Newgarden was born at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The youngest of three siblings, he is half-Danish through his mother and holds a Danish passport. His interest in motorsport was shaped by watching NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1 with his father. He attended Pope John Paul II High School, where his classmates included NFL receiver Golden Tate and NASCAR driver Josh Berry.
He began karting at thirteen, competing at a facility in New Castle, Indiana, launched by IndyCar driver Mark Dismore. In 2005 and 2006, Newgarden won four karting championship titles including two TAG World Championship junior division titles.
Newgarden entered open-wheel racing in 2006 in the Skip Barber Racing School Series. In 2008, after winning twice in the series' national programme, he was selected for the Team USA scholarship and became the first American to win the Formula Ford Festival title at Brands Hatch. He spent 2009 in the British Formula Ford Championship, finishing runner-up with nine race wins. A season in the 2010 GP3 Series with Carlin Motorsport followed, highlighted by a pole position at Hockenheimring.
In 2011 Newgarden returned to the United States and won the Indy Lights Series title with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, claiming five wins and ten podiums in thirteen races and clinching the championship with one round to spare. At New Hampshire he lapped the entire field, a feat not achieved in the series since 2004.
Newgarden entered the IndyCar Series in 2012 with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. He earned his first career victory at Barber Motorsports Park in 2015 while racing as CFH Racing. At Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016, he set a series record by leading 282 of 300 laps at Iowa Speedway to win the Iowa Corn 300, this coming just 28 days after breaking his hand and clavicle in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway.
He joined Team Penske for 2017 and won in only his third start for the team at Barber. Four wins and nine podiums that season earned his first IndyCar Series Championship, making him the first American to win the Astor Cup since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. A second title followed in 2019 with four wins, Newgarden winning the decider at Laguna Seca by 25 points. Between 2020 and 2022 he finished runner-up in the standings for three consecutive seasons, setting a career-high five wins in 2022.
In 2023, Newgarden won the Indianapolis 500 in his twelfth attempt, passing Marcus Ericsson with two corners remaining on the final lap after a controversial late red flag. He finished fifth in the championship that year. In 2024, he won the 108th Indianapolis 500 to become the first back-to-back winner since Helio Castroneves — also driving for Team Penske — did so more than twenty years earlier. His 2024 season-opening win at St. Petersburg was subsequently stripped after Team Penske was penalised for violating push-to-pass regulations.
In 2025, Newgarden and teammate Will Power were forced to start at the rear of the Indianapolis 500 field after failing technical inspections due to modified attenuators; the team's strategists were fired as a result and both drivers were fined $100,000. Newgarden retired from that race with a fuel pressure problem on lap 135.
Newgarden is regarded as one of the most versatile IndyCar drivers of his era, having won on road courses, street circuits, short ovals, and superspeedways. His dominance on ovals from 2019 onward earned him the nickname "The Oval King." He is also noted for an outside-line overtaking move on road and street circuits that commentators have informally called the Josef Newgarden Move. His nineteenth IndyCar victory in 2021 made him the most successful active American driver in the series.
Newgarden has competed in the Race of Champions (2018 in Riyadh, 2019 in Mexico City), both times representing Team USA. In sports car racing, he debuted at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona in the LMP2 class. He returned in 2024 with Porsche Penske Motorsport, co-driving the No. 7 Porsche 963 GTP with Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr, and Dane Cameron to win the race overall.
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