Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden would 'love' to race in NASCAR Cup Series
IndyCar Series star Josef Newgarden could soon be taking his talents to the NASCAR Cup Series for a one-off.
Following his Indy 500 victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday, Newgarden sat down with Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports and expressed his desire to compete in the Cup Series in the future. Newgarden mentioned the ever-growing number of Cup Series stars to take part in IndyCar from Tony Stewart to Kyle Larson, who is slated to run the Indy 500 in 2024.
“I would love to do a Cup race,” Newgarden said. “I have tremendous respect for the NASCAR side. I really like the camaraderie we’re seeing in motorsports now — it’s fantastic that Kyle Larson is going to come over and run the 500 [next year]. He’s a tremendous race-car driver. … No one from the pure IndyCar side has done the double [of the 500 and the 600] since Tony. I would love to be in that position.
“Maybe I’ve got to do a couple more things for RP [Roger Penske] to sign off on that. But if I had the opportunity, I’d be all for it. I’m a huge NASCAR fan and would love to join the group.”
Newgarden, 32, became the first American to win the Indy 500 since Alexander Rossi in 2016. The win is the 27th of his career in IndyCar, and by far the most special.
“In a dream life, truly a dream life, there was that one last accomplishment that I couldn’t grab,” Newgarden said after the race, via ESPN. “So, when it happened, when the dream came true, my first thought was, ‘You know what? I am sharing this with everyone here.'”
Team Penske pulls off Memorial Day Weekend sweep after Josef Newgarden, Ryan Blaney victories
Team Penske pulled off the Memorial Day Weekend sweep as the next day, Ryan Blaney raced his No. 12 Ford to victory lane in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Blaney led 163-of-400 laps to snap a 59-race winless streak. Like Newgarden the day prior, Blaney celebrated his victory by leaping into the grandstands.
“We were texting — you probably were an hour early before we got to chat — we texted last night,” Newgarden said. “And I hadn’t gotten back to nearly anybody that had texted me. But when I saw Ryan win, I was like, ‘He’s one of the first people I want to text.’ I’ve been kind of heartbroken for Ryan over what’s this [winless] drought been 58-60 races? [59]. Everyone just kept harping on this number that was growing, and you could see it with Ryan that it was really starting to weigh on him.
“And he’d been so close the last 59 races — he had been close multiple times. And I’ve been cheering him on this year and was really hoping that he could just break through and get another win so he didn’t have to answer the questions. … To share this weekend together, it made it extra special because I didn’t realize Team Penske had never done the double as a team. I thought that had happened before. There isn’t many stats that Team Penske doesn’t have.”