Drivers/Teams

Biography

Josef Newgarden has won 11 races and two IndyCar Series championships (2017 and 2019) in just three years with Team Penske and he plans to continue building on his already impressive career in 2020. In addition, the 28-year-old American driver has recorded more wins than any driver in the IndyCar Series (11) since 2017 and he has produced top-five finishes in the championship standings for three consecutive seasons.

Newgarden captured the series title in his first year with Team Penske behind four wins and nine podium finishes in 2017. In 2019, Newgarden produced four victories and seven podium finishes as he claimed his second series crown. Over the course of his eight career IndyCar Series seasons, the driver of the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet has earned 14 victories, eight pole positions and 29 podium finishes.

The 2019 season proved to be one of the best seasons of Newgarden’s career. With race wins at St. Petersburg, Belle Isle, Texas and Iowa and pole-winning efforts at Pocono and Gateway, the native Tennessean brought home Team Penske’s 16th IndyCar Series championship and the team’s 35th overall title. His most impressive win of the year came at Iowa where he led 245 of 300 laps for his second dominant career victory at the track. With two titles over the last three seasons, Newgarden has established himself as one of the true stars of motorsports – both on and off the track.

Newgarden began his racing career when he was 13 years-old at New Castle (Ind.) Motorsports Park where he won numerous karting titles between 2006-2008. After racing in Europe for a few years, he returned to the United States in 2011 and captured the Indy Lights Series championship for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, as he posted five wins and 10 podium finishes in 14 starts. The performance earned Newgarden an opportunity at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for the 2012 IndyCar Series season.

After scoring his first two career IndyCar Series wins in 2015, Newgarden produced one of the most dominating victories in series history while driving for Ed Carpenter Racing during the 2016 season.  He led a series-record 282 of 300 laps after starting second on his way to victory at Iowa. Adding to the impressive performance was the fact that the race came just four weeks after Newgarden suffered a fractured clavicle and right hand in a dramatic accident at Texas Motor Speedway. Overall in 2016, Newgarden recorded six top-five and 11 top-10 results as he finished fourth in the championship standings, just behind the three Team Penske drivers that would become his teammates later that year – Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Helio Castroneves.  

After joining Team Penske in October 2016, it didn’t take long for Newgarden to make his mark in the record books of the winningest team in the history of North American open-wheel racing. Newgarden completed his seventh IndyCar Series season in 2017, as he claimed Team Penske’s 15th series title and its 30th championship overall in 2017. The Hendersonville, Tennessee native got off to a quick start with a victory at Barber Motorsports Park in just his third start for Team Penske. He drove the No. 2 Chevrolet to Victory Lane three more times – at Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Gateway – over the course of the season to lead all series drivers in wins with four. Newgarden also captured his lone pole award at the right time in the season finale at Sonoma, which proved instrumental in securing his first series title. In his first series championship campaign, Newgarden posted 10 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes while leading at least one lap in a series-best 12 races.

By claiming the IndyCar Series championship in his first season with Team Penske, Newgarden joined some elite company. Rick Mears, Al Unser Sr., Al Unser Jr., and Gil de Ferran are the only other drivers to accomplish that feat in the team’s storied history. Winning the title at 26 years old, Newgarden also became the youngest series champion since Scott Dixon won it all in 2003 at 23 and he was the first American-born driver to claim the crown since Ryan Hunter Reay in 2012.

After his sensational debut season with the team in 2017, Newgarden looked to be on his way to back-to-back titles in 2018 after he won two of the first four IndyCar Series races – on the Phoenix oval and at the Barber Motorsports Park road course. After a tough stretch that began in the month of May at Indianapolis, Newgarden returned to Victory Lane when he won from the pole and led 53 of 55 laps at Road America in July. He closed 2018 with eight consecutive top-10 finishes and wound up fifth in the championship standings. His strong sophomore season with Team Penske set the table for another championship run in 2019.

As he begins his ninth season in the series in 2020, Newgarden looks to guide the No. 2 team to another IndyCar Series title and his first Indianapolis 500 victory. A former high school baseball player who loves to play ping pong when he’s away from the track, Newgarden and his wife Ashley reside in Nashville, Tenn.

Newgarden Key Accomplishments

• Two-time IndyCar Series Champion - 2017 and 2019
• Earned 14 IndyCar Series wins entering 2020
• Produced Team Penske’s 15th IndyCar Series championship in 2017 and the team’s 16th title in 2019
• Won eight career IndyCar Series pole positions
• Established a new series record for laps led in a single race by leading 282 laps en route to victory at Iowa in 2016
• Nominated for the 2018 ESPY Best Driver Award after winning the 2017 IndyCar Series championship
• Captured the 2012 Rising Star Award
• 2011 Indy Lights Series Champion