Why Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden is 2023 Tennessean Sportsperson of the Year
Ashley Newgarden believed she wore an albatross around her neck.
Josef Newgarden begged to differ.
He wasn't going to wait for his wife to wear the silver pendant again. He figured a win — or loss — wasn't dependent on a piece of jewelry.
Newgarden, the 2023 Indianapolis 500 champion and Tennessean Sportsperson of the Year, had keepsakes made for her after each of his IndyCar Series championships — one in 2017 and one in 2019 — replicas of his championship rings with his name engraved on the back.
Winning the Indy 500 is forever.
She wore the first religiously, the second sporadically. Then she noticed something.
"It just so happened that every time I wore that (2019) pendant, it was Josef's worst race," she said. "It happened once, it happened twice."
The third time, she decided to retire it. He insisted she wear it until he won a race, to prove his point. She refused.
Until the 2023 Indianapolis 500.
He had qualified 17th and figured he'd never win the race. She figured she had nothing to lose.
"So I put it on that morning and we were on the (starting) grid and he was like, 'What year is that?' " Ashley said. "I was like, 'It's 2019.' "
A few hours later in Victory Lane, Josef had some words for his wife.
"He's like, 'I told you that would happen,' " Ashley said.
No fanfare, just 250 mph
A waitress approached two men seated at the table closest to the door at Hearts Nashville on a mid-Wednesday morning in late December.
"You guys doing OK?" she asked.
She held a pen in one hand and a notepad in the other. She had no idea who she was talking to.
Newgarden — one of the top drivers in the world, a guy from Hendersonville, Tennessee — asked her the same.
Newgarden was better than OK.
"Can I get eggs on toast, please?" he asked. "Three scrambled eggs and a side of jelly and a side of avocado?"
The waitress nodded while she jotted down the order, then walked away.
"Ashley and I come here all the time," he said.
It's quiet here. It's close to home here.
Far from home, though, is where Ashley and Josef met.
It's the place that defines her husband.
"The glory and the fanfare, right?" he said. "I don't do it for that. I don't like that part. Having to go up and give a speech is 10 times harder than driving the car."
At 250 mph.
"Just let me race," he said.
"That's so on brand," Ashley said. "He hates attention."
'He was our wingman'
A waiter approached the Newgarden family — his father, Joseph with a "ph," his mother Tina, sisters Josie and Kristina and a cousin — and connected Josef and Ashley in 2012.
Via email.
Like the waitress at Hearts Nashville, Ashley had no idea who Josef Newgarden was.
Nor him her.
"We have kind of a crazy story," he said.
She was a ballerina and princess from Conyers, Georgia, a town 20-some miles southeast of Atlanta.
He was a shy race car driver from nearly 300 miles north of there.
She was dressed up that day as Ariel from "Aladdin," a character she played at a theme park.
He was dressed up for his mother's 50th birthday party.
She didn't know a catalytic converter from a carburetor.
"We hit it off and I just thought, 'I won't see him again, because I'm Ariel,' " Ashley said. "I'm not going to take his phone number."
RIGHT AT HOME: How growing up around Nashville shaped Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden's IndyCar career
He didn't know his future wife and mother of his child was standing before him.
Newgarden's father had some foresight, though. Without Josef knowing, he left his son's email with the waiter, along with specific instructions: Get it in Ashley's hands.
The waiter did. She waited a day to email.
It took him a while to figure out how she'd gotten his contact information. For him to tell her he raced cars for a living. For them to wait out nearly a year because she moved to Tokyo for work.
Now they're living their happily ever after.
"He was kind of our wingman without Josef knowing it," Ashley said of her father-in-law.
Josef Newgarden to son at Indy 500: 'You're never going to remember this, dude'
Josef Newgarden waited most of his 33 years on earth for those three kisses, that wreath, that milk shower, that dive into the stands at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He already had two IndyCar season championships to his name. He'd won 28 races and millions of dollars.
He hadn't won the Indy 500 in 11 previous tries.
Until May 28, 2023, when he became the first driver from Tennessee to earn such a distinction.
In the winner's circle that Sunday, he stood atop his red and yellow, iconic No. 2 car and flexed like the Incredible Hulk.
Then he immediately found Ashley for an embrace and a kiss.
WHO IS NEWGARDEN? What to know about IndyCar star Josef Newgarden, a Nashville native
WATCH: Josef Newgarden's wild Indy 500 winning celebration with the fans
"Unreal," he said before scaling to the top of his car again, where he was presented that winner's wreath, a winner's ring and took the traditional milk bath before kissing the bricks at the finish line.
The lipstick left on his right cheek by Ashley still was fresh, the smile never-ending as he gave their barely 1-year-old son, Kota, a kiss.
"You're not gonna remember this, dude," he said.
And Josef Newgarden is not going forget this.
Josef Newgarden and the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Josef Newgarden didn't have to wait long for a day to be named after him in Tennessee.
What has happened since is something he never could have imagined.
He has had his face engraved on the Borg-Warner Trophy. He was given a Tag Heuer watch. He has done the talk-show circuit. He was gifted a brand-new Corvette to add to his growing car collection.
He has worn his winner's wreath all over the country, including the Empire State Building, where he held on for dear life because he is afraid of heights.
Heights he nearly gave up on ever reaching.
After 11 tries and a third-place finish in 2016,, Newgarden began to think none of those things were ever going to happen.
"It was just something he kind of felt like was never going to come," Ashley said. "And this story they were kind of perpetuating, you know, no one wins it after 12 years.
"He got asked about it on a daily basis where it was kind of like, 'Come on. Give me a break.' "
Then he broke through in the same year he accepted that reality, in the first race in a long time that Ashley wore that 2019 pendant. Now he's waiting for that replica winner's trophy, which should arrive in mid-January.
"It was like a car accident," he said. "It was all happening so fast but also in slow motion. I remember every little detail but it was a blur at the same time."
Josef Newgarden's long-anticipated order of brick and mortar and kissing those famous bricks had finally been taken.
"Yummy," said Ashley, who, by Josef's side, kissed those bricks, too.
Yeah, Josef Newgarden is doing OK.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Indy 500 champ Josef Newgarden is Tennessean Sportsperson of Year
