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While an 80th birthday makes most of us think about sticking our heads in the oven to relieve the burden on our children, Paul Newman is going to toss aside the walker and burn some rubber in the name of movie promotion:

At an age when most people think about slowing down, film legend Paul Newman, who celebrates his 80th birthday today (1/26), is set to put the pedal to the metal behind the wheel of a Disney and Pixar sponsored racecar on February 4th, and race for a new record at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, it was announced today. [...]

Commenting on the announcement, Newman said, "We all like to push the envelope. I just hope the old bones can motor along Fed Ex and not Delayed Delivery. Fortunately, I'll be with a champion bunch of shoes and good race car courtesy of John Lasseter of Pixar and Disney."

We really hope that "champion bunch of shoes" has something to do with racing and isn't some kind of Alzheimer's-fueled non sequitur. Otherwise, Disney and Pixar might want to reconsider letting the old guy get behind the wheel if they want him around for the Cars premiere in the summer of 2006. Why don't they just hand him a trophy and tell him he's already won the race?