CHAMPION 1984 | Drove for NHR from 1983-1994 | 185 starts
Mario Andretti’s illustrious career earned him the distinction of “Driver of the Quarter Century” and later “Driver of the Century.” He began with Newman/Haas Racing during its rookie season in 1983 and drove for the team a total of 12 consecutive seasons until he retired from full-time racing at the conclusion of the 1994 season. Andretti scored the first CART championship for the team in only its second season in 1984. The 1984 Championship was his fourth overall (1965, 1966, 1969, 1984) in the series. En route to his sole Champ Car championship after CART was established (1979), Andretti led the series in victories with six and established a new single-season record with nine poles in 16 races. During his Championship season, he led more laps than any other driver with 572 of 2286 total. Andretti’s season was so dominating that he won from the pole in five of his six victories, which came in the first 11 events. During his 12 seasons with Newman/Haas Racing, Mario Andretti scored 18 victories and 26 pole positions as well as set numerous track records during qualifying and in races. He was a permanent fixture around the team after his retirement partly due to the fact that his son, Michael Andretti drove for the team from 1989 to 1992 and 1995 to 2000.



CHAMPION 1991 | Ddrove for NHR from 1989-1992 & 1995-2000 | 173 starts		  
 
  Michael Andretti had one of the most dominating seasons, both personally and for Newman/Haas Racing to date, en route to his lone CART Championship in 1991. He scored a record eight Champ Car victories, eight poles and 11 podium positions (top-three) as well as won the  
 
  invitational Marlboro Challenge from the pole. During the season, he earned a record number of points under the modern (1983) system. He became the first driver to win the Marlboro Challenge twice, first to win from the pole and first to win the PPG Cup in the same season. He topped CART’s first ever all-Andretti victory podium ahead of cousin, John, and father, Mario, at Milwaukee. He won the championship in the same year as his younger brother, Jeff, won the “Rookie of the Year” title. Andretti was named “Driver of the Year” by a national panel of journalists and set a Champ Car earnings record of $2,400,000 in a single season. Michael Andretti began driving for Newman/Haas Racing in 1989 marking the first father/son team in Champ Car history. Prior to his official role with the team beginning in 1989, Andretti had been an unofficial member since the team’s inception in late 1982 due to his father’s involvement. It was a natural progression for Newman/Haas Racing to become a two-car team to make room for the younger Andretti in 1989 and they were immediately rewarded with wins, pole and ultimately a Championship a few seasons later. The team supported his desire to follow in the footsteps of his father and compete in Formula One in 1993. Formula One’s loss was Champ Car racing’s gain when Andretti came back to the series the following season. Newman/Haas Racing’s lineup was set with Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell so Andretti drove for Chip Ganassi in 1994 and scored the team’s first win in the series. Andretti came home to Newman/Haas Racing in 1995 and remained a part of the team until the conclusion of 2000 when he announced he would drive for team owner Barry Green thus ending three decades of Andretti involvement with the team. During his 10 seasons at Newman/Haas Racing the combination of Andretti and the team’s expertise garnered 31 race wins and 26 pole positions as well as the 1991 Championship.
  
 


CHAMPION 1993 | Drove for NHR from 1993-1994 | 31 starts
Nigel Mansell came to Newman/Haas Racing in 1993 as the reigning Formula One Champion. He became the first rookie and third former Formula One champion to capture the CART title. He was also the first driver to win the Formula One and CART titles back-to-back. He edged fellow Formula One Champion Emerson Fittipaldi by a 191-183 margin to bring Newman/Haas Racing its third CART title. Mansell made a strong statement immediately as he won the season opener in Australia from the pole. After missing the following race at Phoenix due to a practice accident, Mansell posted five podium finishes, including a win at Milwaukee, in the next six races. He went on to tie for the series high in victories at five and become the sole leader in poles at seven. He also established single-season rookie records for poles and laps led at 603. He reached the $1 million mark in earnings quicker than any driver in racing history (10 races). The reigning Champion came back to Newman/Haas and CART for the 1994 season but did not fare as well and returned to Formula One at the end of the season. In his two year stint with the team, Mansell won five races, 10 pole positions and set numerous track records.



