Newman-Haas trying to rise from the mid-pack
For those of you haven't been tracking Newman Haas started trending downward in 2009 when the Milka Duno deal fell through. From what I understand it was supposed to be a two-year deal that would anchor the less money they were getting from Doornbos and McDonalds. Because of that they went into 2009 underfunded, Doornbos beat up some equipment and but they still took a few steps forward. Bear in mind they basically worked 280 straight days in 2008 because of the merger.
Last year they thought they had a deal with Graham and McDonalds put together for 2010, that fell through, then Graham came up with a deal on his own that also evaporated. So then went into the year with next to no funding and horrible moral. When I saw the team at Barber they were were all wearing black and very non-talkative.
There's been a lot of rumors about NHR selling out, and maybe there's some truth in this, but remember this Newman's name isn't on the car just for tradition, his family still owns his share, the Haas family also is more than just Gene. It looks like they've made some changes to push their performance up this year.
They've hired a new PR company that put together this nice website:
http://www.newmanhaasdelivers.com/
They're hiring engineers:
http://www.newman-haas.com/employmen...rtunities.html
And they're in talks with some potential sponsors:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...s-mailbag-1020
Hopefully we'll see a resurgence in one of the most storied teams in all of Indycar history.