Stingray Robb’s story starts with a name rooted in Corvette fandom—his parents “were actually Corvette fans” and named him after the “Stingray Corvette.” From there, the conversation tracks a childhood immersed in car culture, sparked by a Travis Pastrana go-kart stunt, and his progression through karting into shifters and open-wheel ladders. Racing setbacks (like an engine failure in qualifying and steering-wheel issues) shape his IndyCar learning curve, where identity and faith help him “zoom out” beyond results.
The driver of the no. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing car, Sting Ray Robb joins Hinch and Rossi.
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"He owns the OG 1966 Stingray Corvette. Like that's nice."
This is a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, a famous classic sports car. People love it because it’s an early “Stingray” Corvette and it looks and feels very iconic.
The 1966 Corvette Stingray is a classic American sports car from Chevrolet, known for its iconic C2-era styling and its place in Corvette history. In 1966, the Stingray name became strongly associated with the Corvette’s performance image, and the car is especially prized by enthusiasts today.
"My goal is to own the pace car that the Stingray Corvette."
A pace car is the car that leads the race cars at controlled speed, like at the start or when there’s a caution. It helps keep everyone spaced out and safe.
A pace car is the car used to lead the field at the start of a race or during caution periods. Its job is to control the speed and spacing of the cars so the race can restart safely.
"They've stepped it up with the Chevy SS truck, like that low rider, two door pickup truck."
A “low rider” is a car that’s lowered so it sits close to the ground. People do it for the style and the unique stance.
A “low rider” is a car or truck setup designed to sit very low to the ground, often with suspension modifications. The goal is a distinctive look and stance, sometimes paired with special suspension behavior.
"I thought it was normal for kids to go to like Corvette Club meetings all the time and drag races and autocross events."
Autocross is a timed driving course set up with cones. You drive through the course quickly, focusing on handling and control.
Autocross is a timed driving event on a closed course marked with cones, where drivers navigate tight turns at relatively low speeds. It’s a test of car control—steering response, braking, and tire grip—rather than top speed.
"I thought it was normal for kids to go to like Corvette Club meetings all the time and drag races and autocross events."
Drag racing is racing in a straight line from start to finish. The focus is how fast the car can accelerate.
Drag racing is a motorsport where two vehicles compete over a straight-line sprint, typically measured by elapsed time and speed. It emphasizes acceleration and traction more than cornering.
"And was the was the goal always to get to IndyCar or was it anything with wheels"
IndyCar is a major kind of professional race series in the U.S. It’s the big open-wheel racing ladder many drivers aim for.
IndyCar is the top-level open-wheel racing series in the United States, known for oval tracks, road courses, and street circuits. It’s a common career target for drivers coming up through karting and junior formulas.
"To be fully honest, the reason I got into go-karting was because I watched a YouTube video at four years old of Travis Pastrana jumping a go-kart into a foam pit."
Go-karting is racing small carts, usually for kids and beginners. It’s a common first step for people who want to become race drivers.
Go-karting is a youth motorsport using small, lightweight karts, and it’s one of the most common entry points into racing. It teaches basic racing skills like steering, braking, and racecraft at an early age.
"To be fully honest, the reason I got into go-karting was because I watched a YouTube video at four years old of Travis Pastrana jumping a go-kart into a foam pit."
Travis Pastrana is a famous action-sports and motorsports star. In this story, he’s the person doing the crazy go-kart jump that inspired the speaker.
Travis Pastrana is a well-known American extreme sports athlete who has also competed in motorsports. The segment references his stunt of jumping a go-kart into a foam pit, which is a memorable example of freestyle motorsport culture.
"...cross the country. So they were all along for the journey with me. And at any point, if it just stopped bei..."
The Dodge Journey is a larger family SUV made by Dodge. It’s meant for carrying people and luggage on everyday trips and longer drives. If someone says it “stopped,” they’re usually talking about the car not running properly while traveling.
The Dodge Journey is a mid-size crossover SUV designed for family use, with seating for multiple passengers and practical cargo space. The podcast context suggests it was part of a long trip (“cross the country”), and the mention of it “just stopped” points to a potential reliability or breakdown concern during travel. That makes it a relevant vehicle to discuss in terms of real-world dependability on long drives.
