Milwaukee Saturday Notebook

UPDATE Added a photo of Paul Newman below.

05/31/08

Paul Newman at Milwaukee Saturday

Mark Scheuern/AutoRacing1

He's FINE! AutoRacing1.com's Tim Wohlford caught up with Paul Newman on pit road at Milwaukee. Paul Newman was walking around without any assistance, including crossing over the pit lane walls, even venturing near the press in the bullpen. When asked how he was doing, he flashed a smile and said in a loud voice, "FINE!" There, that settles that!!! And that's about as much of an interview as anyone gets from Paul these days.
All things old are new again at Milwaukee. Marco Andretti's late qualifying run at Milwaukee knocked off Graham Rahal, making it an Andretti-Rahal front row for tomorrow's ABC Supply – AJ Foyt 250. Scott Dixon and Will Power share row 2, with Helio and Tony Kanaan on row 3. Before qualifying, Roth Racing pulled Marty Roth's #25 out of the contest, much to the relief of many in the garage area. Vitor Meira crashed his machine during his qualification attempt, and will start shotgun on the field tomorrow.
In 1992, there were 2 Rahal-Andretti front rows. Bobby won two of those races, and finished ahead of Michael in the third (second place).
Helio is ready to break the curse. The Penske cars usually run at the front at Milwaukee, only to have something happen to take them out — witness last year's rear wing failures on both cars. "Tomorrow will be fun… It seems like I've got the curse, but tomorrow we're going to break the curse."
The consensus is that the former Champ Car teams have a good shot at gaining lots of points, perhaps scoring a win tomorrow. Milwaukee is a setup and driving track, not an aero track like, say Texas. Graham Rahal said, "This is a setup track, it doesn't come down to all of the aero tweaks that we don't have. This place comes down to having a really good setup and driving the car hard." And, as it turned out, much of Graham's setup came from Newman/Haas's years of setup information. And, the course is much closer to being a road race, which plays into the hands of many of the former CCWS drivers.
However, comparisons are inevitable. Ryan Hunter-Reay said that, given the chance to run the CCWS car that he won with (leading 250 laps) in 2004, "I'd be on the pole by about 2 seconds." He continued, "Coming from Indy, you know, it feels like I'm driving around in a Chile bowl." Asked if his previous experiences with Champ Car gave him any advantages, he replied, "No, too different… right now I feel like I'm driving an 18-wheeler." Hunter-Reay starts 10th tomorrow in his, uh, 18-wheeler.
Ed Carpenter would love to return with USAC in Milwaukee — "I came up through USAC, and I used to watch USAC cars run around here, but by the time I got to Silver Crown they weren't coming here. The first time I got to come here was in an Indy car… I'd love to get back into a Silver Crown car, or sprint car anywhere, I miss doing it, and hopefully someday I'll get back in one.
If Danica has a home track, then it is Milwaukee. Born in Beloit, growing up in Roscoe (Illinois) and racing karts in Broadhead, many local residents remember her as a 5 year old karting prodigy. "I came here as a teenager" she explained, "and watched some races, but I never raced here…" She explained that most of her fans now follow her to Indy, but in the beginning, they definitely rooted her on at Milwaukee.
John Andretti feels at home too. In the press room at Milwaukee, there's a picture of him, and his cousin Michael, and his uncle, all sharing the podium in the 1991. "Yeah, I look younger then… a little bit… not a lot" he joked to reporters. John had an eventful day, brushing the wall earlier in the day, and fighting the balance in the car all day. Asked if he feels his skills are vindicated due to his ability to jump in the Roth cars and instantly make them a lot faster, he responded, "I know that I'm definitely having a lot of fun. I get to see both cousins more often… trying to get Nancy to attend too…" Comparing life in the IRL to his stint in NASCAR, he continued, "Yeah, it's blood here." When I noted father Aldo's presence in his pit, John smiled and joked, "Yeah, if they took my lap time from him, I'd be on the pole!"…. Tim Wohlford reporting from Milwaukee