Josef Newgarden on winning $1m, challenging for the 2022 title and becoming a father

06.21.2022 - By The Race Media Ltd Play

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Whether it’s winning three of eight races and $1 million, having his first baby or helping to rebuild his #2 Penske team back up almost from scratch, it’s been a wild year for Josef Newgarden who joins this episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast.

Newgarden earned the $1 million - with $500,000 going to charity - for completing the trifecta of wins on a road course, street circuit and an oval over the first eight races, before any other driver even managed to win more than one race.

However, he discusses the “deflating moments” that have hamstrung his 2022 as despite his impressive wins - including the last race at Road America - he still sits third, 32 points off the lead. How he turns that around is a big part of Newgarden's focus which he discusses in detail.

He also delves into the interesting 2022 of his team-mates, discussing resurgent Will Power’s mental approach to the year and how he operates in this space, plus Newgarden provides some behind the scenes detail on Scott McLaughin’s barren run and how hard he can be so hard on himself despite his relative inexperience.

There’s also some playing down of Newgarden's chances going into the next two races, Mid-Ohio where he won last year and Iowa where he is often dominant, as we look forward to the return of IndyCar action in just over a week’s time.

As always with Newgarden the chat often goes off-topic, so the trio also discuss what defines Fast Food, and how Newgarden's new YouTube show Bus Bros with team-mate Scott McLaughlin came about.

Finally, there’s the news that The Race IndyCar Podcast will feature a listeners’ questions special on next week’s episode.

You can tweet the hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand or email [email protected] with your voice note to be included on the episode, or just an old school written question for us to read out.