"All through karting, my dad was my mechanic until kind of a certain point till I got into shifters. Then he was like, I don't know what I'm doing here."
“Shifters” are race karts where you change gears yourself. That means you have to pay attention to engine speed and timing, not just throttle.
In karting, “shifters” refers to kart classes that use a manual gearbox with a clutch and gear changes, rather than a simpler automatic or direct-drive setup. The added shifting changes how you accelerate and how you manage engine speed through corners and on straights.
"I mean, to be fair, you did lose a steering wheel at Barber one year."
“Barber” refers to a famous race track in Alabama where lots of racing happens. Drivers often talk about it because it’s challenging and technical.
“Barber” is a shorthand reference to Barber Motorsports Park, a well-known road course in Alabama used for racing events and driver development. It’s notable among racers for its technical layout and frequent use in motorsport series.
"and I go down and qualifying to turn one and the whole engine just rolled into the field next to me."
Qualifying is the timed part of a race weekend where drivers try to set their best lap. Your result decides where you start the race—front is usually better.
In racing, qualifying is the session where drivers set their fastest laps to determine the starting order for the race. A driver’s qualifying position can strongly affect race outcome because track position matters.
"And I was driving for the CRG factory team at the time and I think it was KZ2. And like, I had no shifter experience at all."
KZ2 is a karting class (often associated with shifter karts) that uses a gearbox with a clutch and requires more driver skill than direct-drive classes. It’s considered a higher-level step in karting, so drivers typically need shifter experience to be competitive.
"And I was driving for the CRG factory team at the time and I think it was KZ2. And like, I had no shifter experience at all."
Shifter experience refers to familiarity with a kart’s shifter gearbox, where the driver uses a clutch and gear changes to keep the engine in its power band. In shifter karts, correct shifting timing affects acceleration, lap time, and traction exiting corners.
"And I remember we went to a race. I think it was Adria, maybe. And my engine builder didn't show up, like just didn't come to the race."
An engine builder is a specialist who assembles, prepares, and calibrates a race engine to meet the team’s rules and performance goals. In motorsport, the engine builder’s work can directly affect reliability and power delivery.
"So I got the former world champion, Paulo Contos, backup motor, put that on for a practice session, went P1 in the practice session and then never saw that motor again."
A backup motor is a spare race engine kept ready in case the primary engine fails or can’t be used. Teams often bring backup engines because engine issues can cost an entire weekend in motorsport.
Term
12K pH down
"went P1 in the practice session and then never saw that motor again and was 12K pH down on the straightaway the rest of the weekend."
This describes a large speed deficit on the straightaway, implying the car/kart had significantly less top-end performance than the field. In context, it’s likely shorthand for being thousands of RPM (or a similar measurement) down, which would point to power/engine output issues.
"I mean, hindsight being what it is, I think that we rushed my sort of early stages development...
And it simply does not translate."
“Rushed the process” means moving up to harder racing sooner than the driver was fully ready. The guest feels the early steps were too fast, so the learning didn’t stick as well.
“Rushed the process” refers to advancing a driver through the development ladder faster than their skills can adapt to the next car’s demands. The transcript argues that karting experience didn’t translate well enough when the jump to more complex cars happened too quickly.
"almost don't get your kids in karting.
Get them into a race car as soon as possible and also like get them a simulator."
A simulator is a racing video-game-style setup that tries to mimic real driving. Drivers use it to practice lines and braking points without being on track all the time.
A racing simulator is a computer-based driving setup that recreates track conditions and car behavior to help drivers practice. In the transcript, it’s mentioned as a tool to accelerate learning alongside real-world seat time.
"going from Skip Barber to Pro Mazda was a bit aggressive probably for me at the time...
Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda."
Pro Mazda was a higher-level racing series on the path to bigger open-wheel categories. It’s tougher than the earlier steps because the cars are faster and more complex to drive.
Pro Mazda was a U.S. open-wheel development series positioned above entry-level formulas. The key point here is that it’s a significant performance and complexity jump from earlier karting/entry series—more downforce, more power, and real multi-gear car driving.
"because I went from I am much more familiar with a single speed go kart, let alone a car that has wings and shifting gears...
