Josef Newgarden is a perfect example of how the Mazda Road to Indy Ladder System works and can reward a top driver with a career in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
The 24-year-old driver from Hendersonville, Tennessee began his career in the Kart Racers of America at 13 won the Junior TAG World Championship in 2006. He stepped up to Skip Barber Southern Regional racing in 2006-2007 and the Skip Barber National Series in 2008. Next was the Formula Ford series in 2009, Formula Palmer Audi in 2009 and the GP3 Series in 2010 before returning back to the United States for one season in Indy Lights in 2010. He won the Indy Lights title driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports that season.
In 2011 he reached the top rung of the ladder – the Verizon IndyCar Series – with team owners Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman and is now part of the combined team that includes Ed Carpenter Racing in what is now called CFH Racing.
As Newgarden begins his fourth season in IndyCar he hopes his climb up the ladder can inspire other young race drivers to join the Mazda Road to Indy.
“I’d like to think that I’m part of the graduating class of the Mazda Road to Indy and a prime example of what can happen when you work your way through the system of the Mazda Road to Indy,” Newgarden said. “You see so many young kids now that want to race in North America and race in the ladder system to get to IndyCar because there are opportunities. Bryan Herta just signed Gabby Chaves. I think Bryan Herta is probably the most supportive person of the Mazda Road to Indy as a team owner in the IndyCar Series. He is always signing Indy Lights graduates and that is awesome because he recognizes there is always talent coming out of the Mazda Road to Indy, especially Indy Lights.
“They haven’t had the biggest field but each year they produce a great champion. You saw that with Jack Hawksworth who has graduated to A.J. Foyt’s team. Everyone thinks highly of him and Gabby Chaves. It’s a very strong ladder system for a top-level sport. To be an American that won the championship and moved up to IndyCar just goes to show what you can aspire to when you are coming up the ranks.”
Newgarden grew up just outside Nashville in what is considered prime territory for NASCAR. But it didn’t take the young driver long to realize which direction he wanted to go in racing.
“The big thing for me growing up when I was looking at race cars and watched races on TV I saw everything – I watched NASCAR, I watched Formula One, I watched Sports Car racing, I watched IndyCar racing,” he said. “To me, Open Wheel cars were always the most Bad-Ass cars out there. It was very clear to me as a kid looking at it what were the coolest cars it was always IndyCar racing. I always loved Formula One, too, but there is a pinnacle of what you can build and drive on a race track. This is the top level of everything in my opinion. So I followed a path to get into Open-Wheel Racing when I was a kid.
“I never went to my first Indy 500 in person until I was 16 years old. It was later for me in life. I was always a basketball and baseball kid. I didn’t start karting until I was 13. I didn’t get much live up-front action with motor racing until later in my life. As soon as I started karting I kept getting more and more involved with it and saw more and more in person. But 16 years old was the first time I got to see the Indy 500.”
Somewhere in the massive grandstands of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway watching the Indy 500 is another 16-year-old future race driver who hopes to one day follow the same path of Newgarden to the top rung of the ladder – the Verizon IndyCar Series.