TRYON, N.C. — With his blonde hair, piercing eyes, striking smile and distinctive looks, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden is sometimes teased by teammates as the “Ken Doll.”
That’s just the type of look that William Behrends dreams of when he is creating an image that will stand the test of time.
Behrends is the sculptor of the Indianapolis 500 winner’s face on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
“He has to be one of my favorites,” Behrends told NBC Sports. “He has a very strong face. We look at the structure of the face. He has a strong face, very distinct features. A great subject for a sculptor.
“Josef has very strong features, but he also has a lot of personality in his face and a great expression. In these works, I try to bring a little bit of the person’s personality into it. He’s a great subject.”
The winner of the 107th Indianapolis 500 will have his achievement immortalized when his face is added to the Borg-Warner Trophy later this year. Since 2015, the Indy 500 winner has made the trip to Behrends’ studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains in this picturesque community near the North Carolina/South Carolina state line.
On Sept. 22, Newgarden arrived for his live study with the artist who has crafted the face on the Borg-Warner Trophy of the Indianapolis 500 winner since Arie Luyendyk in 1990.
Newgarden will become the 34th face that Behrends has sculpted on the trophy – and the 10th of those 34 who have won the Indy 500 for Roger Penske.
“You can appreciate Will’s talent immediately,” Newgarden told NBC Sports. “It’s not easy to do. He does it in all ways. He is well rounded, whether it is a 10-foot-tall sculpture or the 1-inch size sculpture that is going to go on this trophy, he does it all.
“I learned how he does this with this particular sculpture and creating the life-size head. He does it from adding clay together and not whittling it down. If he does something in marble, he starts from a big block and whittles it down. He knows how to do it in all forms, but he is definitely the best of the best. They spare no expense when they try to find the best talent, and I think Will has provided that world-class talent to match the significance of what the Borg-Warner Trophy is.”
Thanks to BorgWarner, NBC Sports was able to tag along for the next step in the process of creating the sterling silver Bas-Relief image of the Indianapolis 500 winner that will be added to the famed Borg-Warner Trophy.
The first step began the morning after Newgarden’s stunning, dramatic and chaotic victory in the 2023 Indianapolis 500 on May 28. While still celebrating the biggest victory of his career, Newgarden and Team Penske returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the annual winner photos at the Yard of Bricks.
BorgWarner commissions photographers from LAT to take photos of the Indy 500 winner from various angles. Those photos are used by Behrends to create a life-size clay head replica of the winner.
“We were up until 2 or 3 a.m., which I did not need to be,” Newgarden recalled of the morning after the Indy 500 victory. “If we do this again, I’m not doing that. I will go back earlier.
“I drank a little bit but not much. I was just tired, more than anything.
“Now, there were a couple of individuals on the team who showed up that looked in bad shape. My engineer, Luke, looked in bad shape. I’ll never forget the way he looked. It was funny.
“Ashley (Josef’s wife) had a good time. Everybody had a good time, as you could imagine.”
When Newgarden arrived to Behrends’ studio, the clay head was still under wraps. Newgarden had the look of anticipation, eagerness and curiosity as he waited for the unveil.
“We took those photos the day after the race, and I did this study,” Behrends told Newgarden. “It’s a work in progress. When I finish this, we’ll do the smaller one.
“This is what we’ve got so far.”
With that, the wraps came off and Newgarden’s eyes lit up, amazed with what Behrends had created of his face.
“Oh, wow,” Newgarden exclaimed. “That’s so awesome.
“That’s so cool to see. I’ve seen other people go through this, but it’s certainly different when it’s your own. I think it looks great.
“It is bizarre. I’ve never looked at myself this way before. It would be interesting to see what my wife would think. To me, it looks right.
“It’s very well done.”
Behrends explained to Newgarden that the live study was an important step. Photographs can reveal only so much to the artist. The finer details of the winner’s face are highlighted by seeing the subject in real life.
Still amazed by what had been created so far, Newgarden sat in the chair next to the clay head as Behrends began his sculpting session and refined what he had created so far.
“I think it looks great,” Newgarden said to Behrends. “It’s impressive when you see it in person, especially now that I know you don’t pull clay from it, you add clay to it to build it out.
“It’s so impressive to see it. It’s crazy when you actually look at it.”
Behrends is noted for various types of sculpting, from the small 1-inch Bas-Relief image for the Borg-Warner Trophy to larger-than-life marble statues of former U.S. vice presidents in the Capitol Building.
He also has created large statues of some all-time greats in Major League Baseball, including Willie Mays in San Francisco and his latest, Tom Seaver of the New York Mets (unveiled outside Citi Field on Opening Day 2022).
