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Two-time reigning Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden has shared the untold story of how his road to F1 was spoiled by a prominent investor who disappeared at the last minute.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1990, Newgarden made his debut on the European circuits in 2008. He competed in the Formula Ford Festival for Team USA and became the first American to win the title. The next year, he raced full-time for JTR in the British Formula Ford Championship, finishing runner-up by winning nine out of 25 races.
In an interview with Race Service released on Saturday (February 1), Newgarden revealed how racing in F1 was his first dream even though he loved all different racing categories. However, when he decided to step up from the Formula Ford championship to the Formula 3 championship in 2010, an unexpected sponsorship hurdle shattered his dream.
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"I found an investor, like this really prominent guy that seemed to be, you know, tons of money, and he was like, 'I want to back you. I think you're the guy.' I signed a deal with him. I signed a deal with a Formula 3 team and he was gonna pay the bill," the 34-year-old said via Race Service. [16:03 onwards]
"I made a seat, the whole thing, and I showed up to the very first preseason test of the F3 season in 2010, and I'm just sitting there in the garage waiting for the check to clear. I went through this whole process with Fortech Racing. I had my engineer. I had my seat... check never cleared, never cleared. This guy just fell off the face of the planet," Newgarden added.
This fallout led Josef Newgarden to find an opportunity elsewhere. Fortunately, he landed a top seat with Carlin in the GP3 series. However, the Renault engines in the car weren't powerful enough, leading to a 10 mph slower car on straightaway speed. As a result, Newgarden finished 18th in the standings with only eight points. That meant the end of his career in European open-wheel racing.
How Josef Newgarden's view of F1 radically changed over a decade - "It's not as appealing"
In 2011, Josef Newgarden was given an opportunity by Sam Schmidt Motorsports to race in Indy Lights, the step before IndyCar. He won the title in his rookie season and got promoted to IndyCar. He consistently improved each season to win two championships in 2017 and 2019.
Newgarden's love for the American racing series grew multifold. In 2022, the Team Penske driver stated how F1, which was more of a constructors' championship than a drivers' playground, was not on his active radar.
"The older I've gotten, the more I've been in racing and watched Formula 1, I don't know (if) it's somewhere I really want to race. It doesn't look as much of a drivers' championship to me," Josef Newgarden said via Autoweek.
He elaborated on how IndyCar being a spec series provided equal opportunities for drivers to have a shot at winning on any given day. F1 not having that made it "not as appealing" for him as before.
Newgarden is currently in the prime of his IndyCar career. With two back-to-back Indy 500 wins in 2023 and 2024, he is the sport's man of the moment. The No. 2 Team Penske could create history in 2025 with an unprecedented third-consecutive victory at the "Greatest Spectacle of Racing".
