|
WE saw
Paul Newman as a Hollywood legend, a master actor who
loomed above all on an unreachable pedestal of talent.
His
buddy Mario Andretti saw him as a soft touch, a guy who
would bet on anything.
“I
almost always won,” Andretti said on Saturday from his
home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. “It might have been the
only thing he wasn’t good at.”
From the
time, 41 years ago, when race-car driving star Andretti
gave movie-star Newman a white-knuckle ride at a track
in Long Island, to five days ago, when Andretti had his
last conversation with Newman on the phone before
Newman’s death on Friday, these fast friends were a
little like frat boys.
“We did
so many trivial things, stupid things,” Andretti said.
“I think of Paul now, I think of the lighter side.”
Like a
dinner in New York, Paul with wife Joanne Woodward,
Mario with his wife Dee Ann.
“We were
always fighting for the check,” Andretti said. “He would
never give in, never in anything. One time, we settled a
check by betting on how long it would take a beer bottle
to hit the floor when it fell off the table.
“This
time, he says, ‘How many people do you think are on the
street now between 8th and 9th Avenue?’ He says, ‘At
least 75.’ I said, ‘No way, at the most 50.’
“Our
wives roll their eyes and head for the ladies room. Paul
and I get up and head out to the street to check out our
bet. The poor maitre d’ thinks we are running out on the
check.
“And, of
course, I was right. There were barely 50 people out
there, even when he’s trying to count a hobo three
times. So we go back and the maitre d’ is relieved and I
won the bet. Again.”
Andretti
was a big factor in Carl Haas getting together with
Newman to form a racing team that became one of the
sport’s most successful. It was formed in 1983, Andretti
won the Champ Car title the next year; his son Michael
won it in 1991, and overall—though it has never won an
Indy 500—Newman-Haas Racing won 107 Indy car races.
Andretti,
now 68, retired in 1995 after 12 seasons with the team,
in racing an unusual show of loyalty and longevity.
Newman, who not only owned cars but drove them
competitively, continued on behind the wheel until two
years ago, when at 81 he drove in a race at Daytona.
Their
relationship, and the bets, continued.
“He’d
call up and ask about everything, any major event, the
Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl,” Andretti said. “ `Who you
got?’ he’d say.
“One
time, I bet him $1.76 on the Super Bowl. I won, of
course, because he almost always lost. So he sent me a
check for $1.76 and Fed-Exed it, which cost $9.”
Andretti
said that Newman was aggressive in everything he did in
life.
“He and
Joanne came up to a place I have on a lake in the
Poconos,” Andretti said. “He wanted to try the jet skis,
but he always had to try the toughest watercraft we had.
One of them was little more than a surfboard with an
engine. He had to try that, and he fought it and fought
it until he got it.”
Andretti
said that he worried when Newman drove at Daytona at 81.
“Sure,
you worry, but there was no stopping him,” he said.
“With stuff like that, Joanne would say that her husband
had a sickness and nothing was gonna cure it. I found
him inspirational.”
Asked
how strong Newman’s voice was during their final
conversation last week, Andretti choked up a bit and,
without really answering directly, answered perfectly.
“He was
trying,” he said. |
