N/H/L expect 2009 title challenge

After dominating the Champ Car World Series for four seasons, Newman/Haas/Lanigan had to start from scratch when the two warring series merged last winter, but were the most successful of the 'transition' teams and took victories at St Petersburg and Detroit.

Although N/H/L also showed promising speed on many ovals, the team were not able to consistently challenge the established IndyCar squads over the full season, and drivers Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal only finished 11th and 17th in the points respectively.

However Lanigan believes that with a whole year of experience with the Dallara-Honda IndyCar now behind them, Newman/Haas/Lanigan can be contenders from the outset this season.

"Our expectation is to win the championship," said Lanigan in an interview with the official IndyCar website.

"That is what (co-owners) Paul (Newman) and Carl (Haas) taught me - don't settle for second.

"I think it's remarkable that in 2008 with the circumstances we were in - to be 30 days from one league to another, new cars, new equipment, new race tracks, the tremendous hours we put in - just to show up every weekend. Our team has had a lot of turnover because of the changes but every week we learned."

He admitted that the return to regular oval racing - which had vanished from Champ Car in its final years - had been a major challenge last year.

"We certainly understood how the budgets have changed," Lanigan said. "Oval racing is super exciting, but when you crash it's a lot more expensive and a lot more work on our people to put the cars back together. But it's really quite simple that it comes down to drivers, engineering and crew members that make this happen."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan currently only have Rahal under contract for 2009 as they are struggling to find sponsorship for a second car in the current economic climate. But despite this, Lanigan believes the IndyCar Series is in good shape and is still benefiting from reunification.

"We are going uphill now, not downhill," he said. "Sponsors are looking at us real hard and know we are going to put on a good show. And we are not confusing the race fan anymore and that is a great thing."

Lanigan - who became a Newman/Haas co-owner at the start of 2007 having previously been a major sponsor of the Conquest Racing team - added that he will take on a greater role in the squad after Newman passed away last September.

"I got to watch three of the last four races of the season with Paul Newman at his house," Lanigan said. "Both Paul and Carl wanted me to get more involved with the race team. I'm ready to get more involved and participate more."