MILLER: Haas a racer above all else

Carl Haas was a driver, racecar entrepreneur, car owner and promoter during his six decades in motorsports, but above all, he was a racer.

"What I liked most about Carl was that he didn't come from wealth but something else, everything he earned and accomplished was from racing and he truly made a successful living from the sport," Mario Andretti said Thursday morning as he reminisced about his longtime car owner.

"After Formula 1 I found a home with he and Paul (Newman) and I was the luckiest guy around because it was the perfect situation and I loved those guys."

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Haas, whose trademark was his unlit cigar and dark glasses, passed away June 29 in his Chicago home at the age of 86 after a long bout with Alzheimer's. He had not been seen publicly in several years.

A native of Chicago, Haas drove sports cars in the 1950s and 1960s before starting a clearinghouse for racecar parts and then becoming the Lola and Hewland distributor in North America.

But it was his partnership with Newman that brought Haas his true happiness, as their team scored 107 IndyCar victories plus eight championships in CART and Champ Car from 1983-2008.

Though rivals in Can-Am, Haas approached Newman about forming an IndyCar team and was rebuked before hearing the words: Mario Andretti.

"I said, where do I sign?" Newman recalled many years later.

After convincing them to go with a Lola chassis, Andretti worked out its bugs and scored two wins in that inaugural 1983 season before capturing the CART title in 1984.

"They were the original odd couple, Carl and Paul, but they always gave me the best equipment and Carl never held back on the things that were essential," said Andretti, who raced with Newman/Haas from 1983-1994.

"I had input on who we could hire and Carl always invested in the best people."

Michael Andretti joined the team in 1988 and racked up 40 wins and the 1991 CART crown. "I loved the fact they would do whatever it took to win," said Andretti, now a car owner himself. "It was a great atmosphere and one of the best teams ever."

Sebastien Bourdais, Cristiano da Matta and Nigel Mansell also captured championships, but Haas stealing Mansell away from Formula One in 1993 the year after his title still ranks as one of the greatest coups in motorsports history.

Ralph Hansen, who spent 30 years as Haas' right-hand man, still laughs about those negotiations with the 2001 F1 champion.

"Carl and I were at Watkins Glen for some kind of sponsorship function and we were sitting on a picnic table and Carl had Mansell on the phone," Hansen said. "Then Nigel had to put him on hold because he was getting a call from the Queen. There was a big demonstration outside Buckingham Palace called 'Save Our Nige' and she was imploring him to stay.

"Carl put his hand over the phone and said: 'My god, I negotiated against the Queen and we won.'"

It was such a well-kept secret that even the Newman/Haas team had no idea.

"Michael (Andretti) had just won the CART title but was headed to McLaren so we didn't know who was going to take his place," recalled veteran mechanic Tim Coffeen, who worked for Newman/Haas Racing for 20 years. "Carl called us all together and told us he had hired a driver we were all going to enjoy working with.

"Then a few days later Nigel walked into our shop. We were all in shock and I'd never seen Carl so happy."

Mansell earned the 1993 CART championship, but it was nine years before the team's next one. The war between CART and the Indy Racing League eventually saw a mass exodus to the Indy Racing League, but Newman/Haas remained loyal to CART and then Champ Car.

Bourdais bagged four consecutive Champ Car titles from 2004-07 and raved about his five-year run during a 2014 party for former Newman/Haas drivers, mechanics and employees.

"It was very unique with Carl leading the team and Paul providing the spirit. And when they ran out of sponsorship money, they chipped in to keep us going. I was very lucky to have driven for them," he said.

John Tzouanakis, who spent 28 years with Newman/Haas as a mechanic and team manager, loved the environment. "They weren't hands-on; they simply left you alone and let everyone do their job," he said. "Carl ran the business and Paul flew in for the races and I think racing was their country club. They could get away from people and enjoy their passion."

Hansen helped negotiate major sponsorships from Texaco, Kmart, Budweiser and Beatrice, but he also saw Haas and Newman dig into their own pockets to keep the team on track.

"Carl could be a tough businessman, but he was an incredibly honest person and he always lived up to his word," Hansen said. "He was a man of integrity and he would always underpromise and overdeliver to our sponsors, and they loved it."

The late Justin Wilson scored Newman/Haas' final win in 2008 at Detroit – shortly before Newman died of cancer – and the team shut down following the 2011 season.

Besides his CART team, Haas competed in Can-Am, launched a short-lived F1 team and also had a NASCAR operation. But his true love was Indy cars – especially the Indianapolis 500 – which Newman/Haas dominated on occasion but never won.

"Obviously we had everyone covered in 1987 and Michael was long gone in 1992, but that place always eluded them and it was a big disappointment," said the patriarch of the Andretti clan. "But it wasn't for a lack of trying. They always knew we were there and I always felt bad we couldn't get one."

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