“He is a master”: When Josef Newgarden fanboyed over NASCAR royalty Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Josef Newgarden, the two-time IndyCar champion, is a well-known name in American motorsports, having competed in over 200 races so far. Additionally, as an active member of social media, he cast light on NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s antics on X via an interview in 2017. Interestingly, the duo has even previously (three years ago) come face-to-face on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media YouTube Channel.

During that time, Josef Newgarden had an exclusive conversation with renowned motorsport writer Jeff Gluck. The latter asked Newgarden whether he had one or two favorite people he was following on X (formerly Twitter).

"I gotta say, probably the greatest person on Twitter, and I think a lot of people would agree, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Now, he does the exact opposite of what I do — but he is a master at it. If you’re gonna go full-in and you’re gonna show people your world, I don’t think anyone has done it better than Dale Jr. He really masters it well," Newgarden added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first NASCAR Cup Series outing was in 1999 at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, with his last outing, the Ford EcoBoost 400, coming in 2017. Starting from 1999, he competed in a whopping 631 races over 19 years and managed to put on board 26 wins, 261 top-tens, and 15 pole positions.

His best overall finish over a season was third place in 2003.

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Josef Newgarden managed a P12 finish in 2025 SONSIO GP

Josef Newgarden's most recent outing in IndyCar was at the 2025 SONSIO Grand Prix. He started the race from P16 on the grid, but for certain reasons, only slipped backwards to end his outing with a disappointing P12.

In line with this, the 34-year-old cut out as an extremely dejected figure in his post-race interviews:

"Really unfortunate with the mechanical issue before we went green, but proud of the effort on the Astemo Chevrolet. We certainly had the pace to run up front but never got to show it. We'll put it behind us and get ready for the 500." Newgarden said via Team Penske.

Josef Newgarden has had a bumpy start to the 2025 IndyCar campaign. After the first five rounds, he is in 12th place in the drivers' standings with only 96 points.

His Penske teammates, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power (two-time IndyCar champion), have secured 137 and 128 points, respectively. In line with this, next week, the much-awaited Indy 500 event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway holds tremendous significance for Newgarden.

The 34-year-old has previously won the event twice, and that too, consecutively. He won the 2023 and 2024 editions of the fiercely competitive 200-lap race.