IndyCar’s Josef Newgarden Had No Idea Who The RHOSLC Cast Was During Cameo

Despite the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City fancied by the looks of it, an IndyCar driver Joseph Newgarden left him stranded after making an appearance on the Bravo reality series.

Newgarden, 34, made a cameo on a November 2024 episode of the show, where Bronwyn Newport treating the cast to a trip to the IndyCar race in Thermal, California, outside Palm Springs. After Newgarden met Housewives on the track, Newport called her “the handsome member” and a member of the cast. Lisa Barlow he shouted, “Take off your shirt!”

The girls even tried to set up Newgarden with a single cast member Heather Gaybut they were told that Newgarden was married to his wife, Ashley Welchand that the couple share a 2-year-old son Kota.

“I didn’t even know what was going on,” Newgarden admitted in an exclusive interview with him Us Weekly “I’m serious, this is the way this stuff happens. We’re on the track, we’re in this race. Someone calls into our engineering office and they’re like, ‘Hey, there’s some people here, there’s some guests. Can you please come out and say hello?’”

Newgarden continued, “I came out and said hi to everybody. They’re like, ‘They’re going to film you, so don’t worry about it.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, no problem.’ And then you don’t hear anything about it for a few months, right? And then I get all these texts when the show is on. I don’t know this show. I haven’t seen it.”

The driver had “no idea” his interactions with Housewives would be featured on the show, but called them “super sweet.”

After the episode aired, Newgarden joked about the surprising demographic that most responded to his Bravo debut.

“You know what was funny? You get texts from husbands,” Newgarden said. “It’s all men. Every text message was from a man and they were like, ‘I was watching with my wife,’ or, ‘My wife had it on TV and I noticed you were there. That’s cool.’ I got 20 texts like that. I thought it was very funny.”

Outside of his new arrival Housewives Newgarden is also the face of the first season of IndyCar on Fox, which officially begins on March 2. Newgarden is featured in a flashy ad to promote the collaboration, which highlights Newgarden’s chiseled jawline and features an appearance by Tom Brady.

For Newgarden, being in such a prominent place for IndyCar is not something he takes lightly.

“I care about the growth of the sport, just being a competitor and loving IndyCar,” he said. “I want to see him reach the highest heights he can. I remember when I was younger, IndyCar used to be a household name in North America. It reached beyond America alone. It was a worldwide hit. I think he can get back to that point.”

Newgarden added, “I’m very concerned about his representation and how it’s perceived. I think Fox is really going to capture the essence of what IndyCar is, the cool factor of it. Because it has always been right there. It’s just a matter of exposure.”

Fox’s coverage of the 2025 IndyCar season begins with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Sunday, March 2.