CHAMPION 2002 | Drove for NHR from 2001-2002 | 39 starts
Cristiano da Matta earned a series high seven wins and seven pole positions as well as led almost twice as many laps as the driver ranked second in that category to earn the team its fourth		  

 
 
  title. Despite winning a total of seven races, his domination exceeded that mark as victory was within reach in another seven events (Long Beach, Cleveland, Vancouver, Montreal, Australia, Fontana, Mexico City) but each win eluded him due to a variety of circumstances. He matched Al Unser Jr. and Alex Zanardi’s CART Champ Car record for four consecutive wins although he was unable to break the record due to an engine failure in the fifth event. He was one win away from matching a CART record for most wins in one season – at eight -- despite leading the race in two of his final three attempts and finishing second in his third. With three races left in the season, he clinched the championship with a win in Miami. In addition to seven pole positions, he started on the front row a total of nine times in 19 events. Largely on the strength of 11 podium finishes in 19 races, he had accumulated the second highest number of points in modern CART history with 73 over second place Bruno Junqueira, behind only Alex Zanardi’s 116-point winning margin in 1998. By setting the fastest race lap the most times during the season – at six -- he won the Honda
Fast Lap award as well as a Honda motorcycle. Da Matta became the first open wheel driver since Nigel Mansell in 1993 (with NHR) to win the National “Driver of the Year” award, which is voted on by a national panel of journalists. He also earned the honor of being named to the AAWRBA First Team and was voted by fans as Racer Magazine’s “Road Racer of the Year” and was a close second to five-time F 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher for “Overall Racer of the Year.” Due to da Matta and NHR’s efforts, the successful season earned him a test and later, the opportunity to race for Toyota’s Formula One program for 2003. Overall, in da Matta’s two seasons with the team, he earned 10 wins and seven pole positions. 		 

 

CHAMPION 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007 | Drove for NHR from 2003 to 2007 | 73 Starts

Sebastien Bourdais earned a series high seven wins and eight pole positions in 14 events in 2004 as well as led almost twice as many laps as the driver ranked second in that category to earn the team its fifth title in only his second season in the series. With his eighth pole position, he became the first driver since Michael Andretti (1991, also with NHR) to earn eight poles in one season. He was only one win short of matching Andretti (NHR, 1991) and Al Unser Jr’s (1994) eight wins earned in their championship seasons. He set the fastest race lap six times and was the first driver ever to have made top-three starts in every race during the season (14) as well as the first driver to have started in the top-three 15 consecutive times, dating back to the 2003 season-finale. He and teammate Bruno Junqueira fought for the title until the final lap of the season-finale in Mexico City after Bourdais overcame a late-race, off-track excursion which erased his 17-second lead before he ultimately won the event and clinched his first series title and capped the first 1-2 season-ending standing for the team. In addition to the Vanderbilt Cup, a total of $1,693,500 and a Ford Mustang, he won the Bridgestone Passion For Excellence Award for the second consecutive season. The award adds every driver’s fastest laps from every race together, with the award going to the driver that has the lowest aggregate time over the season. Bourdais’s combined time was more than five seconds faster than his next-quickest competitor. The fans rewarded him with numerous accolades as well. He earned the fan vote for SPEED TV’s Driver of the Year (DOY) for the third quarter and final vote. For the second quarter (CCWS season had just begun) he was fifth in the media voting, and second in the third and fourth quarter. He was selected as TSN Magazine’s “Champion of Champions” in voting conducted on the TSN website, official website of the Canadian sports cable network after he received 51 percent of the

  
 
 

votes to outdistance Formula 1’s Schumacher (32 percent of vote) as well as champions from rally, NASCAR, IRL and others. He was voted Racer Magazine’s “Road Racer of the Year,” ESPN.com’s “North American Open-Wheel Driver of the Year” and earned First Team honors from the AARWBA.

