Josef Newgarden drives his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the 2023 Indianapolis 500

Josef Newgarden: Two Indy 500 Wins and 34 IndyCar Victories

July 30, 2026

Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar Driver Spotlight - where we pull one driver into the garage, look under the hood at their career, and tell you what makes them tick. This week: the number 2.

Josef Newgarden drives his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet through turn four at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the 2023 Indianapolis 500 — Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the 2023 Indianapolis 500, the first of his two straight wins in the race. (Photo: Airman 1st Class Amber Anderson, U.S. Air Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Short Version

Josef Newgarden is a two-time IndyCar champion, a back-to-back Indianapolis 500 winner, and the winningest active American driver in the series. He has 34 career IndyCar wins, which ties him with Al Unser Jr. for ninth on the all-time list. If you only know one thing about him, know this: when the track is an oval and the last 20 laps are on the line, he is the guy nobody wants to see in the mirrors.

From Nashville to the IndyCar Grid

Newgarden was born December 22, 1990 in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up down the road in Hendersonville. His parents named him Josef to honor his mother's Danish side of the family. He got hooked on racing watching TV with his father, who followed NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1 without much loyalty to any one of them.

The path to IndyCar went through Europe, which is unusual for an American. Newgarden earned a Team USA scholarship and won the Formula Ford Festival in England in 2008, then moved overseas full time, finishing runner-up in British Formula Ford in 2009 and racing in GP3 in 2010. He came home in 2011, ran Indy Lights with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, and won five races and the championship as a rookie with a race still to go. That was the ticket. He made his IndyCar debut in 2012 with the small, underfunded Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team.

The first three seasons were a grind with no wins. Then came 2015 at Barber Motorsports Park, where he finally broke through for CFH Racing. A year later at Ed Carpenter Racing he finished fourth in the standings, and Roger Penske noticed.

The Penske Years and Two Championships

Newgarden joined Team Penske for 2017 and won the title in his first season with the team, becoming the first American to take the Astor Cup since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. He won four races that year and clinched at Sonoma. In 2019 he did it again, winning the opener at St. Petersburg and leading the points after every race except the Indy 500, then sealing his second championship at Laguna Seca by 25 points.

What happened next was one of the more frustrating runs in modern IndyCar. Newgarden finished second in the standings three years in a row, in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The 2022 season was the sting of the group: he won a career-high five races, more than anyone else that year, and still lost the title to teammate Will Power.

Josef Newgarden at speed in the No. 2 Shell Team Penske Chevrolet along the front straightaway at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — The No. 2 Shell Team Penske Chevrolet at speed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: Zach Catanzareti, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Two Months of May That Made Him

Newgarden had never won the Indianapolis 500 through his first 11 tries. In 2023 he finally got it, passing Marcus Ericsson on the final lap after a late red flag set up a one-lap sprint to the flag. He climbed the fence, then climbed into the grandstand to celebrate with the fans, which has since become his signature.

Then he did it again. In 2024 he beat Pato O'Ward with a pass two corners from the finish line to win the 108th running. That made him the sixth driver in the history of the race to win it in consecutive years, and the first since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. It also gave Roger Penske a record-extending 20th Indy 500 victory.

By the Numbers

Here is the career so far. Every figure below is an IndyCar Series career total through the Nashville round on July 20, 2026.

Josef Newgarden's IndyCar career by the numbers. Original Happy Hour Racing graphic, data from IndyCar official statistics.

Where He Is Right Now

The 2025 season was the worst of his Penske run. He finished 12th in points and salvaged it late with a win at Nashville Superspeedway, his home race, which kept alive a streak of winning at least one race in every season he has driven for Roger Penske.

2026 has been better and rougher at the same time. He won at Phoenix in March, then crashed hard in turn four on lap 124 of the Indy 500 in May and hurt his left foot. Two weeks later, still banged up, he went to World Wide Technology Raceway and won the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 for a record sixth time, leading the final 40 laps and holding off Marcus Ericsson by two-thirds of a second. That was career win number 34. He had surgery on the foot after the race and did not miss a start.

"It's sandal season." - Josef Newgarden on his foot surgery post-Gateway.

He caught up with @Ghenneberry47 ahead of practice. pic.twitter.com/0x42ko6PVF
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) June 19, 2026

With 12 of 18 races run, he sits sixth in the 2026 standings on 310 points, chasing Alex Palou. Six races left is enough time to make it interesting.

Off the Track

Newgarden married Ashley in Nashville in the fall of 2019, and their son Kota was born in 2022. He and Ashley later teamed up with author Andy Amendola on a children's book called "Josef's BIG Dream: An INDY 500 Story," which traces the path from a kid who wanted to be a racing driver to a two-time winner of the biggest race in the world.

He is also one of the most online drivers in the paddock in the good sense. He runs a YouTube channel full of race-weekend vlogs, and he and Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin built a following with a video series called Bus Bros, shot in and around the motorhome lot. It is the kind of access IndyCar has needed, and he gives it away for free.

Fun Stats

A few numbers that stick. His 34 wins tie Al Unser Jr. for ninth on the all-time IndyCar victory list, and he is the winningest active American driver in the series. He has led 4,585 laps. He has won on road courses, street circuits, short ovals and superspeedways, which is why the nickname "The Oval King" undersells him a little. And in 2024 he added an overall win at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Porsche Penske Motorsport, so he has a Rolex to go with the two Baby Borgs.

The Bottom Line

Josef Newgarden is the closer. Two championships and 34 wins say plenty, but the thing that defines him is the last lap at Indianapolis, twice, with the race on the line and somebody else in front of him.