How a bond between father and son bloomed a two-time Indy 500 champion

Bruce MartinSpecial to FOXSports.com

INDIANAPOLIS — At the start of Josef Newgarden’s athletic profession as a younger boy, his father typically motivated him by providing him a reward on the finish of one in every of his baseball video games.

A sizzling canine and a Pokémon toy.

“An excellent sizzling canine was at all times a particular deal with for me,” Newgarden informed FOX Sports activities on Thursday. “My dad knew that I’d put forth a particular effort for a sizzling canine.”

It was Joey Newgarden’s reward to his son for placing within the time for preparation and the significance of self-discipline.

“Beginning out from when he was 4 or 5 years previous, he began with the self-discipline that it took to point out up for each follow, each follow and each recreation, and also you’re drained or you do not wish to do it,” Newgarden’s father, Joey, informed FOX Sports activities.

“I’d inform him, ‘We’ll go and do that, and also you give me a bunch of effort. We’ll go get that Pokémon toy. We’ll get you a sizzling canine afterwards.’

“That’s what the motivation was for him to get by means of and actually make a giant effort as a result of little 4 and 5-year-old children don’t have a excessive degree of focus at that time.”

From sizzling canine and Pokémon as a baby to checkered flags and two-faces on the Borg-Warner Trophy because the winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 2023 and 2024, Newgarden is likely one of the most motivated, decided and pushed drivers in INDYCAR.

He endures limitless exercises at house and has constructed a physique just like the Rocky IV boxer Ivan Drago. 

Newgarden is an imposing work out of the race automobile in his Crew Penske driver’s swimsuit, however much more intimidating behind the wheel of the No. 2 Shell Chevrolet.

He’s one in every of simply six drivers who’ve received the Indianapolis 500 in back-to-back years. The others are Wilbur Shaw (1939, 1940), Mauri Rose (1947, 1948), Invoice Vukovich (1953, 1954), Al Unser (1970, 1971) and Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002).

Newgarden goes to be much more fierce and intimidating in Sunday’s 109th Indianapolis 500 as a result of INDYCAR despatched him to the again of the sphere for a guidelines violation involving modifications to the rear attenuator.

Newgarden will begin thirty second within the 33-car discipline, whereas boasting one of many quickest vehicles on the observe. That ought to make his cost an exhilarating spectacle for the sold-out crowd of 350,000 followers in attendance and the hundreds of thousands watching the race on FOX.

Newgarden’s 64-year-old father, Joey, is assured his son can win on Sunday.

“You are going to see a really cool, chilly, calculating driver come on the market,” Joey Newgarden informed FOX Sports activities. “You’ll be able to win this race from any seat in the home. There is not any doubt in my thoughts.”

The Newgardens is perhaps from Hendersonville, Tennessee, however Josef’s racing roots are within the state of Indiana at New Fortress Motorsports Park, 51 miles east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That’s what makes Newgarden’s story so fascinating, as a result of a driver deep within the coronary heart of NASCAR nation has develop into an Indy 500 legend.

First, some backstory.

Joey Newgarden was born in New York and grew up in Miami. His father ran a profitable youngsters’s pictures enterprise.

Joey was truly a walk-on with the Miami Dolphins and Houston Oilers within the NFL. He made the follow squads for each groups, however discovered shortly that he didn’t have what it took to play at that degree.

“I didn’t final one week, 10 days, in both of these ventures,” Joey recalled.

Joey’s household moved to Nashville 40 years in the past.

In 1983, he found NASCAR racing on The Nashville Community and cherished what he noticed. He attended the Buck Baker Racing Faculty and the Richard Petty Racing Expertise, purchased a late mannequin inventory automobile with two motors and an open trailer.

“It value me $25,000 that I didn’t have,” Joey mentioned. “I went racing at Nashville Speedway, and also you by no means noticed a worse race driver than me.

“I believe I most likely go down in historical past because the very worst performing race driver. I will need to have put in 13 races in my complete profession there, and that’s as a result of I’d at all times wreck the automobile and didn’t have the cash to place it again collectively however by some means discovered a solution to do it.”

He had drivers resembling Jeremy Mayfield and ARCA legend Frank Kimmel in his automobile and found these had been big-time racers.

The Newgarden household was rising up and Josef was proving to be an athletic expertise. He performed baseball, basketball and soccer, and took it significantly.

Josef was pulled out of personal college and started to be homeschooled by his mom. Lecturers discovered him to be somewhat animated, and the Newgardens believed he was inventive, so that they determined homeschooling was one of the best alternative for him to develop.

He returned to public college within the seventh and eighth grades and displayed athletic prowess.

By the point he completed eighth grade, nevertheless, Josef wished to race go-karts.

Joey made a cope with his son.

He would let him race go-karts if he put a greater effort on the basketball courtroom and baseball diamond.

By the point he received to ninth and tenth grades, Newgarden was nonetheless simply 5-foot-5 and 115 kilos competing in opposition to children that had been 175 kilos and 6-feet tall.

He informed his dad that he had given it loads of thought and wished to decide on only one sport to focus on.

“’Effectively, which one are you going to do?’ Which one do you wish to do?’” Joey requested him. “He mentioned, ‘I wish to go racing.’

“I informed him, ‘If that’s what you wish to do, then we’ll do it.’”

