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With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. A two-time winner, Joseph Newgarden. Griff Jenkins here on the Brian Kilmeade show filling in for Brian has a day off. Your humble correspondent in DC, but right now in this moment, a kid in a candy star starstruck by Joseph Newgarden who won back-to-back indie championships in 2023 and 2024. Now with a chance on Sunday to three-peat that will become a first ever if he can win. Joining us now, that driver, Joseph Newgarden. Joseph, it's Griff here. Thank you for taking time. Remarkable success.
And now you're looking to three-peat. How you feeling just days out? Griff, it's great to be here to chat with you. I love hearing those calls back. You know, there's almost something very special about the Indy 500 and hearing it on the radio. I mean, there's so many ways you can see this event for sure in person is the best. But I'm excited to be there. You know, it's one of the most special events in the world. I don't know many sporting events that are over a hundred years old like it. You know, to go for history this weekend is going to be pretty special.
Without a doubt, Joseph. And you know, you're talking, so I'm 54 years old. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. And there wasn't, NASCAR wasn't as big as it is now. There was no Formula One racing that Americans are paying attention to. Indy 500, that was the race in my household with my dad and my older brother that we watched. That was car racing. And the magic of it back in the 80s and the 70s and 80s and even 90s, you know, remarkable.
But you now have won twice with a chance to three-peat. You're talking about it. What is it about the Indy 500? You've been on that track that makes it so magical.
Well, there's so much that makes it up. I mean, I think if you try and bring it to one singular point, it is the people that make Indy so special. When you go there, you know, I meet families all the time that have been going there 80-plus years.
And they have the same seats and they pass it down generation to generation. And the stories that you hear of the family that has been going there, you know, so many years, that's what makes it so unique. There's no event that I've been to like it. I've been to, you know, Super Bowls, you know, finals, Kentucky Derby, whatever you want to call out. They're all big events, but there's just nothing that rivals the magic of what the Indy 500 is. It's really just a special celebration. It's still the single largest sporting event for a single day in the entire world. That's why they call it the greatest spectacle in racing. So that's what makes it special to me. It's the tradition, you know, people know about the milk, the wreath, kissing the bricks, you know, everything that comes with trying to win that race.
It's what makes it so unique and magical when you're there. Well, I can't wait. I get the chance to be there for the first time in my life this weekend. I'm filling in guest hosting with Rachel Campbell, Stephanie and Charlie Heard on Fox and Friends.
We're going to broadcast from there and I'm going to watch you, hopefully three feet. But let's talk about the race because you were moved to the back of the pack. You're literally, I think, the 32nd or 33rd racer.
You're from all the way back in the back. And I saw you on Fox and Friends this morning saying that you can't recall a time that anyone's won coming from the back of the pack. So do you think you can win? I think so.
Definitely. I mean, it's a bigger challenge now. But, you know, this race, regardless of the circumstances, always it's a huge mountain to climb. And that's why it's so special to win it, too. In the 109 runnings of it, there's a lot of drivers that probably should have won it and they never did.
I'm talking great drivers that just never sealed the deal. It's a tough race to get right. It's the most pressure you're going to have all year.
Everyone's going to be feeling it on the day, the entire team. So it adds to it by having to start in the last row. It's very positive no one's won from the last row. So I like the challenge. No one's won it from the last row, but no one's ever won it three years in a row either. So we've got a couple things on the card this weekend. I'm rooting for you because, listen, it would be amazing to see that accomplished. And I can say I talked to him before he won that race in three-peted.
He was totally comfortable. But you talk about some of the challenges. What are some of, you know, not to go motorhead on you, but what are some of the biggest hurdles, challenges you'll face in any driver for that matter? Yeah, I mean, I think for a novice that doesn't know much about motorsport, you know, it's a 200-lap race, 500 miles. And it's really nowadays the race has trended to where it is a battle throughout where you're trying to position yourself for that last pit stop. And everybody in the field is fighting to just really be in that top five as you come out of the final pit stop, which is going to be 25, 30 laps to go, that final stint.
You know, so it's not just about, okay, how do you close the deal at the end? It's like, how do you make it through all these battles throughout the race to put yourself in a position to potentially win it? And that's what is, you know, exciting about it when you're watching it is, you know, you're sort of seeing people throughout the race try and position themselves and get up front at the right time. It's almost like watching the derby a little bit, you know, where everybody comes out of the gates, you know, and it's going to take a couple minutes to finish this thing. And, you know, not until you really round that last corner do you see who's kind of positioning themselves to maybe have a run to the finish. And that's how this race is. You know, you've really got to be strategic about it.
And you can't put a foot wrong all day. Everyone's got to do their job. And it's just magnified to the highest level, like I said, when you have 300-plus thousand people there. So, it's interesting to watch.
You know, I think if you've never seen it or you've never been to it, you know, follow along, get on the scanners, try and, you know, listen to a team, follow somebody. When you're invested in somebody, it makes it more fun. I'm going to be listening to your pit crew. And it's such a great point, Joseph.
