BRISTOL, Tenn. (Sept. 10, 2026) – Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden will serve as the Chevrolet celebrity pace car driver for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The Nashville native will drive the official Chevrolet Corvette pace car and lead the NASCAR Cup Series field around Bristol’s high-banked, half-mile oval before pulling off the track moments before the green flag. For Newgarden, the honor fulfills a racing wish he made public years before becoming a back-to-back Indianapolis 500 champion.
“I want to do Bristol. I want to do the Bristol Night Race,” Newgarden told Autoweek in 2019 when asked which race topped his personal bucket list. “There’s more, but that’s No. 1. If I get to choose, it’d be the Bristol Night Race. What makes it so great is that there’s nothing like Bristol.”
Newgarden’s connection to Bristol began long before his championship career. He grew up attending races at the track with his father, experiences that helped spark his love of racing, and he will return for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race with his dad. The children’s book Josef’s BIG Dream: An INDY 500 Story includes a Bristol-inspired nod showing young Josef and his father watching open-wheel cars race inside a colosseum-like stadium. The book is available at shop.josefnewgarden.com.
One of the most accomplished American open-wheel racers of his generation, Newgarden won NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships in 2017 and 2019 and captured consecutive Indianapolis 500 victories in 2023 and 2024, becoming only the sixth driver to win The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in back-to-back years. He competes in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet and has earned 34 career INDYCAR SERIES victories, including two during the team’s 60th anniversary season in 2026 at Phoenix Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway, respectively. His appearance at Bristol will create another crossover moment during Team Penske’s milestone season, bringing one of the organization’s most decorated INDYCAR drivers to a track where its NASCAR Cup Series teams have competed for decades.
Newgarden’s role also creates a personal connection to the night’s celebration of Kyle Busch. Bristol’s concrete oval was listed as Busch’s favorite track to race, while Newgarden was listed as his favorite INDYCAR driver. The official Chevrolet pace car will carry a special decal honoring Busch, bringing two of his racing favorites together as Bristol celebrates the legacy of its all-time winningest driver across NASCAR’s three national series.
“Josef is one of Tennessee’s greatest racing champions, and we’ve known for years how much he has wanted to experience the Bristol Night Race,” said Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “Having him lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to green will be a special moment for our fans and for Josef. It becomes even more meaningful on a night when the pace car will carry a tribute to Kyle Busch, who loved racing at Bristol and counted Josef among his favorite drivers.”
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Sept. 19 will feature a star-studded entertainment lineup, including Academy Award-winning actor and producer Brad Pitt as a Grand Marshal and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden as the celebrity pace car driver leading the NASCAR Cup Series field to green. Saturday’s festivities also will include appearances by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, a pre-race concert by Brian Kelley, Bristol’s signature driver introductions featuring music personally selected by the competitors, a children’s choir performing the national anthem, and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA” as a bald eagle soars above the stadium, followed by a dramatic flyover featuring two U.S. Air Force C-130s. Fans also will receive yellow “Rowdy Towels” and unite for an emotional Lap 18 tribute honoring Kyle Busch and his unmatched success at Bristol — another powerful, only-at-Bristol moment before the NASCAR Cup Series’ biggest stars battle under the lights in one of America’s most iconic sporting events.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit BristolMotorSpeedway.com or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158.
About Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol Motor Speedway, known as The Last Great Colosseum, sits in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee near the Virginia state line. The 0.533-mile concrete oval, with 28-degree banking, hosts two major NASCAR Cup Series weekends each year, the tradition-rich Food City 500 and the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race. The venue has staged iconic moments such as the 2016 Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol football game between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech (NCAA-record 156,990 fans), the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds (MLB regular-season record crowd of 91,032), the 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race, the rebirth of NASCAR Cup Series racing on dirt from 2021–2023 and sold-out concerts for Morgan Wallen and Kenny Chesney. Fans enjoy Colossus TV, the world’s largest outdoor, center-hung, four-sided video board. The adjacent Bristol Dragway is home to the NHRA Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals, and the dragway can transform into the Thunder Valley Amphitheatre for music concerts. Opened in 1961 and acquired by Speedway Motorsports in 1996, Bristol remains one of America’s most unique and versatile sports and entertainment destinations. For more information, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com.
