Newgarden was born at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. His parents moved from Miami, Florida in 1986 with a family photography business. He was named "Josef" to honour his mother's Danish heritage and holds both American and Danish passports. He is the youngest of three siblings, with two older sisters. His interest in motorsport developed through watching NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1 with his father. He grew up in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and attended Pope John Paul II High School, where he was a classmate of NFL wide receiver Golden Tate and NASCAR driver Josh Berry.
Newgarden began karting at age thirteen, initially at a facility in New Castle, Indiana that had been launched by IndyCar driver Mark Dismore. He focused on local and regional competitions rather than national events for budgetary efficiency. In 2005, he finished second and third in the Kart Racers of America (KRA) Junior Can Championship and won the TAG World Championship in the junior division. In 2006 he secured two KRA Junior Can titles and repeated as TAG World Champion. He also competed multiple times in the Robo-Pong 200 at New Castle Motorsports Park, winning the 200-mile endurance race twice — in 2011 with Mark Dismore Sr and in 2013 with Mark Dismore Jr as teammates.
Newgarden entered open-wheel racing in 2006 in the Skip Barber Racing School Series, finishing runner-up in the Southern Regional Series with three wins. He competed in the 2007 BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National championship, finishing sixth, then improved to second in 2008 with three wins.
After the 2008 season he was selected for the Team USA scholarship for the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy in England. He won the Formula Ford Festival, becoming the only American to do so. At the Walter Hayes Trophy, he won all qualifying races and started from pole but crashed from the lead in wet conditions, finishing sixth.
In 2009 Newgarden moved to England to compete in the British Formula Ford Championship, finishing runner-up with nine race wins and 550 points — leading the series in wins. He also competed in the opening round of the 2009 Formula Palmer Audi season at Brands Hatch, taking two wins.
In 2010 Newgarden was signed to compete in British Formula Three, but his main investor withdrew before the official test. He instead competed in the 2010 GP3 Series with Carlin Motorsport, finishing eighteenth overall with eight points. The season was highlighted by a pole position at Hockenheimring and a best finish of fifth at the season finale at Monza.
Newgarden returned to the United States in 2011 to compete in the Indy Lights Series with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He won the series opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg and added four more wins across the season, with ten podiums from thirteen races. In New Hampshire — the eleventh round — he lapped the entire field, the first Indy Lights driver to do so since Thiago Medeiros in March 2004. Newgarden clinched the points championship with one race remaining and led the series in wins as a rookie.
On December 7, 2011, Newgarden was announced as the driver for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. He earned his first career podium at the 2013 Baltimore race and a second podium at Iowa Speedway in 2014. In 2015, under the merged team known as CFH Racing, Newgarden took his first IndyCar win at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, moving from fifth to second on lap one and leading the most laps. He won again later that year at the Honda Indy Toronto, finishing seventh in the standings.
Sarah Fisher ended her IndyCar participation after 2015, and Newgarden remained with the team under Ed Carpenter Racing. At the 2016 Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway he was injured in a crash, breaking his hand and clavicle. He returned to the car two weeks later, finishing in the top ten at Road America. Twenty-eight days after the Texas crash, he won the 2016 Iowa Corn 300 in dominant fashion, leading 282 of 300 laps — a series record for most laps led in a race. He finished the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in third place and ended the season fourth in the standings, the highest-placed non-Team Penske car.
Ed Carpenter confirmed Newgarden would not return for 2017, and Newgarden joined Team Penske, with an official announcement on October 5, 2016.
2017: Newgarden won his first race with Team Penske in round three of the season at Barber Motorsports Park after a final-lap duel with Scott Dixon. He took four wins and nine podiums, including a late-season controversy at Gateway where he went under teammate Simon Pagenaud and the two made contact. He clinched the IndyCar championship at Sonoma, becoming the first American to win the Astor Cup since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. Pagenaud won the Indianapolis 500 from pole that year.
2019: Newgarden won the season opener at St. Petersburg and added wins at Detroit, Texas, and Iowa. He led the points standings after every race except Indianapolis, won his second IndyCar title at Laguna Seca by 25 points over Dixon.
2020: Despite winning the St. Petersburg finale and overtaking Pato O'Ward in the closing laps, Newgarden could not claim the title, as Dixon finished third in the same race — better than the ninth-place finish needed to hand Newgarden the championship. He finished second in the standings.
2021: Newgarden earned four pole positions — the season's most — but did not win until round ten at Mid Ohio, his nineteenth IndyCar victory, making him the most successful American driver active at that time. He added a second win at Gateway. He finished second in the championship for the second consecutive year, behind Alex Palou.
2022: Newgarden set a career-high five wins in a season — at Texas, Long Beach, Road America, Iowa, and Gateway — the most wins by an IndyCar driver in a season since Pagenaud won five in 2016. At the second Iowa race he crashed heavily while leading due to a suspension failure, was able to exit the car but collapsed in the pit area and was airlifted to a hospital in Des Moines. He was cleared to race the following weekend. He finished second in the championship to Will Power.
2023: Newgarden swept the Iowa Speedway double-header. At the Indianapolis 500, in his twelfth attempt, he passed Marcus Ericsson with two corners to go on the final lap after a series of red flag incidents, briefly weaving into the pit lane to disrupt Ericsson's airflow. The move was ruled legal at the time but IndyCar subsequently banned the tactic for safety and sporting reasons. He finished fifth in the standings.
2024: Newgarden started the season from pole at St. Petersburg but had the victory stripped after Team Penske violated push-to-pass regulations. He won the 108th Indianapolis 500, achieving back-to-back victories and becoming the first consecutive Indy 500 winner since Castroneves 22 years earlier.
2025: Newgarden and teammate Will Power both failed pre-qualifying inspections for the Indianapolis 500 due to modified attenuators. Both were ordered to start at the rear of the field; their team strategists were initially suspended and later fired; each entry forfeited qualification points and was fined $100,000. Newgarden retired on lap 135 with a fuel pressure problem. He won his home race at Nashville later in the season.
Newgarden participated in the 2018 Race of Champions in Riyadh and the 2019 Race of Champions at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, both times for Team USA. In February 2022 he was announced as a guest driver in Tony Stewart's Superstar Racing Experience at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. In December 2022 he announced an LMP2 entry for the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Scott McLaughlin and Indy NXT driver Kyffin Simpson. He drove for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the 2023 Petit Le Mans in the GTP class alongside Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr, finishing fourth overall. In 2024 he returned to Porsche Penske Motorsport for the 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Campbell, Nasr, and Dane Cameron, winning the race.
Newgarden is regarded as a complete driver, effective on road courses, street courses, short ovals, and superspeedways. His oval dominance since 2019 — winning nearly half of the oval races held in that period — earned him the nickname "The Oval King." On road and street courses he is known for successful outside-line passes, a move some observers call the "Josef Newgarden Move." He has also competed in American Ninja Warrior alongside Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves in the Indianapolis round of season 8 in 2016.
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