...and actually weighs like a certain amount of poundage"
A single-speed go-kart doesn’t have gears to shift between. The driver mainly controls speed with the gas pedal, so it’s a different learning experience than a multi-gear race car.
A single-speed go-kart uses one gear ratio, so the driver focuses more on throttle control and momentum rather than shifting. The transcript contrasts that with cars that have wings and require shifting gears, emphasizing why skills don’t always transfer directly from karting.
"let alone a car that has wings and shifting gears and actually weighs like a certain amount of poundage because
Just to put that in perspective for the listener, that's like skipping two full championships on the current ladder, right?"
In racing, “wings” are aerodynamic devices that generate downforce. More downforce increases tire grip and stability, which changes how a driver brakes, turns, and accelerates compared to cars without significant aero.
"Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda.
So you went from karting, kind of skip the first or Skip Barbers, all right?"
Pro 2000 is one of the racing levels drivers move through on the way up. It’s used here to show that the guest skipped some earlier stages.
Pro 2000 is a step on the American open-wheel development ladder, positioned between entry-level and higher series. The guest uses it to illustrate how the typical progression would have been slower than the path they took.
Term
Star Mazda
"Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda.
So you went from karting, kind of skip the first or Skip Barbers, all right?"
Star Mazda was a racing series used to develop drivers. In this conversation, it’s mentioned as part of the same “step” in the ladder as Pro 2000.
Star Mazda was an open-wheel development series in the U.S. The transcript treats it as essentially the same level as Pro 2000, reinforcing the idea of a structured ladder of increasingly capable cars.
Term
F4
"Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda.
So you went from karting, kind of skip the first or Skip Barbers, all right?"
F4 is a lower-level open-wheel racing step where drivers learn in simpler, less powerful cars. It’s mentioned as part of the normal progression before moving up.
F4 refers to an entry-level open-wheel formula category (often used as the first step in modern single-seater ladders). The transcript lists it as an intermediate stage between Skip Barber and higher series.
"Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda.
So you went from karting, kind of skip the first or Skip Barbers, all right?"
F2000 is a mid-level racing step for developing open-wheel drivers. It’s mentioned to illustrate the “ladder” of series you’d normally progress through.
F2000 is an intermediate open-wheel development category in the U.S. ladder. In the transcript, it’s used to show that the guest’s path skipped multiple stages before reaching IndyCar-level competition.
Select text to request an explanation
This is Off-Track.
Well, hello and welcome, everybody, to Off-Track with Hinge and Rossi today.
He decided to join.
Boom, let's go.
It's so nice of you to make your presence felt on the show, pal.
I didn't intentionally admit that I pick and choose when I come on these,
but I think I did by mistake.
You did do that.
You did do that.
So now we know Alex will be present a lot more of these episodes,
but we are joined.
We are joined today by Stingray Robb, who, man, welcome.
Thank you for taking the time to come on the show with us today.
Thanks for the invite.
No problem. No problem.
I want to get straight to the question.
I know you've talked about it a lot and I have to ask it right away.
And I'm sorry.
Walk us through the background of your name, please.
Man, I thought we were past this.
No, I thought we were some of our listeners don't know.
Several listeners don't watch a lot of the races.
And so we just have to do it.
OK, so I'm going to start with this.
I was with Connor last night and the event and the first question
someone asked me was how did you get your name?
And he immediately just burst out laughter and they didn't know that we knew each other.
So it was quite the interaction.
Well, that's hilarious.
Connor could quote it back better than I could at that point.
But anyways, the story goes, Stingray is not because my parents
were marine biologists from Idaho, there's no oceans in Idaho.
So that'd be impressive.
Yeah, they were actually Corvette fans.
So name me after the Stingray Corvette.
And then the longer side of the story that I think was just an excuse
to name your kid after a car was that my dad's of the family's heritage
was from Sterling, Scotland.
So Sting is actually short for Sterling.
And then both my grandfathers had Ray in their name.
So a bit of a combo deal, but the car was like the
I think the bad idea and then they had to make a good idea go along with it.
And so listen, so I like the justification.
Tim, for example, has a lot of really terrible tattoos.
