From The Backyard to the Front Row of the Brickyard; Newgarden’s Story Inspires Big Dreams - Speedway Digest

Many kids dream of racing in the Indy 500. The reality is it takes years of practice and hard-work to earn your way up to racing, let alone being competitive, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Often the dream feels unattainable and not worth pursuing. A new children’s book featuring Verizon IndyCar Series star Josef Newgarden aims to point kids towards chasing their dreams.

Josef Newgarden’s qualifying effort for the 100^th Running of The Indianapolis 500 serves as proof positive that it is worth pursuing “the dream”; that anything is possible. Josef was briefly on the pole position for qualifying in this year’s “500”. Had the young American been .06 mph faster over his 10 mile qualifying run he would have been on pole for the biggest race in history.

Josef’s inspiring story of how he got to be an Indy car driver is laid out in the new children’s picture book, “Josef, The Indy Car Driver.” In addition to walking young readers through his path to become a driver, it also portrays what it is like to be an Indy car driver through high-speed race action at one of country’s top venues, Road America.

His motorsports story took life over a decade ago when he began racing motorized scooters with his friends in his hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Scooters led to karting which soon turned to a rise up the open-wheel racing ladder in the United States and Europe – a mix of campaigns comprised of hard work and dedication to achieve one goal: become an Indy car driver.

Winning the Indy Lights Championship in 2011 vaulted Josef into the Verizon IndyCar Series driving for Sarah Fisher Racing in 2012. In 2016, he won his first two races at Barber Motorsports Park and Toronto; and was one of only three drivers to win a race while not driving for one of the sports “Big Three” teams.

“When I think about how I got into racing as a kid, and that I am now in a position to win the Indy 500, it really is a dream come true,” said Josef. “I want to help kids get excited about this sport and motivated to take the steps to become the next generation of drivers. ‘Josef, The Indy Car Driver’ delivers on that goal while also being entertaining and educational for all kids who are interested in learning and watching Indy car racing.”

Want to teach your young race fan about racing and fuel their dreams of driving flat out through Road America’s “Kink” or down the front straight of Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Check out “Josef, The Indy Car Driver” from author / illustrator Chris Workman at the Apex Legends website, apexlegends.com.

Books are available for pre-order with a launch in June at – you guessed it – Road America!

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.