LEEDS, Alabama – With Josef Newgarden in the lead and the laps winding down in Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Joey and Tina Newgarden stood behind his pit area with Newgarden’s girlfriend, Ashley Welch. There were still six laps to go and the Newgardens realized plenty could happen over the last six laps.

One by one, Newgarden’s Chevrolet flashed by on the Barber Motorsports Park race course and he was one lap closer to victory. Mom and Dad and his girlfriend crowded closer together, with anticipatory smiles on their faces.

Joey let out a loud yell when the white flag waved from the flagstand. Just one more lap to go and the Newgarden’s investment in Josef’s racing career was about to reach fruition. As Graham Rahal passed Scott Dixon for third place, Newgarden was far ahead of the competition and coming out of the final turn, the checkered flag waved.

Joey, Tina and Ashley threw their arms into the air and then did a three-way hug as 24-year-old Josef Newgarden of Hendersonville, Tennessee – about three hours up the road from Barber Motorsports Park – was the latest winner in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

“I just know he worked so hard and was so close so many times – I’m so excited and proud of him,” Mother Tina said. “I kept on praying and know he wanted it so bad and the passion that he has he finally got the first win.

Joey Newgarden knew this day would come ever since his young son came to him at 13 years of age and said he wanted to be an IndyCar driver one day. So the Newgardens started the teenager out in karting and would spend 20 weekends a year driving from Hendersonville, Tennessee to New Castle, Indiana to race at Mark Dismore’s New Castle Motorsports Park. They spent plenty of nights as father and son at the Best Western, not far from the track.

“Yes, I did,” Joey said when asked if this day would come. “I’m as happy as can be. We are proud of Josef and I just want to cry.

“The only thing to say is a real Badass. He beat Scott Dixon and he beat everybody he had to beat. This day is huge. I didn’t send him Open Wheel; he did what he needed to do and got the help he needed from me and everybody else, too.”

Later, in Victory Lane as his son celebrated the victory on the podium with second-place Graham Rahal and third place Scott Dixon, Joey had a chance to reflect on the journey.

“I’m extremely proud, man – what else can you say?” Joey said. “I’m very, very proud. You’ve got a kid that goes racing when he’s a teenager, starts in karts, and goes to the school races, goes to Europe, comes back, fights through the professional ranks and wins his first IndyCar race – he deserves a lot of credit for what he has done.

“The biggest support was just being there for him. We didn’t start when he was six or seven years old – we started when he was 13. And we spent 10 years solid of just pushing, pushing, pushing and doing everything you have to do to keep the operation going. He was a funny kid. He loved racing when he was a kid and watched it on TV or doing it in the yard. He has come a long, long way now.”

The annual Newgarden Caravan from the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee to this little community just outside Birmingham, Alabama included 50 of his closest friends and relatives. And on Sunday, they got to celebrate a victory at the track that is the closest to his old Hendersonville home as the Verizon IndyCar Series continues to capture interest in the “Heart of Dixie.”

“IndyCar is doing really, really well I believe and what they are doing between Florida and now New Orleans and here in Alabama, which has been here awhile, I think it’s great. Everybody thinks this is NASCAR country and it’s not necessarily so. It only is if you want it to be. He liked Open-Wheel cars and he can drive the “Tin tops” (NASCAR) later on.”

The Verizon IndyCar Series used to race in Nashville at the concrete-paved Nashville Superspeedway. Now, Nashville has an IndyCar star in Josef Newgarden.

“This win is going to help, right here,” Newgarden’s 55-year-old father said. “Nashville hasn’t had a lot of race drivers – Darrell Waltrip was the big one and then Sterling Marlin. Josef is really the guy that is knocking the door down and coming through it now.”