Josef Newgarden makes fun of his IndyCar failures with a parody of his famous Indy 500 children's book

Josef Newgarden has taken his severe IndyCar slump in 2025 in his stride. The Team Penske driver shared a parody version of his Indy 500 children's book, titled 'Josef's Big Dream: An Indy 500 Story', on Instagram to make fun of his "bad season".

Barely anything has gone right for Newgarden this season. A streak of misfortunes derailed his season, which began with a strong podium finish at the first race in St. Petersburg. Thereon, it had been a streak of subpar races, with only two Top 10 finishes in the next nine races, which included four DNFs.

However, the two-time Indy 500 winner found his mojo at the recent Iowa double-header last weekend. He started on pole for Race 1 and finished in P2, as Pato O'Ward got the best of him on track after earning the race lead in the pits.

In Race 2, Josef Newgarden looked on track to get an easy victory. However, two ill-timed cautions ruined his race and pushed him back to a P10 finish. On Tuesday, the Team Penske driver uploaded an Instagram story with a hilarious spin on his children's book.

The cover image of the book remained the same—a young Newgarden on the main straight of the IMS, with his toy car in hand—but the positive elements had a negative spin on them. The smile on his face changed to a frown, while the car he had in his hand had an explosive visual effect. Not only that, but the crowd at the IMS was booing him instead of cheering.

The title of the book changed from "Josef's Big Dream" to "Josef's Bad Season". Alongside the visual, Josef Newgarden wrote:

"This next book is going to slap."

Josef Newgarden's story -Source: via @josefnewgarden on Instagram

Newgarden's wife, Ashley, who had co-authored the Indy 500 children's book, reshared the Instagram story with a laughing emoji alongside.

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Josef Newgarden gets ready for a 'stormy' comeback after Team Penske shows strength at Iowa

Josef Newgarden, Pato O'Ward, and Will Power on the IndyCar Iowa podium - Source: Getty

Team Penske had the fastest cars around the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway, with supreme race pace. Scott McLaughlin went from P27 to P4 in Race 1, to finish behind teammates Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

It was Team Penske's best result of the season. However, the bad luck that has been tormenting them throughout the season returned in Race 2. McLaughlin got collected by a spinning Devlin DeFrancesco on lap 1, while Power retired shortly after with an engine failure.

Newgarden, the team's only hope, got the race lead from pole-sitter Alex Palou on a lap 65 restart. He was fast enough to extend his lead to over three seconds before misfortune arrived. As soon as he made a pit stop from the lead, Marcus Ericsson crashed behind him and brought out the caution.

This meant he emerged at the back of the entire pack after his pit stop. He clawed his way back to the lead before the same situation replicated itself. The two-time IndyCar champion went in for his last pit stop, but a caution fell, and he receded to the back of the pack again.

In an X post after the race, Josef Newgarden wrote:

"Race recap: Went to the front of the field. Pit. Yellow. *go to the back of the field. Restart. Went to the front of the field. Pit. Yellow. *go to the back of the field. Ended up p10 on a day where it feels like it should have been a win. It’s not from lack of effort or speed. All 3 @Team_Penske cars have had such great pace, we just need one thing to go right for us. If the saying is that “after droughts come rain… “, we’ll be prepared for a storm."

On the brighter side, the Iowa results helped him go from 20th in the standings to 14th. Newgarden will look to sustain his performance in the next IndyCar race weekend at Toronto from July 18 to 20.