And so he has all of these like
wonderful stories about how they came to be when in reality, it was just
he doesn't know where tattoos are.
You can keep track.
The difference is is like Stingray wanted to he could go by a different name.
You have those tattoos.
You're just stuck with those.
I mean, I could I feel like the process to remove a tattoo
and changing the name is about the same.
One is significantly less painful.
Yeah. So Stingray, did your parents own a Stingray Corvette?
Do they currently?
My my dad still does.
He owns the OG 1966 Stingray Corvette.
Like that's nice.
That's his baby.
Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
Is it easier now for you to drive for a GM team instead of a Honda team?
Yeah, it is actually.
It's a great question, Alex.
And James, no, I don't.
My goal is to own the pace car that the Stingray Corvette.
But fair enough, that's same, you know, kind of kind of difficult to do
from what I hear.
But yeah.
So but it's funny when I drove with the other guys back in 2023,
we were joking, saying that my middle name was got to be like Civic or something.
Sure.
Well, hey, look, I mean, guys that used to win the 500,
there was an era where like you got a you got like an Oldsmobile as your as your base car.
So I mean, they've stepped it up.
They've stepped it up with the Chevy SS truck,
like that low rider, two door pickup truck.
Hey, honestly, that thing would rip.
I would love it.
It's actually pretty cool.
Yeah, better than an Oldsmobile, I feel like that's what anybody wants.
OK, so you grew up in Idaho.
What's the what's the racing connection other than the obvious love of cars in the family?
That's pretty much it.
I mean, my my dad was a big car guy.
So like I thought it was normal for kids to go to like Corvette Club meetings
all the time and drag races and autocross events.
Turns out that's not the normal thing.
But that's kind of how I got started.
That's where the passion came from.
And was the was the goal always to get to IndyCar or was it anything with wheels
or like what as a kid when you started this this process,
like what what did a little stingray want to accomplish?
To be fully honest, the reason I got into go-karting was because I watched a YouTube video
at four years old of Travis Pastrana jumping a go-kart into a foam pit.
And I was like, that's sick.
That's what I want to do.
And so I asked my parents for a go-kart and a foam pit.
I got one of those, unfortunately.
And then the rest kind of took off from there.
Like we started the local go-kart track was a quarter mile.
It's like Detroit for bumps, but very, very short.
So like you take a breath at the beginning of the lap and then you breathe out the end of the lap
and then you do that like once every 18 seconds kind of a deal.
And then we had to travel around other tracks.
So Washington, California, pretty soon we're in Florida, then we're in Europe.
And then, yeah, all that.
I mean, you guys know how it goes.
And then I think the dream was kind of just whatever's fun.
And, you know, my dad was my mechanic all the way through.
My grandparents, they were the ones driving the truck and trailer across the country.
So they were all along for the journey with me.
And at any point, if it just stopped being fun, we were going to stop doing it.
And then pretty soon I was like, hey, I'm pretty good at this.
We're winning championships.
Let's do the next thing and then the next thing.
And then kind of as I developed, I got to see like Formula One was kind of the pinnacle
for what I saw at the time that the Senate documentary had just recently come out when I was in karting.
And so I was like, okay, I want to be like Ayrton.
So I want to go do that for one.
And then I realized pretty soon that Europe was not for me and the karting rings.
I had a few lessons there and then came back to the U.S.
And really started at the end of the car ladder and here I am now.
It's funny, your story kind of sounds a little bit like mine, to be honest.
Like my dad was a car guy.
That's kind of how I got into it.
We raced for fun, never got into it with the intention of doing it professionally.
We were just like, hey, we're having fun.
Let's just this is a hobby that we do together.
And then every rank up we did, we did better the faster the car, the more competition, the better I seem to do,
the more I seem to enjoy it.
And then at some point it was just like, well, hell, let's just see how far we can go with this.
Let's just see where we can take it and manage to get where we did, which is kind of cool.
All through karting, my dad was my mechanic until kind of a certain point till I got into shifters.
Then he was like, I don't know what I'm doing here.
But, you know, it sounds like for you, like family was always kind of a big part of how you get into it
and how you, you know, went through your karting career.
Do your family still pretty involved in your racing?