Behrends’ next project is one of the game’s greatest players for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (but he is not allowed to reveal who that is).
Behrends explained the differences between creating a small sculpture to the larger statues.
“I’ve been a sculptor for a long time, and I do this when I’m doing it bronze, or when I’m doing it marble,” Behrends told Newgarden. “Bronze and marble are two different things. With bronze, you build it up. With this, you build it up. With stone, you start with something and reduce it down. It’s a completely different thing. You try to end up at the same place but (with) two entirely different processes.
“I do both. It is two different skills.”
Situated on a shelf behind Newgarden were the clay heads of every Indy 500 winner since 2015 including Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi in 2016, Takuma Sato in 2017 and ‘20, Team Penske’s Will Power in 2018 and Simon Pagenaud in 2019, Helio Castroneves in 2021 and Marcus Ericsson in 2022.
“It’s eerie in a way,” Newgarden said as he looked at his face and the others. “It’s really cool, but I know these guys. It’s so strange seeing it in this setting. There is a lot of Penske here.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s very, very cool.”
Newgarden then took a moment to snap a selfie of the real Newgarden with the “Clay Josef.”
“This is wild,” he said, as he sent the photo to his wife, Ashley. “It’s so bizarre. It’s so different. Very cool. Very, very cool.”
Behrends told his subject he was looking at the facial structure, cheek bones, jaw line during the live study as he used his tools to work on the clay.
“I’m going to do a good bit of work here,” Behrends explained. “A little over here. A little bit more neck over here. I’m sure you’ve gotten a haircut in the last four months.
“Areas like this, this part of your skull is very distinctive, but you can’t see it that well in photographs, so I have to shape that up here a little bit.
“This is two or three days’ work. It’s very taxing. Over the years, you learn when you are most productive and sharpest. Those morning hours and afternoon hours are the ones you set aside to work because you are sharpest.”
It’s a much different process when Behrends carves a larger sculpture.
“I did a statue of Vice President Al Gore for the U.S. Capitol Building, and that was marble,” Behrends said. “We went to Nashville and sat with him at his home. We would go for two days at a time. Do a sitting in the morning, I’d mark it all up and make notes for myself, take it back to the hotel and work on it, the next morning, bring it back to his place and set up again. I have symbols for myself of things I want to do that would take too long if he were sitting there.
“I’ve done three for the US Capitol. Those are the plaster models. With marble, I have to do this, then do a plaster cast of that, then I take that to Italy and use that as a model to carve it in marble. I have to do it at least twice.
“I carved about half of it in Italy, then ship it home and finish carving it here. It’s very time-consuming.”
Newgarden makes driving a race car super fast around race courses on the IndyCar schedule look easy, but he was amazed at the skill level and the history of the man who was sculpting his face.
“That is cool,” said Newgarden, who lives in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee. “That is very cool. That’s so special. What a history.
“It is very cool. Very, very cool. It’s an honor, a real honor.”
For Newgarden’s smaller image, Behrends developed his process over the past 33 years of working on the Borg-Warner Trophy. He will make a mold of the life-size clay head before casting it in high-density plaster. It’s the same material dentists use when they make models of a patient’s teeth.
That allows him to carve in fine details.
The next steps include making another mold, then casting it in sterling silver. It is attached to the permanent Borg-Warner Trophy and the details are engraved below the face.
“There is no trophy like this in the world,” Newgarden said. “It’s very special.”
As the two spent the rest of the afternoon in the studio, they shared their thoughts on various subjects, from art, to racing to the beautiful scenery.
At the racetrack, Newgarden is often known for his intensity. He also understands the importance of having a social media persona and how that helps a race driver with his fan base.
Along with fellow Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin, Newgarden is one of the “Bus Bros” – a popular YouTube video series known for its off-the-wall humor.
But on this sunny, glorious Friday afternoon in the North Carolina Mountains, Newgarden was at ease and at peace with himself and his accomplishment.
Shortly after winning the Indianapolis 500 in May, Newgarden began to receive a long list of congratulatory text messages as well at Twitter and Instagram posts.
“Keith Urban tweeted, and I don’t even know Keith Urban,” Newgarden said. “There was one that came from my high school.
“They gave me a hard time at my high school, I thought. The basketball coach emailed me and said, ‘Sorry, we gave you such a hard time. This is amazing, basically.’
“Nobody really got it back then. Now, they are, ‘Sorry, we didn’t appreciate what you were trying to do.’ I thought it was really cool that they reached out.
