He walked with shuffling steps, unsteady at times, looking every day of his 83 years. At other moments, a smile danced on his lips, a familiar smile, a smile that reached back across the years to reveal the man we used to know, an icon of another generation.
Paul Newman had returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, an aging warrior finally ready to make peace. It’s been a long time since he’s felt this good here; at least not since 1995.
That’s when Newman, along with a significant number of players in open-wheel racing, decided they would rather stay away from this storied, historic place. There were lots of hard words from a lot of prominent people, but it seemed that Newman was the most strident, or perhaps the most visible.
“I’ve got a problem with management,” he would growl when people asked him why he didn’t come to Indianapolis anymore.

In an emotional exchange, Newman and Tony George shook hands, bringing smiles of warmth and relief all around. Newman said he was glad to be back, his voice and his smile telling us he meant it.

The hardness has disappeared slowly, like the melting of a glacier. In time, most of the disgruntled parties drifted “home” to Indianapolis, with the last lingering holdouts coming over with Champ Car’s official unification with the IndyCar series just a few months ago.
That led Newman to this sunny, cool afternoon, where he reveled in sights and sounds and scents that surely aroused some great memories.
He was here officially to announce that IMS and the IRL have designated the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps — founded by Newman in 1988 — as a “charitable partner.”
In an emotional exchange, Newman and Tony George shook hands, bringing smiles of warmth and relief all around. Newman said he was glad to be back, his voice and his smile telling us he meant it.
There have been rumors that Newman is not well; tabloids have printed stories of cancer surgery for the past few months. Nobody knows the truth but Newman and his family, which is only proper; his health is a private matter, and is frankly none of our business.
Regardless of the circumstances that led him here, Newman’s appearance was a heartwarming moment, one we shouldn’t soon forget. His tone was conciliatory, and — if you were there to see his smile — there couldn’t be any doubt of his sincerity.
He’s one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, and probably one of the most enduring celebrities. But Newman is much more than that. Yes, he’s distant, yes, he’s aloof, but he’s also a blood-and-guts racer who loved auto racing for all the right reasons. It wasn’t for money or fame, his acting career gave him epic proportions of all three. No, Newman raced because he loved the personal competition, and that’s the purest reason in the world.
No matter how you might have felt about Newman over the past 13 years, you’ve got to give the man his due. He’s big enough to embrace tomorrow with a pure heart, tossing away the hard feelings and anger and moving across a fresh new threshold.
His Hole in the Wall Camps have provided a ray of sunlight to seriously ill children for more than 20 years, just one of the many charitable endeavors Newman has embraced. He’s given plenty back to society, and he’s been a loyal, steady presence in open-wheel racing for almost 30 years.
Life is short, certainly too short to hold grudges. Maybe he has other grudges, I don’t know. But on a sunny Saturday in May, with the magic of Indy once again coursing through his veins, P. L. Newman put at least one of ’em to rest forever.