He earned his second consecutive title in 2005 and the first back-to-back for the team as well as capped their second 1-2 finish in team history. Despite a difficult battle due to parity in the series, he led the series with six wins, five poles and seven podium finishes in 13 events, set the fastest race lap seven times and clinched the title in the penultimate event in Australia. He took the points lead with a victory in the season-opener in Long Beach and held it after all but two events -- once to teammate Junqueira before his season-ending injury and once to Paul Tracy. He led 37 laps en route to victory in the Long Beach season-opener but contact with Paul Tracy in two events (Monterrey, Toronto) and various other complications delayed his next win until Round 7 in Edmonton where his title chase began in earnest and he won five out of the next six events (Edmonton, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas, Australia). His sixth and final win of the season came in Australia where he clinched the title with one race left in the championship. He completed all but 10 of the 1,310 laps during the season to earn 348 points over his teammate Junqueira’s replacement, second place Oriol Servia’s 288. He also brought France a win in the Nations Cup for the first time in the 10 year history of the award. In addition to the Vanderbilt Cup and a check totaling $1,188,500 for the season, Ford presented him with the opportunity to race with his father, Patrick, in the Grand Am Cup event in Daytona in Jan. 2006. He won the Bridgestone Passion For Excellence Award for the third consecutive season and was nominated for SPEED TV’s Driver of the Year” for three of the four quarters and the overall award. He earned First Team honors from the AARWBA for the second consecutive year and his third to be recognized by the prestigious group. He was invited to run in the International Race of Champions (IROC) again for 2006 but a schedule conflict prevented his participation. By season’s end he had earned a 36 percent win average and a 40 percent average of starting on pole in his 45 career events to date.

He became the first open wheel driver to win three consecutive championships in 2006 since Ted Horn accomplished the feat from 1946-1948 and only the second in the 98 year history of the sport. Both Horn and Bourdais clinched their titles in the penultimate event but Horn was unable to attempt four after he died in a crash in the season finale. Bourdais earned a series high seven wins, seven poles and finished on the podium 11 times in 14 races. He won the first four races but was unable to set a series record five consecutive wins in Portland after a botched start dropped him back in the field and he couldn’t recover. After coming back to win from being a lap down, Milwaukee was the highlight of the season as well as the first pole for the team at their “home event” in 21 years (1985) and their first win there in 10 years. Cleveland provided the scariest moment when he started third but was hit on Lap 1 when Paul Tracy tried to drive between Bourdais and Junqueira which caused Tracy to launch over Bourdais and roll over his helmet. He was admitted and subsequently released from a local hospital before the race ended. Podiums in Toronto and Edmonton preceded his next win in San Jose from pole but his narrow lead over second place took a blow in Denver when he passed the ailing car of Tracy for second place on the final lap but Tracy slid into him in the final corner and neither finished the event. He won again in Montreal while his main competition, Allmendinger (mechanical) nor Wilson (crash) finished. An outside chance at clinching the title in Road America was derailed despite having a dominant car all weekend. Although he built 12+ and 15+ second leads, strategy came into play and limited him to a third place finish. A collision with local favorite Will Power led to an eighth place finish in Australia but earned him his history making third title with one race to go. He returned to Winners Circle in the Mexico City finale to end the season on a high note with a thrilling last lap pass for the win. He was named an AARWBA “First Team All American” for the third consecutive year; was one of six drivers nominated for Speed TV’s “Performer of the Year,” earned the Second Quarter “Driver of the Year”; was one of 9 nominated for National Speed Sport News’ “Economaki Champion of Champions Award”; was named “Road Racer of the Year” by Racer Magazine; and ranked No. 1 in SPEED Driver Rankings for the year (compiled by STATS, Inc.) after having reached the top spot five different times during the season. NASCAR champion Johnson was second. He was also honored by the City of St. Petersburg, Florida as a “Hometown Hero.”