“I had a pretty solid GPA. It was 3.5. It wasn’t great, but it was fine. I was preoccupied with racing.”
At the massive Team Penske facility in Mooresville, North Carolina, the crewmembers on the shop floor are reminded of the team’s incredible success by the 19 banners that hang from above.
On each banner is a Victory Lane photo and the year that a Penske Racing driver has won the Indianapolis 500, beginning with Mark Donohue’s win in 1972.
The greatest names in racing are represented on those 19 banners.
Newgarden is now on one of those banners from up above.
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (2) heads into the stands to celebrate with fans on Sunday, May 28, 2023, after winning the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Josef Newgarden celebrates his victory in the 107th Indy 500 (Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar/USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
“I remember joining Penske in 2017, it was very nerve-wracking,” Newgarden admitted. “When I would go into the shop, I wanted to be buttoned up. Penske is known for being very polished and put together. I felt nervous being in the shop. You would see all the banners; all the Indy 500 wins the team has on the shop floor above the cars.
“Fast forward now and I see our win on the wall. I’m a lot more comfortable now when I go into the shop. I was scared to be in there the first time I showed up in the shop.
“It was intimidating to look at all the individuals that are in there. It’s the best of the best, and you felt like you didn’t belong in some ways.”
Featured on four of the Indy 500 banners is Rick Mears, one of four four-time winners of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“Rick is a great teacher,” Newgarden said. “He is very methodical. When he looks at something, he is never in a rush to make a move. He thinks about it before he does it and that stuck with me. In oval racing, that’s really important, especially at Indy.
“In short oval racing, you have to be a little more assertive and aggressive. At Indianapolis, you can’t really be that way. You have to be really patient and methodical. That is what worked so well for Rick. He was really sure of what he was doing.
“He was just always there. He gave himself a lot of opportunities to win the race. It’s one thing to be in it and be fast, but to go through the whole thing and be set up at the end to win the thing, he gave himself more shots than a lot of people.
“He’s a great guy. Great stories.”
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (2) is photographed with Roger Penske after winning the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 Monday, May 29, 2023, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Josef Newgarden with team owner Roger Penske the day after winning the 107th Indy 500 (Grace Hollars/IndyStar/USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
In his first season at Team Penske in 2017, Newgarden won the championship. It was a power-packed team that featured Helio Castroneves, Will Power and then-defending IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud.
“That was the least intimidating part of it,” Newgarden said of the drivers. “I was more intimidated to work with the mechanics and the engineers. The drivers, I wasn’t worried about working with those guys. I had them covered. You get nervous about working with all the individuals on the team because from the outside, you don’t know how they are to interact with. They seem like they are serious.
“But it’s just the opposite. They are a lot of fun to work with.
“Towards the end of the first year, I started to get more comfortable working with them. I won a couple of races and felt like I belonged. You don’t feel so awkward being in the shop. You feel like you are allowed to be at the shop.
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“That was the funniest part. Every time I walked into the shop, I thought I was going to get kicked out. It’s a big facility. It’s 400,000 square feet with guards everywhere. I thought they were going to kick me out every time I walked in.
“They would ask, ‘What are you doing here?’ I would say, ‘I work here.’ ”
Newgarden understood the pressure to perform at the Indianapolis 500 for Team Penske but said it’s the same with all teams that arrive at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Newgarden’s victory in the 107th Indianapolis 500 came in a very unusual way. The fierce racing was interrupted by three red flags in the final 17 laps, including two in the final seven laps.
The race ended with a controversial scenario where the field returned to the track for three-quarters of a lap before the green flag waved for one final lap of racing.
Newgarden was in front and able to fight off a charge from Ericsson, who was attempting to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second year in a row – a feat last accomplished by Castroneves in 2001-02.
“It’s interesting because in this race, a lot of different scenarios that could have played out,” Newgarden said. “There were three red flags, and all were different. They had a different setup and could have had a different outcome.
“What I was most happy about is I won the race under green. I’ve won races under caution, and sometimes that is just how it plays out. You can’t write the history and decide what is going to take place.
“If it’s possible, and IndyCar has tried nowadays to finish under green, it’s kind of cool to win under those conditions. When it comes down to that shootout, the timing is really critical, especially now. It’s all about the end timing.
“You have to be in that position to be in that conversation, maybe it’s between two or three individuals. If you are in that group, then it is who gets the timing right. If I had made the smallest mistake in Turns 3 and 4 to finish that lap, Marcus could have gone right back by me. It’s very possible.
“I loved the way it ended, and that we had the opportunity to race to the line. It was very cool.
