Nashville Native Josef Newgarden Wins Indy 500

After the wildest finish in years, Nashville native Josef Newgarden has finally taken the checkered flag that had eluded him thus far in his career. After three red flag restarts in the final laps, Newgarden won the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 for Team Penske. After 11 previous entries into this monumental event in motorsports that fell short, it was Newgarden drinking the milk (whole milk to be exact) in victory lane today. 

“I’m just so thankful to be here. You have no idea, I started as a fan in the crowd and this place is amazing. Regardless of where you’re sitting. It doesn’t matter if you’re driving the car or you’re working on it or you’re out here in the crowd, you’re a part of this event and the energy. So thank you to Indianapolis,” the champ told NBC Sports as he stepped out of his #2 Penske Chevy. 

“Everyone kept asking me why I haven’t won this race. And they look at you like you’re a failure if you don’t win it. And I wanted to win it so bad. I knew we could. I knew we were capable. I’m so thankful to Shell and team Chevy and everybody. It’s a huge team effort as everybody knows. So just, I’m so glad to be here. Thank you.”

Newgarden grew up just outside of Nashville in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and while he had 26 career wins in Indy Car before today, this was the one crown jewel he had not yet grabbed. The gravitas of this win was not lost on the father of one, and as he crossed the finish line it all washed over him and he felt, “just pure emotion. I was trying to stay locked in. I was emotional the whole last ten laps because I knew we were in position to fight for this win at the end. And I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It was going to come to some last lap shootout like it always is these days. Which is exciting but stressful for us. I’d just been thinking about all the work. You know I can’t talk highly enough about the team. They work so hard all month and it’s so long to get to this point. We’re here for weeks working and grinding for this one moment and that’s what makes it so demoralizing when it doesn’t work out. Well I can tell you we’re going to enjoy tonight.”

Newgarden started the celebration immediately, even before taking the car to victory lane, he jumped out and went through the fence into the crowd. “I’ve always wanted to go into the crowd here at Indianapolis. I’ve seen people go up into the fence. I wanted to go through the fence. I wanted to celebrate with the people. I just thought it would be so cool to be in that energy becauseI know what that energy is like on race day. And this was a dream of mine. If this was ever gonna happen, I wanted to do that.” 

With wife Ashley and son Kota by his side, the newly crowned Indianapolis 500 Champion finally got to kiss those illustrious bricks. Congratulations Josef!