In 2007, after matching an all-time series record for eight wins during the season, Bourdais became the first Champ or IndyCar driver to win four consecutive championships in the 99 year history of the sport. Four in a row is very rare in professional sports. It has never been accomplished in either NASCAR or NFL nor has it been accomplished in the past 20 years in the NBA, NHL or MLB. His third of eight wins during the season brought the team its 100th victory in Portland in their 25th year of competition. His eight wins put him in a three way tie with Michael Andretti (1991 with NHR) and Al Unser Jr. (1994) for the most in a single season in CART / Champ Car history. He led the series in wins (eight), poles (six), laps led (463) and fastest race laps (eight) to bring his career total to an impressive high. Over his five year Champ Car career he went from Rookie of the Year to four-time champion and amassed 31 wins and 31 poles (42.4 percent each) and led a total of 2,103 laps out of a possible 6,905. In 73 events he set the fastest lap of the race 34 times. His dominating win in his Champ Car finale in Mexico City put him in a tie with Paul Tracy and Unser Jr. for sixth on the all-time career win list with 31. While his 31 poles also put him sixth on the all time career pole position list behind such luminaries as Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears and Michael Andretti.

 

  OTHERS WHO HAVE DRIVEN FOR NEWMAN/HAAS RACING

Christian Fittipaldi | 117 starts (seven seasons) | 1996-2002
Fittipaldi drove for the team from 1996 to 2002. He earned wins on the road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis. in 1999 and in the $1 million purse, 500-mile event at The California Speedway in 2000 as well as one pole position in his homeland of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1999. Fittipaldi missed at least one -- and as many as seven -- races between 1997-2000 due to injuries sustained during the season, including his best opportunity to win the Championship in 1999 when he was only 28 points out of first place before a mechanical failure led to an accident while testing. While with NHR, he earned 19 of his 20 top-three podium finishes as well as 32 of his 34 top-five, and 62 of his 70 top-10 finishes. In his final season with the team in 2002, he matched his highest season-ending point standing of fifth place in 1996.

Roberto Moreno | 6 starts in 1997, 1 start in 1998, 5 starts in 1999
Moreno drove in six events after Christian Fittipaldi’s accident in Surfers Paradise, Australia in 1997. His best starting position was second place in Brazil and his best finish was a fifth place in Detroit, where he led one lap. He also drove in the 1998 Milwaukee event where he retired with electrical problems after Fittipaldi crashed on Friday and sustained a mild concussion. In 1999, Moreno was again called on to replace Fittipaldi, who suffered a subdural hemitoma from a testing accident caused by a faulty transmission. He ran five events while Fittipaldi recuperated and had his best start of fifth place at Detroit and best finish of second place at Laguna Seca, which was also his highest career CART finish to date.

Paul Tracy | 17 starts (one season) | 1995
Tracy drove a full season for Newman/Haas Racing in 1995 as a teammate to Michael Andretti. He scored two wins (Australia and Milwaukee). He led 91 laps during the season and finished sixth in the year-end PPG Cup standings.

Teo Fabi | 1 start | 1992
Fabi drove in the Detroit race for Mario Andretti who was injured in an accident in the Indy 500 and had broken bones in both feet. Fabi replaced Andretti in the following race at Detroit starting third and finishing sixth. He honored Andretti with the provisional pole position on Friday before qualifying third.

Alan Jones | 1 start | 1985
Jones drove at Elkhart Lake for Mario Andretti who injured his ribs and pelvis during the previous race in Michigan. He started 12th and finished third. Jones competed previously for Haas in Formula One and also won the 1978 Can-Am championship for him.		  

 

 

  

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