With which team did Josef Newgarden claim his first IndyCar title?

The Team Penske driver, Josef Newgarden, is a two-time IndyCar world champion. He won his maiden championship with Team Penske.

Newgarden won his maiden IndyCar championship title in 2017 with four wins, one pole and ten top-five finishes. It was his first year with the Mooresville-based team, and hence, many assumed it would take Newgarden some time to adapt to the team and the car. However, he proved them wrong.

Newgarden's first win with the team came in the third round of the season at Barber Motorsports Park after an intense battle with Scott Dixon. In the IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen, Newgarden opened the championship battle to his rivals after crashing at the pit exit, which aided Dixon to cut down the championship difference by three points.

However, the season finale at Sonoma Grand Prix decided the championship. Newgarden led most of the race however, Simon Pagenaud had a better strategy that enabled him to take the lead on lap 65 of the 85-lap race. The second-place finish enabled Josef Newgarden to secure the championship by 13 points.

Post-race, while talking to the press, Josef Newgarden had an emotional message and expressed his love for his parents.

"It's a crazy journey. Forgive me if my words aren't so great right now. I got definitely emotional with the whole -- just the whole ceremony process and seeing everyone there and how happy everyone else was. It's taken a lot of people to get to this point, clearly and obviously.

"This started a long time ago with just my parents, and they're the biggest reason that I've been able to do this. They've put everything on the line for me to make sure I had an opportunity to do this, and that's where it starts, and then it kind of falls into line with everyone else.”

With this win, Penske had racked up their 15th Championship. The Team Penske drivers had good chances of winning the championship going into Sonoma but it was Josef Newgarden who rose to the occasion.

Josef Newgarden speaks about his friend Josh Berry's maiden NASCAR win

Two-time IndyCar Champion Josef Newgarden spoke about his friend Josh Berry, who won his maiden race at the Las Vegas Speedway with Wood Brothers Racing. He previously drove for Stewart Haas Racing, but the team was dissolved, and he moved to WBR in 2024.

While in conversation with Frontstretch, Newgarden spoke about how he felt after Josh Berry's maiden win.

“Yeah, we're like pseudo teammates. We just did a big deal together in Hendersonville, I don't know, about a month ago where we were together. Yeah, we did a bunch of media work. You might not have seen it, but we were just together not long ago. It's great to have him on the team, you know, certainly a very deserving driver.

"Excited to see him win a race too. He's someone that was going to win a race at some point, and I think he's got the right situation around him to sort of capitalize on his opportunity and he's worked very hard for it. You know, he's got a great story and cool to see him get that first win.”

Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing have a technical alliance, which was why Newgarden referred to Berry as his pseudo-teammate. Berry's maiden win came after nearly 50 races.