Two-Time IndyCar Champion Josef Newgarden Trains for Race Season With Hyrox
- Nashville-born Josef Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner, races Hyrox to give his long off-season a target.
- His Hyrox times dropped from 1:14:32 in his Las Vegas debut in 2025 to 1:04 in the Pro division in Phoenix this January.
- Newgarden says the hour-plus effort of a Hyrox race is the closest thing he has found to the physical demand of racing an IndyCar.
An IndyCar Champion Who Needs Something to Chase in the Off-Season
Josef Newgarden goes nuts when he has nothing to fixate on. He says his wife has watched this habit up close, and the IndyCar calendar gives it plenty of room to grow. Unlike the NFL, his sport leaves five to six months between seasons with no racing to focus on. “I gotta be doing something,” the Nashville-born driver said in a recent interview.
Newgarden drives for Team Penske, owns two IndyCar Series championships, and has won the Indy 500 twice. He heard about Hyrox roughly a year and a half before that interview. His reasoning was simple: he already trained hard every week, so he might as well train for something with a clock and a start line. A race gave him a goal to conquer, and the sense of accomplishment that comes with chasing the top of a sport.
The training turned out to fit his day job. Newgarden says Indy cars are physically demanding, and the fitter a driver arrives, the bigger the edge. Hyrox asks for a cardio base, muscular endurance and the ability to balance the two for an hour to an hour and a half. He calls it the closest thing he has found to the effort of racing an IndyCar.
What a Hyrox Race Asks of You
For readers who have never stood in a Hyrox start tunnel, the format is the same at every event. Athletes run one kilometer, then complete a station, eight times over. That adds up to eight kilometers of running and eight stations in a fixed order.
The stations are plain gym movements, which is a big part of the appeal. Here is the standard course:
- SkiErg for 1,000 meters
- Sled push for 50 meters
- Sled pull for 50 meters
- Burpee broad jumps for 80 meters
- Rowing for 1,000 meters
- Farmers carry for 200 meters
- Sandbag lunges for 100 meters
- Wall balls for 100 repetitions
Racers can enter as solo athletes, as part of a doubles team or in a relay. Divisions run from Open through Pro, and the Pro division asks for heavier loads at the sled and carry stations. Newgarden raced Pro, in the men’s 30 to 34 age group, and the clock keeps running through every transition between stations.
From a 1:14 Debut to 1:04 in Phoenix
Newgarden made his Hyrox debut in Las Vegas in 2025 and finished in 1 hour, 14 minutes and 32 seconds. He followed with Houston, where he cut that to 1:09:27 and placed 39th. He told Muscle and Fitness that his aerobic base before Hyrox came from rowing machines, ski ergs and a lot of biking, with almost no running. The stations came easily to him. Running fast without getting gassed was his weak point.
After the second race he posted on X that the Houston event closed out his “rookie orientation” after a last-minute crash course. He said he had learned a great deal in three months, enjoyed the process, and would shelve Hyrox until his schedule freed up. The IndyCar season runs 17 races, and that calendar leaves little room for weekend fitness events.
He came back, and the numbers show it. According to Morning Chalk Up, his best Hyrox time so far arrived in Phoenix this January, where he finished in 1:04 in the Pro division. That is ten minutes faster than his Las Vegas debut, and it came from a driver who started with almost no running mileage.
Newgarden also told the interviewer that he had shared an earlier training plan built around farmer carries and rowing before he ever entered a race. The plan and the sport matched, so the move made sense for a man who treats the off-season like a training camp.
Why Celebrities and Everyday Athletes Keep Signing Up
Newgarden is not the only famous name in the sport. Actor Patrick Wilson raced Hyrox New York last year, and has said the training keeps him focused and grounded. Chris Hemsworth has not logged a race, but the fitness brand he founded, Centr, supplies the equipment at Hyrox events worldwide under a partnership that started in 2023.
The audience around those names keeps growing. More than 1.5 million people in 30 countries have now competed in at least one Hyrox race, with ages running from 16 to 85, according to a New York Times report republished by the Boston Globe. The New York City event tripled in size from last year, from 15,000 to about 50,000 entrants. More than 15,000 gyms worldwide serve as official training facilities.
Dan Trink, a strength coach who owns the Fort, a Hyrox affiliate gym in New York City, raced for the first time in 2022 and remembers a room full of ripped athletes. By last year’s New York event, he says, the field looked like a bit of everybody. Hyrox co-founder Moritz Furste says that was the plan from the start: build a playing field for people who go to the gym.
Newgarden’s story gives that idea a famous face. A professional driver with a trainer, a team and a sponsor still ran 1:14 in his first race and needed another to find his legs. The sport grades everyone on the same course.
What This Means for the Next Start Line
Hyrox keeps adding US dates. The event makes its first visit to Tampa from October 22 to 25 at the Tampa Convention Center, and organizers expect more than 15,000 athletes with families and spectators on top. Nashville, Newgarden’s hometown, is set to host its first race in December. A newcomer who wants a first attempt has a growing list of cities to pick from.
The practical lesson from an IndyCar champion is a modest one. Pick the race, put the date on the calendar, and let the training follow. Newgarden did not arrive as a runner, and his first result showed it. He came back ten minutes faster, and he plans to keep racing when his schedule allows.