“But nerve-wracking for sure. All three red flags were very nerve-wracking. A lot of time to think about it.
“What was amazing is the whole crowd was still there. Every time you would stop for a red flag, each time you stopped and sat there for five or 10 minutes, the whole crowd was still there, waiting to see what was going to happen. There was a lot of pressure in that.”
Newgarden’s celebration was wild. Instead of climbing the fence, he climbed under the fence, using the crossover gate under the flag stand to celebrate with the fans.
“You could tell they wanted to see how it was going to finish; how it was going to go,” Newgarden said of the massive crowd of 320,000.
What makes the Indianapolis 500 so difficult to win is all the ingredients that are involved including teamwork, a fast race car, flawless strategy, pit stops and a great deal of luck.
“At Indy, anything can happen, and you always approach it that way,” Newgarden said. “If you are starting last or first, it’s a day that can go a lot of different ways. The most important thing is putting yourself in position at the end.
“Rick Mears was so good at that.
“It’s more than being the fastest car of the day, you have to position yourself for the end of the race, and that is now easy. We started 17th, and you can’t misstep. You can’t have any errors. All the pit stops have to go right. We have to get the strategy right. The car can’t break. People forget about that, but the car breaks sometimes. And, obviously, I can’t make a mistake, either.
“For us, it was fun knowing we had a car that could win. I could tell that the first stint of the race. Different years, you feel confident at different phases of the race, but I felt really confident at the beginning of the race. As soon as we started and we were running those first 30 laps, I felt we had the potential to have a winning day, and that really gave me a lot of confidence to run the rest of the race to know that if we do the job, it could work out.
“It was fun. That’s the most confident I’ve ever been at the beginning of the race.
“Sometimes, the day has to develop. You might not start the race very happy, but you can build happiness into the car and comfort. We didn’t have to wait for that. It was pretty instant this year.”
It took Newgarden a record 12 starts before winning his first Indy 500.
But now, he will be introduced for the rest of his life as an Indianapolis 500 winner.
“It’s special to be an Indy 500 starter,” Newgarden said. “That is a big achievement, just to be in the race. But to win the race is a whole different deal. It’s nice to know we will be in that conversation now.
“I kind of mourned the race in a lot of ways recently. What I mean by that is you have to get comfortable with the fact that you may never win it. There are no guarantees. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you may never win that race. You have to find some peace and comfort with that.
“I’m glad that it all worked out.
“It is such an agonizing event. You go there and pour everything you have into it and when it doesn’t work out, you feel defeated. You can only do that so many times without finding some peace that it may not work out. When you find that comfort and start enjoying the race itself, everything gets a little easier.”
Newgarden’s team owner is Roger Penske, who purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in November 2019.
Newgarden’s Indy 500 victory was the first win in the big race for Penske as the owner of the Speedway.
“It was really cool winning for Roger now that he owns the place,” Newgarden said. “You could tell he wanted it. I don’t think anybody wants to win more than Roger does. But I like that about him because it’s similar to how I feel.
“When I saw him in Victory Lane, he was already thinking about 20 and I was already thinking of a second. It’s a little silly to say, you win your first and you win it, finally, but he is always onto the next goal.
“I admire that.”
When the live study was complete, BorgWarner publicist Steve Shunck presented Newgarden with a special gift. It was a vintage throwback lunchbox complete with a Thermos as a way to remember Al Unser’s “Johnny Lightning” Special, which had a lunchbox to commemorate the 1970 Indianapolis 500 win – the first of four for Unser.
“I have to say that is actually very cool,” Newgarden said. “I think the vintageness of this is awesome. It’s very well done. That is very cool. I think my wife will appreciate this more than anybody.
“Vintage stuff is awesome nowadays.”
Newgarden also had time to mug with Behrends’ two young granddaughters, 9-year-old Ella Layton and 8-year-old Lanier Layton, who along with their mother, Molly, and father, Caleb, spent time with Newgarden.
It all comes back to the face.
Behrends asked Newgarden the one feature that he believes is the signature part of his face.
“That is a good question,” Newgarden laughed. “I’m not the right one to answer it. My wife always says I have a distinctive jaw and I have high cheekbones. She always talks about my jaw.
“I would say that, but I’m not the right person.”
The day concluded with a fairly new tradition as the Indianapolis 500 winner is put up on the marquee at The Tryon Theater for more photos with the BorgWarner Trophy. It was a lively Friday night in Tryon, which has a “Fourth Friday” festival every month.
There was also a bit of irony for the driver known as the “Ken Doll.”
The featured movie at The Tryon Theater was “Barbie.”
