“Not something I regret”: When Josef Newgarden spoke candidly on tradeoffs of pursuing a racing career

Team Penske's Josef Newgarden once opened up on the tradeoffs he had to make in his pursuit of a racing career. Back in December 2020, he talked about balancing his education with a racing career, and he also shed light on various things he learned along the way.

Newgarden sat for a conversation with All Things Automotive and said:

My game plan was to give it a couple years out of high school, and if it didn’t work out I would’ve gone back and gotten my degree. But the knock-on effect of racing is that it’s such a business-oriented sport—it’s way more business than sport, I’d put the split at 70/30—that you end up learning so much about so many different areas in business that it’s almost an education in itself."

The 34-year-old added:

"You start learning about sales or marketing or communications and you’re able to really thrive in those environments even without a specific degree in one of those facets of business. It’s allowed me to explore other interests within business in motorsport and even to start some business opportunities myself, so it’s not something I regret."

Josef Newgarden has been competing in the highest class of America's open-wheel racing since the 2012 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He has so far managed to amass over 200 race starts and has put on board an impressive 31 victories, 58 podiums and 18 pole positions.

Moreover, he has lifted the coveted IndyCar Drivers' championship twice in his career. At the age of 34, he still has several years ahead of him.

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Josef Newgarden wanted to try F1 when he was 'younger'

While Josef Newgarden talked about the tradeoffs he had to make in order to have a racing career, back in 2020, via the same conversation, he also took the time to give his take on the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1.

Newgarden specifically revealed how he wanted to become a Formula 1 driver when he was young as he said:

"I wanted to go to F1 when I was younger. That’s not to say that I didn’t want to go to IndyCar but F1 seemed like a great place to start. Looking back on it, it’s really hard to take that path."

While the Team Penske driver was not able to make it to F1 during his 20s, he has become a prominent name in America's highest class of open-wheel racing. Other than his statistics that have been discussed already, Newgarden has won two back-to-back Indy 500s.

He achieved this feat in 2023 and 2024. Going into this year's 200-lap event, he has a rare chance of accomplishing a three-peat at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Other than the Indy 500, Josef Newgarden would also be eying the 2025 Drivers' championship as his last title came in 2019.