Firestone Indy Lights Champ Newgarden Jumps To IndyCar With Fisher's Team
December 07, 2011 | By Tom Surber
Reigning Firestone Indy Lights champion Josef Newgarden will climb to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012 with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, team owner Sarah Fisher announced at a press conference Dec. 7 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Newgarden, a native of Nashville, Tenn., dominated Firestone Indy Lights with Sam Schmidt Motorsports as a rookie in 2011. He earned five victories, 10 top-five finishes, three poles and led 395 of the 831 laps he completed in 14 races. Newgarden, 20, won at St. Petersburg, the Firestone Freedom 100 at Indianapolis, Iowa, Edmonton and New Hampshire. He clinched the series points title at Kentucky with one race remaining in the season.
“IndyCar has always been a dream of mine, and the Indy 500 is something that is so captivating for people,” Newgarden said. “To be able to be part of that this coming year is going to be very exciting.
“Certainly with a group like Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, I’m even more excited. I certainly want to be here, and I’m just very excited for all of us and what we’re going to be able to do together.”
Newgarden will try to make his first Indianapolis 500 start in the 96th edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on Sunday, May 27 at IMS.
Fisher’s team enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2011, with its first IZOD IndyCar Series victory, at Kentucky. Popular nine-time Indianapolis 500 veteran Fisher formed the team in 2008 and announced Dec. 7 a new team partnership with businessman Wink Hartman. She thinks Newgarden is a perfect fit.
“I certainly believe him to be the next generation of our drivers,” said Fisher. “With Josef there’s going to be some rookie phases, there’s going to be some rookie learning curves. But I think he’s got the best attitude possible, and I think we’ve got the best people to teach him.”
Newgarden brings an impressive background to SFHR besides his Firestone Indy Lights title. He won junior karting world championships in 2005 and 2006, and an American title in 2007. He also was a race winner in Skip Barber national competition and competed in European formula racing from 2008-10, becoming the first American to win the Kent class at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival, in 2008, and also finishing runner-up in the British Formula Ford championship in 2009. Newgarden raced in GP3 in 2010, with five top-10 finishes.
But Newgarden captured Fisher’s eye with his runner-up finish last September in the Firestone Indy Lights race on the Baltimore street circuit.
“One of the really key moments, it was after we started looking at him, was his race at Baltimore,” Fisher said. “Yes, he won the Freedom 100, and that was fantastic, and that means a lot to me at Indy, but that race at Baltimore, watching him come from the back of the pack to the front like it was nobody’s business, it was just so impressive to see that. Granted, I was at home because I was nine months pregnant, but watching that and seeing that, and the way he came across on TV in the interviews after the race, he just had that whole package.”
With his promotion to the IZOD IndyCar Series, Newgarden is fulfilling a dream that started when he began his racing career at 13 in karts at New Castle Motorsports Park, about 45 miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It’s a pretty surreal experience right now just thinking about who we’re going to be challenging next year and who our competition is going to be,” Newgarden said. “I’ve always wanted to race against the best drivers in the world, and certainly (Will) Power, and (Scott) Dixon and (Dario) Franchitti and all the great names in the series. It’s going to be a great challenge to try to beat everybody and race against them. It’s what I’ve been working for all my life, and I’m excited for the new challenge.
“I certainly feel with Sarah Fisher Racing that we’re going to have a great starting point together. I really believe in the team and everything that they stand for. I believe in myself, and I believe in everything I stand for, so I think it’s going to be a powerful combination. I certainly feel we’re going to have a good chance of having success together.”
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2011 Indianapolis 500 tickets: Tickets are on sale for the 96th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on Sunday, May 27, 2012 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Race Day ticket prices start at just $30. Fans can buy tickets online at www.imstix.com, by calling the IMS ticket office at (317) 492-6700, or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, or by visiting the ticket office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday.
Children 12 and under will be receive free general admission to any IMS event in 2012 when accompanied by an adult general admission ticket holder.
Tickets for groups of 20 or more also are on sale. Contact the IMS Group Sales Department at (866) 221-8775 for more information.