You know, talk to me just a little bit more about, you know, how everybody has a role to play. When I was telling my wife I was going to, you know, go and do this, she said, oh, man, my favorite thing, and she's not a sports person, just to give it full context. She said, my favorite thing is they do those pit stops in like two seconds flat. It's like zip, zip, zip, zip. I'm like, that's all you're watching? But yet those guys in the pit stop are a key part of the team.
Yeah, it's huge. Everything about it makes the day. And, you know, I used to say, I mean, this isn't going to be 100% accurate, but, you know, it's like you're making a thousand decisions in this race and you can't make one wrong.
They all have to be correct. You know, one wrong decision and the day, you know, ends in disaster. And that can be from any side of the team. You know, we've got to be perfect with the car. It's got to be in a position to go quick enough and, you know, to challenge.
It can't break. Pit stops are critical, just as you said. I mean, you know, you're one of the pit stops or especially the final pit stop could be a make or break moment for the entire race. And then your strategy calls throughout, you know, and how you're flowing with when yellows fall or they don't.
And, you know, what you're deciding to do when all this stuff comes into effect. I mean, it's a real team effort. That's why I always encourage people to learn about the art of racing so that when you watch, you know, you can see these pivotal moments that the team goes through.
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Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash Spotify podcast. Rules and restrictions may apply. Yeah, and you know, for our listeners that haven't been following it, you had a setback here because the car didn't have a correct attenuator. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it was a qualification thing, and that's what's pushed you to the back of the pack.
Now you've got to overcome that. Does something like that put more pressure on you and the team, or do you just move on, move forward, and get to Saturday, which will be the time trials, I believe, and then, of course, the race on Sunday? Yeah, I think it definitely adds pressure.
I could tell you it doesn't, but how can it not? It piles on to the situation, but the way I look at it, to calm myself down, is that Indy, regardless of the circumstances, is already the highest pressure you're going to see throughout the year. That regard still feels very normal. We're all going to be feeling it on race day and wanting to do the job, and now that we have to start at the back, we've just got to be prepared for more that could be thrown our way. I like it, though. I love a challenge. I think we've got the team to go for it. I know we do. We've been in tough spots before, and we always rise to the occasion. Well, I am going to be rooting like crazy for you out there, and it's really remarkable to get to talk to you, because I can only imagine the pressure you've got. But I will say there is maybe perhaps some comfort, solace you can take in the fact that if this whole racing thing, of which you're one of the greatest, if this whole racing thing doesn't work out, you could still be a handsome cologne model as a future career. And what I'm referring to is Fox Sports and Macy's teamed up to give fans a chance to meet you today there in New York and receive his ethanol cologne. Obviously having a little bit of fun. I think we've got a little snippet of your commercial, Joseph.
We'll play for everyone. Listen to this. A forbidden allure. Liquid temptation in a glass cage. The scent of freedom.
Waiting for a single spark to ignite its rage. Ethanol. Forbidden. I love it. I love it, Joseph. And not only are you this remarkable, incredible racer, you can have fun a little bit, too. And tell me about what you're doing there.
That's probably been the best part of the Fox partnership. Look, it's a very serious job. I'm an adrenaline junkie at the end of the day driving these cars, but we don't mind poking fun at ourselves and having a good time with it. So we can make a commercial. That came out of the commercial we made for the Super Bowl. We had all these sets and this was one of them and I thought it was so ridiculous looking in the best way. Me and this director just started going off the cuff and we ended up making its own standalone commercial out of it because that's how ridiculous it felt. Yeah, we're teaming up today.
I'm headed to Macy's right now, so do a little activation with them with this product. And it's been so fun just trying to give people a different look, different perspective and trying to get them involved in the personalities of our sport. Oh, man, and what a great sport it is. I don't care who you are, how old or young you are, it is an exciting day of racing and you are among the greatest. You know, I'll share this with you before I have to let you go, Joseph, and that is my father was in the pharmaceutical business years ago.
He's since passed away years ago, but at the heyday of his career, he was an executive and he had some sort of event that they were doing in partnership with A.J. Foyt, who turned 90 this year, another one of the legends that preceded you in Indy 500 and how special it was to have gotten to meet him as a young kid. And, you know, how much I looked up to him and, you know, it was one of the coolest things ever of my childhood to have got to meet that guy.
And then now I'm getting to talk to you. You are going to be in this race and I believe you're going to three-peat. Pretty cool to think of the legends in your sport. Yeah, unbelievable. I mean, I look up to them, the Titans, like you said, he's going to be there this weekend. You'll probably see super text, A.J.
Foyt. So, yeah, it's incredible. I always pinch myself, you know, being a part of this race.
I never imagined that as a kid. So, it's always cool to be sitting there on the grid on race day. Well, you now carry the banner, you carry the torch and we're looking forward to a first place finish.
Otherwise, just a great race. Joseph Newgarden, good luck to you. Congrats on the great success and thank you for taking time to join us. We'll let you go do that cologne ad thing. Thanks, Griff. We'll see you out there.
