IndyCar champ Josef Newgarden won't use Jos Verstappen's harsh parenting style with Max Verstappen to raise his son

Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden has opened up on parenting his two-year-old son Kota. When hilariously questioned about whether he'd ever emulate the strict methods former F1 driver Jos Verstappen used for his 4-time champ son Max Verstappen, Newgarden politely refused.

Newgarden recently appeared on an episode of the 'Off Track with Hinch and Rossi' podcast. In one segment, the two-time defending Indy 500 winner spoke about the Josef Newgarden-branded clothing line he launched in this IndyCar offseason. When co-host James Hinchcliffe, a former IndyCar driver, asked him if his fans should be expecting a clothing line by his son, Kota, Newgarden replied:

"That is up to him. He's gonna decide his own destiny, which is fun. He's so young now and obviously he's growing quickly. The older I got, the more I loved making mistakes and deciding my path, whatever it was. I'm excited for him to go through that. He's gonna find out what he likes and what he wants to do. He's gonna make mistakes... and it's really cool to think about... I'm certainly not gonna pressure him into anything... The last thing I wanna do is rush stuff. I want him to be a kid and to enjoy... it sounds silly, but want him to enjoy running around the yard and chasing our dog, Axel."

The 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

At one point, co-host and producer Tim Durham stepped in to amusingly reference the infamous tale of Max Verstappen being abandoned by his father Jos at a gas station.

"You're not gonna Jos Verstappen it and just leave him at a gas station if he doesn't do well?" he asked Newgarden with a chuckle.

The IndyCar driver denied using such strict methods for his son.

"No, No. We got a very different style there in our household," Josef Newgarden replied.

Verstappen had revealed the gas station story in 2022. It dated back to his karting days in 2012 when a costly mistake at the beginning of a race destroyed his chances of winning it. The Red Bull driver described how his father had worked extremely hard that weekend, only for him to squander a potential win on lap 2.

In January 2025, however, Jos Verstappen denied leaving his then-teenager son alone out of anger. He cleared the details of the story, revealing how he simply did not speak with Max for a week.

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When Josef Newgarden claimed IndyCar drivers would "rock" F1

AUTO: MAY 26 NTT IndyCar Series 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

After his second consecutive Indy 500 win in May 2024, Josef Newgarden appeared for an interview on the Pat McAfee show. When the American sports analyst asked him if he could race in F1, the Team Penske driver replied:

"Any of us could and we would rock it."

Newgarden is a part-product of the European junior Formula Racing categories. In 2008, he became the first American to win the Formula Ford Festival for Team USA. In the next year, he raced in the championship full-time, finishing runner-up. His dream of racing in F1 ended after a subpar F3 season with Carlin, whose Renault engines weren't strong enough.

He returned to America for the Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) in 2011 and won the championship. Upon promotion to IndyCar, Josef Newgarden won two championships in 2017 and 2019. By 2022, his wish to race in F1 had subsided. He claimed that F1 was more of a Constructors' championship than a Drivers' championship, which no longer appealed to him.