Josef Newgarden Bio
Josef Nicolai Newgarden (born December 22, 1990) is an American racing driver who competes in the IndyCar Series for Team Penske. He drives the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet and is one of the most successful active American drivers in the championship. A two-time IndyCar Series Champion in 2017 and 2019, Newgarden is also a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, taking the prestigious race in 2023 and 2024. He added the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona to his resume, becoming the 16th driver to win both an Indy 500 and a Rolex 24 sports car classic.
Early Life and Background
Josef Nicolai Newgarden was born at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in nearby Hendersonville. His parents named him Josef in honor of his mother’s Danish heritage, and he has said he is half Danish through her. He is the youngest of three siblings, with two older sisters, and his family moved from Miami, Florida, to Tennessee in 1986 to run a family photography business. Newgarden attended Pope John Paul II High School, where he was a former classmate of NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver Golden Tate and NASCAR driver Josh Berry.
Before becoming a race car driver, Newgarden played baseball, football, and basketball. He credits his father, an avid fan of NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1, with sparking his interest in motorsport by watching races together on television. That early exposure laid the foundation for a racing journey that would take him from local kart tracks to the international stage.
Path to NASCAR
Although Newgarden is best known for his open-wheel career, his formative years were spent in karts and formula cars rather than stock cars. He started racing at the age of 13, capturing four championship titles in 2005 and 2006 in karting competitions. He then moved into junior car racing through the Skip Barber Racing School Series, finishing as runner-up in the Southern Regional Series in 2006 before taking sixth and second place in the national series in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, he became the first American driver to win the Formula Ford Festival in England, a breakthrough that opened doors to European competition.
His path ultimately led him to the IndyCar Series rather than NASCAR. After a 2011 Indy Lights championship, he debuted in IndyCar in 2012 and built his reputation on road courses, street circuits, and ovals alike. While several of his school friends pursued stock car careers, Newgarden committed to the open-wheel ladder and never made a regular switch to NASCAR, instead becoming a face of the IndyCar Series.
Josef Newgarden Career
Early Career (2009–2011)
After his Formula Ford Festival triumph, Newgarden moved to England in 2009 to compete in the British Formula Ford Championship. He finished as runner-up, leading the series with nine race wins and 550 points. He also took two wins in the opening round of the 2009 Formula Palmer Audi season at Brands Hatch. In 2010, he shifted to the GP3 Series with Carlin Motorsport, scoring a pole position at Hockenheimring and a season-best fifth place at Monza.
Newgarden returned to the United States in 2011 to race in the Indy Lights Series with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He won the season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg and added four more victories and ten podium finishes across thirteen races. He clinched the 2011 Indy Lights championship with one race remaining and became the first Indy Lights driver to lap the entire field since 2004, doing so at New Hampshire.
Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (2012–2014)
On December 7, 2011, Newgarden was announced as the driver for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, beginning his IndyCar career in 2012. Across three full seasons with the team, he developed a reputation for speed and consistency. He earned his first IndyCar podium at the 2013 race in Baltimore and added a second podium at Iowa Speedway in 2014. The team provided the platform for Newgarden to learn the circuits and prepare for a step up in performance.
CFH Racing (2015)
In 2015, Sarah Fisher’s team merged with Ed Carpenter’s operation to form CFH Racing. Newgarden broke through that season, capturing his first IndyCar Series victory at the 2015 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. He moved from fifth to second on the opening lap and led the most laps on his way to a 2.2-second win. He added a second victory at the 2015 Honda Indy Toronto and finished the year seventh in the championship standings with 431 points.
Ed Carpenter Racing (2016)
Following Sarah Fisher’s departure, the team returned to the Ed Carpenter Racing banner for 2016. Newgarden opened the year with a podium at Barber and started on the front row for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, where he finished third. A frightening crash at the 2016 Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway left him with a broken hand and clavicle, but he returned just two weeks later to score a top-ten finish at Road America. He then dominated the 2016 Iowa Corn 300, leading 282 of 300 laps to set a series record for most laps led in a single race, and closed the year fourth in points, the highest non-Team Penske finisher.
Team Penske Era (2017–Present)
On October 5, 2016, Team Penske announced that Newgarden would join the organization for the 2017 season. He wasted little time delivering, winning his first race with the team in just his third start at Barber Motorsports Park after a duel with Scott Dixon. He added wins at Toronto and Mid-Ohio, then clinched his first IndyCar Series Championship at Sonoma in only his first year with Penske, becoming the first American to win the Astor Cup since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012.
Newgarden won his second IndyCar title in 2019, opening the season with a victory at St. Petersburg and adding wins at Detroit, Texas, and Iowa. He sealed the championship at Laguna Seca by 25 points. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, he posted four, two, and five wins respectively, finishing runner-up in the championship all three years. He won the inaugural PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge in 2022 by winning on an oval, a road course, and a street course.
