AJ Foyt Racing driver Sting Ray Robb was an honorary guest for Faith Night at Victory Field on Friday, Aug. 2 in Indianapolis for the Indianapolis Indians’ baseball game against the Toledo Mud Hens. Robb did a meet-and-greet with fans, led a devotional and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
“It’s pretty cool, and to do that in the city that I want to have an impact in means a lot,” Robb said.
The opportunity was a full-circle moment where all three of his interests met in one place.
A person of faith from a young age, Robb also was a former baseball player growing up. As a teenager living in Idaho, he traded his baseball glove for racing gloves.
“I’ve always said John 3:30 is my Bible verse that I wear on my suit, my helmet, whatever,” Robb said. “That is ‘He must increase but I must decrease.’ So, I’m hoping this continues that I get opportunities more and more like this because I don’t want it for my glory. I want it for God’s glory. I want to point people in that direction, and if that’s all my platform does, I’ll be happy with it.”
Faith is something that has guided Robb through his racing journey. His interpersonal pursuit began about the same time he was going through a rough patch of his young racing career.
“That was kind of like the merging of the two because I got to see the necessity of having faith in motorsports and faith in a career because you have the highs and lows everywhere you go,” he said. “Without that foundation of faith, I felt like I was going to fail because my identity was tied to the results rather than what I was tied to on the cross.”
Racing, like baseball, is a challenging sport to make a valued career based off winning alone. Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon is one of the best drivers of this generation. His 58 wins rank second all-time. However, Dixon has lost 339 races, too, leading to a 14.6-percent win rate.
A great baseball hitter averages a hit in three out of 10 at bats, a 30 percent success rate.
Robb is winless in his first 29 NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts. He said he would live in misery if winning was the only basis of his career’s success.
“I’m going to fail because it’s just going to keep digging myself a pit,” Robb said. “So having my faith and that foundation is important because it also allows me to change people’s lives in a sense to provide hope and truth. If the trust that we stand on is a number that’s always changing based on our performance, we’re going to fail.
“Our faith is not tied to our performance. Our faith is tied to what Jesus Christ on the cross and His sacrifice. That allows us to perform at a high level because of that it takes the weight off, and it also gives us something to strive for.
“I've been reading a book recently that talks about how the man that fails is the one that lacks purpose. And so having a faith gives me purpose on and off the racetrack.”
Robb felt an inner sense of purpose when he led 23 of 200 laps in the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 26. That was the third-most among the 33 starters.
“That's one of the highlights of my career,” he said. “I'm going to hold onto that forever. And hopefully, I can lead the last lap at some point.”
Robb’s faith and testimony helped secure Pray.com as the sponsor of his No. 41 Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing this season.
“We partnered up with Sting Ray – not only because of his cool name but the more the pray.com team got to know him, the more we came to love him,” said Pray.com Founder and CEO Steve Gatena. “He’s got an infectious faith and a great passion for sharing the power of prayer.”