It started with karting at New Fortress Motorsports Park, probably the greatest karting services in america owned by former IndyCar driver Mark Dismore. 

Joey Newgarden had a Navigator and later a Chevy Suburban that hauled a karting rig, a small trailer, down the freeway from Hendersonville, Tennessee to New Fortress, Indiana.

He turned a 5-hour drive right into a 3-hour, 50-minute drive with younger Josef laying within the again watching Jim Carrey motion pictures on a small DVD participant.

“I do not know how we received there that quick, however 4 hours was at all times the window,” Joey recalled. “However in case you received there in 3:50 or 3:45, you had been setting a brand new report.”

Joey and Josef at all times had an in depth relationship as father and son, and the lengthy journeys to New Fortress had been a time to bond even additional.

“He did not know some other means,” Joey mentioned of his son. “He had a mother and two sisters after which he had his dad, proper? 

“No brothers, no actual male position fashions. So, I used to be it.

“There was no Ward and Beaver Cleaver dad factor occurring, as soon as we began racing go-karts significantly, it was a complete shifting of the gears, and it grew to become a enterprise.”

New Fortress Motorsports Park opened in 2004 and the Newgarden’s raced there in June of that yr. They began in rental carts earlier than they purchased a kart that Dismore had off the ground. It was an American-made kart, and so they paid $7,000. They didn’t must haul it up and down the freeway, as a result of it was left with Dismore.

“We did one race weekend and received our butts handed to us his first time,” Joey recalled. “There have been 13 children within the group, and he completed tenth or eleventh.

“I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I received it in me to race another week,’ however we got here again in August. After that weekend, we got here again house and put his kart and trailer away.”

That wasn’t the tip of this journey, nevertheless.

They tinkered on the kart over the winter, however it wasn’t till the next March when the Newgarden’s resumed their racing dream.

In 2005 and 2006, father and son made 23 journeys from Nashville to New Fortress every of these years. These included native regional races, plus 5 nationwide occasions.

“That was one of the best schooling in racing ever,” Joey mentioned. “I informed him it didn’t matter if he had a elaborate kart as a result of he was studying loads right here. He will need to have run 150 go-kart races between these two years.

“And we confirmed up on the market.”

Newgarden competed in opposition to the 12-year-old son of former Formulation One and Indy 500 driver Derek Daly — a child named Conor Daly, who’s competing in his twelfth Indy 500 on Sunday. INDYCAR staff proprietor Eric Bachelart’s son additionally competed in karting and so did 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever’s.

The Newgardens weren’t intimidated. Josef put his head down, discovered what he may, and made it occur.

He received two junior championships in 2005 and completed second and third in opposition to Daly and Bachelart.

On the finish of the yr, a giant world championship race got here to New Fortress in October.

“Josef wound up profitable that one and whipping these man’s asses that weekend,” Joey mentioned proudly. “That was massive motivation to return again the second yr.

“And when he got here again in 2006, he’s 15 and he smoked everyone. Within the third yr, as a substitute of 23 journeys up there, we made 10 and Josef received the senior championship.”

Younger Newgarden had outgrown karting and competed in 24 races in Skip Barber.

“He was a rookie and went again to getting his butt kicked,” dad mentioned. “The second yr in Skip Barber, Josef smoked everyone and wound up getting the chance to race in Europe.”

He moved to Europe at 17 and lived on his personal, competing in Formulation Ford and the British Formulation Ford Collection. He tried to compete in GP3, earlier than he got here again to america to compete in what’s now the INDY NXT SERIES.

Then, the fortunate break into INDYCAR with Sarah Fisher Racing in 2012, ending twenty third within the championship. By 2015, he received two races for CFH Racing and completed seventh within the INDYCAR Championship.

Another win with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016, and Newgarden was prepared for the large time — Crew Penske.

He received 4 races and the 2017 INDYCAR Championship in his first season at Crew Penske. He received one other INDYCAR title in 2019 with Crew Penske. He received 4 races every season in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2023 and a career-high 5 races in 2022.

In 2023, he received the Indianapolis 500 for the primary time in his profession. He received it once more final yr.

Newgarden enters Sunday’s Indy 500 with 31 victories and has develop into the present face of the Indianapolis 500.

It began on these lengthy journeys from Nashville to New Fortress, Indiana along with his father rushing down the freeway to show a five-hour drive into 3-hours, 50-minutes.

“It is loads of previous reminiscences, that is for positive,” Joey Newgarden mentioned.

For Joey and Josef Newgarden, they had been reminiscences that lasted a lifetime.

“It was essential,” Josef informed FOX Sports activities. “I’ve had the good fortune of being supported by my mother and father. My Dad was very supportive and so was my mother.

“I treasure the occasions attending to trip up right here with my dad and drive go-karts. It’s all I wished to do as a child.

“I received to bond with my Dad going to the observe. I bonded with my Mother; she got here loads of occasions. I’m a fortunate man. I had actually, actually, actually good mother and father.”

“To me, it was a dream. To be right here on the Indianapolis 500 may be very surreal, nonetheless.”

Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsports author and contributor to FOXSports.com. Comply with him on X at @BruceMartin_500.

BEST OF FOX SPORTS’ INDY 500 COVERAGE: