Josef Newgarden is hoping to compete in the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 like Kyle Larson attempted to do this year. While speaking to reporters at the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway this past weekend, Newgarden was asked about driving a Cup car after having a lot of success in IndyCar.
“I’d love to drive a cup car at some point,” Newgarden said. “I used to go to Bristol races as well when I was a kid. Bristol has always been very high on my list. …But to do the double for me it would be a great opportunity. I don’t know that will ever take shape. It’s really tough nowadays to get that all lined up. There’s a lot of people that have to be involved and come together on that.
“It was great to see Kyle do it. We’d love to see more pople do it. If you ask almost anybody across both grids, whether it’s the stock car side or IndyCar, there’s a lot of people that want to do it. Any racer love to run multiple forms of motorsport, it’s just difficult to do nowadays. Some people get programs put together. I think Kyle probably has the most fluid. He’s kind of everywhere and he does it the most of anybody. From my side, I don’t know if I’ll be able to put that together, but if I can I would love to run the dobule one day. It’s definetly high on my list.”
Josef Newgarden spoke out about competing in NASCAR last year
Newgarden grew up a big fan of NASCAR but has become one of the most successful drivers in IndyCar history. In his career, Newgarden won 30 IndyCar races, including the 2023 and 2024 Indy 500. He also won the IndyCar Series Championship in 2017 and 2019. After winning the Indy 500 last year, Newgarden talked about competing in NASCAR.
“I would love to do a Cup race,” Newgarden said. “I have tremendous respect for the NASCAR side. I really like the camaraderie we’re seeing in motorsports now — it’s fantastic that Kyle Larson is going to come over and run the 500 [next year]. He’s a tremendous race-car driver. … No one from the pure IndyCar side has done the double [of the 500 and the 600] since Tony [Stewart] . I would love to be in that position.
“Maybe I’ve got to do a couple more things for RP [Roger Penske] to sign off on that. But if I had the opportunity, I’d be all for it. I’m a huge NASCAR fan and would love to join the group.”
On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this story.
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