and Surfers' Paradise. He also was given a chance to run for Newman/Haas at
Indianapolis in the team's return to the 500; Junqueira went on to finish fifth and lead 16 laps in the rain-shortened event. 2005 started out great for Newman/Haas as the team won the first two races. Bourdais took victory at Long Beach while Junqueira won at Monterrey. However, things took a bad turn as the team raced at Indianapolis. Junqueira crashed and suffered a fractured vertebra, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season. He would finish 30th while Bourdais finished 12th. However, the team once again dominated the series as it had the year before. Bourdais again emerged as the champion, recording five additional victories. He won at Edmonton and San Jose, repeated his victories at Denver and Las Vegas and won at Surfers' Paradise.
Oriol Servia ran the remaining events in place of Junqueira and won at Montreal, bringing his team home in second place. 2006 saw more of the same from Bourdais, as he recorded seven more wins. He won all of the first four races, then added victories at San Jose, Montreal and Mexico City on his way to a third consecutive series championship. Junqueira returned from his injury but failed to win a race, finishing fifth overall in the points. The 2007 season would prove to be the final season for Champ Car and once again, Bourdais emerged as the champion. He recorded a career-high eight victories, including in five of the last seven events and easily took his fourth straight championship.
Graham Rahal joined the team replacing Junqueira and finished fifth in the points, with the best finish of second behind his teammate at Houston. The Houston win was Newman/Haas' 100th in the series. Before the season ended,
Scuderia Toro Rosso of Formula 1 announced that Bourdais had signed to drive as teammate to
Sebastian Vettel for the team beginning in 2008.
Justin Wilson was tabbed to replace him, but he would do so in the IndyCar Series as the two organizations unified during the offseason. ==Indy Racing League / IndyCar Series==