The 2023 season brought the biggest prize of his career. Newgarden swept the Iowa Speedway doubleheader and won the 2023 Indianapolis 500 in dramatic fashion, passing Marcus Ericsson on the final lap after a late red flag to claim his first Indy 500 victory in his twelfth attempt. He finished fifth in the championship, his eighth consecutive top-five season. In 2024, he won the 108th Indianapolis 500 to become the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002, and he added the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona with Porsche Penske Motorsport alongside Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, and Felipe Nasr.
Driving Style and Strengths
Since his second IndyCar season, Newgarden has been regarded as one of the most versatile drivers in the paddock, capable of winning on road courses, street circuits, short ovals, and superspeedways. His oval form from 2019 onward earned him the nickname The Oval King, and he is known for bold outside-line overtaking maneuvers that some commentators have dubbed the Josef Newgarden Move. He is also known for racing his Penske teammates aggressively, producing some of the most talked-about finishes in recent IndyCar history.
Notable Races and Milestones
Signature moments include his first IndyCar win at Barber in 2015, the record-setting Iowa Corn 300 in 2016, his first championship-clinching drive at Sonoma in 2017, and the back-to-back Indianapolis 500 wins in 2023 and 2024. His 2024 victory also made him the 16th driver to complete the Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours of Daytona double. Other milestones include the 2022 PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge sweep and the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona overall victory.
Josef Newgarden Career Wins
Josef Nicolai Newgarden has built one of the most decorated résumés in modern American open-wheel racing, with championship titles in Indy Lights and IndyCar and major victories at Indianapolis, Daytona, and across the IndyCar schedule. His win totals span ovals, road courses, and street circuits, underscoring his versatility and consistency at the top level of the sport.
IndyCar Series Highlights
Newgarden has amassed 34 IndyCar Series victories, 63 podium finishes, and 19 pole positions, with his first win coming at the 2015 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and his most recent victories including the 2024 Indianapolis 500. He is a two-time IndyCar Series Champion, winning the Astor Cup in 2017 and 2019, and he has finished runner-up in the championship four times. He is also a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, taking the 500 in 2023 and 2024 in dramatic last-lap fashion.
Other Wins and Performances
Beyond IndyCar, Newgarden won the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona overall with Porsche Penske Motorsport in the GTP class. Earlier in his career, he captured the 2011 Indy Lights championship with five wins, the 2009 British Formula Ford Championship runner-up spot with nine victories, and the 2008 Formula Ford Festival title as the first American to do so. He also won the inaugural PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge in 2022 across oval, road, and street course formats.
| Series | Wins | Top Tens | Poles |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndyCar Series | 34 | — | 19 |
Josef Newgarden Family
Family Background and Racing Lineage
Newgarden comes from a close-knit family with Danish roots through his mother, who inspired his first name. He is the youngest of three siblings, with two older sisters, and grew up in Hendersonville, Tennessee, after his parents relocated the family photography business from Miami in 1986. His father’s enthusiasm for NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1 played a key role in sparking Josef’s lifelong passion for racing.
Personal Life
Newgarden married his longtime girlfriend, Ashley Welch, in Nashville in the fall of 2019 after the couple became engaged in Japan in 2018. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter, in 2022. Outside of racing, Newgarden co-authored the children’s book Josef’s BIG Dream: An INDY 500 Story with Ashley and writer Andy Amendola, released through Red Racer Books in conjunction with IndyCar. He also hosts an annual celebrity ping-pong tournament in May that benefits the SeriousFun Children’s Network, the charity founded by actor and race team owner Paul Newman.
2025 Season Performance
Josef Nicolai Newgarden began the 2025 IndyCar Series season with a third-place finish at St. Petersburg. His season was soon disrupted at the Indianapolis 500, where both he and Penske teammate Will Power failed technical inspection because of modified attenuators, resulting in rear-of-field starts, lost qualification points, $100,000 fines, and the firing of the team’s strategists. Newgarden climbed to sixth place during the race before retiring on lap 135 with a fuel pressure problem, ending his bid for a third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory.
After a roller-coaster stretch with few podiums and poles, Newgarden found relief by winning at his home race in Nashville. The victory provided a morale boost for both driver and team heading into the closing rounds of the championship, even as his title hopes faded earlier than in recent seasons. The 2025 campaign reinforced Newgarden’s reputation for oval strength, with Nashville adding another signature oval win to his resume.
Looking ahead, Newgarden remains a cornerstone of Team Penske’s No. 2 program and a leading figure in the IndyCar Series. With multiple championships, two Indianapolis 500 wins, and a Rolex 24 overall victory already secured, his 2025 results are expected to fuel motivation for a strong rebound in 2026 as he continues chasing a third series title.
