"It is a sacrifice": When Josef Newgarden praised wife Ashley Newgarden for supporting his motorsports career

Josef Newgarden's wife Ashley is his rock. The two-time IndyCar champ always leaves it all on the track, which his two stunning consecutive Indy 500 victories are proof of. But the sacrifices his doting wife made in his life to propel his racing career to greater heights are no less than the ones he made.

A day after Josef Newgarden won his maiden Indy 500 in 2023 in his 12th attempt, American sports anchor Lindsay Czarniak sat down with him and his wife for an interview to reflect on the Team Penske driver's illustrious journey and Ashley's invaluable contribution to his life.

In one section of the conversation, Ashley explained how she embraced the role of being the one who takes care of the family and the home so that Newgarden can freely pursue greatness on the track. Newgarden backed her statements and said:

"It is a sacrifice, you know. To some degree, you just can't compete at this level, and I think it's true with many sports that you have to sacrifice something in order to elevate yourself within a given craft and that's the choice you have to make. And a family makes that choice too, which is, you know, not always the easiest thing. Like Ashley said, it's hopefully not... it's (racing careers) typically not forever. It's a short-lived thing." [15:58 onwards]

Ahead of his win at the 2024 Indy 500, the couple released a children's book they co-authored, titled 'Josef's Big Dream' which captured Newgarden's journey to winning the prestigious Indy 500.

The 'fake' story of how Josef Newgarden met his 'Disney princess' wife Ashley

Josef Newgarden with his wife Ashley at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey - Source: Getty

Josef Newgarden and Ashley's love story is literally a fairytale and dates back to 2012 when the power couple hadn't met yet. Newgarden had just completed his rookie year in IndyCar and for his mom's birthday, planned a family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida on Christmas day - something they hadn't done in nearly 10 years.

The then-20-year-old Newgarden booked a dinner at Cinderella's Castle, where the princesses interact with the visitors, sign autographs, and have a nice time. Fortuitously, Ashley's co-worker, who played Disney's mermaid character, Ariel, had to back out from working on Christmas day, and she had to step up.

On an episode of Shawn & Andrew Podcasts in October 2024, Josef Newgarden & Ashley narrated this entire meeting which might seem 'fake' to some listeners. The Team Penske driver said:

"Ashley comes at the table and I'm like... I was very captivated by Ashley. There's like 10 princesses around, but I was very interested in Ariel. She had a very nice dress on that evening. We had a funny little back and forth and I was trying to throw her off her... she's like she's supposed to be in character. I'm like 'I'm gonna get her to break character.'" [38:55]

As the evening progressed, Josef and Ashley continued to interact and everybody at his table knew what was up. Unbeknownst to him, his dad played wingman and gave his contact details to the waitress via the bill and asked her to slip it on to Ariel.

The then-Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing driver, unaware of his father's actions, tried his best to look for 'Ariel' online but to no avail. To his surprise, a couple of hours later, Ashley emailed him and they met two weeks later for their first date.

3 weeks after they met, Ashley had to leave for Japan to work at Tokyo Disneyland for over a year and a half. Josef Newgarden visited the Asian country a handful of times during that period to date her, and Japan became their happy place.

They eventually got married in 2019 and welcomed their son in April 2022. The Newgardens named him Kota, which in Japanese, means 'eternal happiness.'