John Force statement on Paul Newman

Comment from NHRA's John Force on the passing of movie legend Paul Newman

"I never met Paul Newman. I don't want to embellish about a great individual. I did see him at a number of shows. I never had a chance to talk with him."

"I did get to talk with his partner in the early days, Robert Redford. Robert thought Paul was a one of a kind person. When I look back on my early days of movie watching one of my favorite movies was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Paul Newman evolved to Cool Hand Luke and he could play anything. He had a real sense of humor too. I guess the thing that makes me connect and it really struck a chord with me when I heard that he passed this morning was I grew up in his era when he was making movies."

"I also really respect the things he did beyond Hollywood. The charity work that he did with the profits that he made from his salad dressing was awesome. He was a great entrepreneur who gave millions and millions to help people. I think what impressed me the most was that he stayed married to the same woman for over 50 years. I've lasted 27 and I hope I can last over 50. When you stay together for that long you either have quite a woman or you are quite a guy."

-credit: jfr