"If I don't win any more races, so be it" - Josef Newgarden emotionally recalls his first IndyCar win

Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden shared how he felt after winning his first race in the IndyCar series in 2015, saying that he would have been fine with it if he never won a race again. The American is a 31 time race-winner and has two championships and two Indy 500 wins.

Following his championship win in the 2011 support series, Indy Lights, Josef Newgarden got an oppurtunity with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing to join the IndyCar series in 2012. The American claimed two podiums in three years with the team.

Newgarden then went on to race for Sarah Fisher Hartman and Ed Carpenter's merger team, CFH racing in 2015, with whom he claimed his first IndyCar win at the 2015 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

On Friday, Newgarden posted a video on his Youtube channel, sharing his preparations for the upcoming season. In episode 1 of a pre-season series, the driver arrives at the Penske-Chevrolet team facility in Indianapolis for pre-season performance testing and stumbles upon a photograph from the podium of his first win at Alabama.

Newgarden is visibly giddy and emotional as he reminisces about his first win while standing next to the photograph. He shares how difficult it's to win even one IndyCar race and he would have been content with just one win, saying:

"I was so happy to win one IndyCar race, like you have no idea how difficult it is just to win one of them. I thought, 'If I don't win any more races, so be it. I got one.'"

Josef Newgarden will head into the upcoming season not only looking to defend his Indy 500 title but also look to challenge for his third championship. The 34-year-old will go three in a row if he defends his Indy 500 title in May.

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Josef Newgarden shares behind-the-scenes glimpses of Baby Borg presentation

DEC 04: Indy 500 Winner Josef Newgarden at the Borg Warner Trophy Ceremony - Source: Getty

Josef Newgarden shared glimpses of being awarded the Baby Borg trophy by BorgWarner at a ceremony in January. The trophy is a miniature version of the Borg-Warner trophy and is awarded to the Indy 500 winner as a part of a long-standing tradition.

Although the aforementioned Youtube video was published on Friday, its timeline can be traced back to January, as the video ends with Newgarden attending the Baby Borg presentation in Detroit, alongside IndyCar and Team Penkse owner Roger Penske.

The driver shared footage of the ceremony and also his thoughts about the event, saying:

"I really thought media day was the last check mark to start the new year but this is probably the final check mark. You receive the Baby Borg then the year can go, now it's 2025."

Newgarden is one of the few drivers in history who has made receiving the Baby Borg, a pre-season ritual, as he's only the sixth driver to claim back-to-back Indy 500 titles, after Wilbur Shaw, Mauri Rose, Bill Vukovich, Al Unser and Helio Castroneves.