Josef Newgarden: The life and career of an IndyCar legend

IndyCar

Josef Newgarden: The life and career of an IndyCar legend

Let's take a look at the life and career of IndyCar's Josef Newgarden

Rhys Thomas

Wednesday 26 June 2024 16:00

With two titles to his name and back-to-back Indy 500 wins, Josef Newgarden has already established himself as an IndyCar great.

Born on December 22, 1990, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Newgarden came into motorsport 10 years later than he had wanted to.

His parents - a Danish mother and American father - had moved from New York with their family photography business, though it was his dad's love of watching motorsport on television which caught their child's attention.

Newgarden got his hands on a karting wheel at age 12, having wanted to do so for nearly a decade. Perhaps it was fated that the closest place his family could find with a competitive go-kart track was 300 miles away in Indianapolis.

Article continues under video

Twenty years later, Newgarden has a pair of Indy 500 wins alongside his two IndyCar Series championships, and continues to race in the sport with Team Penske.

How did Josef Newgarden become a repeat IndyCar champion?

He was clearly a natural talent, though, winning two titles in the Kart Racers of America Junior Championship in just his second year in karting in 2005.

Three years later, he was chosen for the Team USA scholarship to race at the Formula Ford Festival, and became the only American to win the title.

He then pursued a European career the following season, and came in second in the British Formula Ford Championship before being given a GP3 drive with Carlin Motorsport, but Newgarden could only manage 18th place in the championship.

The American returned to his home country to race the Indy Lights series, and with five wins and ten podiums 2011, won the championship as a rookie.

This boosted Newgarden into the world of IndyCar, and he competed with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing from 2012-2014, notching his maiden podium in Baltimore in 2013.

He took his first IndyCar victory in 2015 with CFH Racing at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

In 2017, Newgarden joined Team Penske, with whom he has since forged an iconic partnership, which began with a win at the site of his first in the series.

The then-26-year-old clinched his first Series title that year, amassing a further three wins to take the championship.

After a fifth-placed finish in 2018, Newgarden returned two years later to take another title, and his last to date.

Since then, Penske and Newgarden have struggled with inconsistency at times, and recorded three consecutive second-place finishes in the series from 2020-2022.

2023 and 2024 have been weaker seasons for the combination on the whole, but have been headlined by successive victories at the prestigious Indy 500, a feat not achieved since fellow Penske driver Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.