Or did you get to a point where sort of like now it's now it's the business of racing as much as anything
and it sort of shifts a little bit.
I think that the dynamics have definitely shifted.
My dad's no longer the one putting wheels and tires on because I've lost plenty of those in karting.
So, didn't need him to do that on a race car.
So, yeah, when you actually do a race story.
And sometimes, you know, for the most part.
I mean, to be fair, you did lose a steering wheel at Barber one year.
Yeah, that is true.
Yeah, yeah, I did do that.
Was your dad involved in that?
No.
He wasn't, fortunately.
It's actually funny.
We were at road tax nationals in 2015 and like, I remember being one of the favorites to win
and I go down and qualifying to turn one and the whole engine just rolled into the field next to me.
I guess my dad forgot to tighten the motor around.
So it's like, these are things that have happened all the way through my career.
So it's just like, all right, cool.
Next thing, let's go do it.
Yeah, you said that in Europe, you had some tough lessons
and you realized it wasn't kind of for you.
What were those lessons?
What was it about Europe that kind of didn't click?
Yeah, great question.
The politicking mostly was kind of the thing I didn't want to do.
I was 14 years old living in Italy, which was sick, eating like the best food in the world.
And I was driving for the CRG factory team at the time and I think it was KZ2.
And like, I had no shifter experience at all.
I mean, I went from like road tax junior straight to KZ2 at the top level.
And I remember we went to a race.
I think it was Adria, maybe.
And my engine builder didn't show up, like just didn't come to the race.
So I didn't have an engine.
So I got the former world champion, Paulo Contos, backup motor, put that on for a practice session,
went P1 in the practice session and then never saw that motor again and was 12K pH down on the straightaway the rest of the weekend.
So I went, I'm good.
I don't need to deal with that.
I want to go home.
So we did and that's fair.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's kind of a blessing in disguise though, because like I remember when you say you came back, you kind of started the road to Indy at that point, right?
And dude, I remember I see in this name at the top of the time charts, like through all the different categories and like, man, where did this kid come from?
Because I guess you'd been doing some racing over in Europe.
And to be fair, I wasn't as connected with the karting scene at that point.
But all of a sudden this name popped up and it sounds like it looked like you kind of found success pretty early once you joined the road to Indy.
Was USF in 2020?
Was that your first foray into the road to Indy or was it before?
No.
So I always in the road to Indy back clear in 2017, the old promos car.
So it's so hard for me because you're only 24.
And I always imagine you as being like 28.
That's not a bad thing.
That's a good thing.
But okay.
So 2017, Star Mazda, you were what?
15.
15.
Yeah.
Well, that's why.
Okay.
Got it.
So walk us through that.
What was that like as a 15 year old?
Well, so I went from no car experience whatsoever in 2015 to 2016 was kind of a transition year.
So that's when I was racing in Italy part time.
I did like a little bit of the Skip Barber stuff, like the winter series.
I actually, so Johnny Baker, you guys might know that name.
He came to that road tax nationals where my engine fell off and sort of like recruited me to come drive his F1600 team Pell Freecar.
And so that was my first dip into the water of open wheel racing.
And then from there, like trying to decide where we could go.
Like my, my family, they owned a small grocery store right on the Idaho Oregon border.
And so like my dad and I were throwing freight on the weekdays and then driving race cars on the weekend.
So like we didn't have the funding to just go be in the best program in USF 2000 at the time because a new car just came out.
So the budgets were higher.
Sort of like, all right, we might be able to afford pro Mazda because the old chassis, nobody wanted to be there.
And it's like, nobody's watching it.
No one's paying attention to it.
Bad idea.
Anyways, so I did that in 2017.
Good intentions, terrible idea.
2017 and then 2018, the new car came out.
And that was kind of like, again, like second rookie season, I think, because a PM 18 versus the old rotary pro Mazda.
It's just, it was completely different.
Completely different car, different engine, different tires, different arrow, like every, that's, I raced the old one, right?
And I'm quite a bit older than you are.
So that shows you that that car was on its last life.
That was like the DW12 of pro Mazda, you know what I'm saying?
Yes.
Past its prime.
Yeah.
And so then the PM 18 came out and that was a great time.
Joined up with whom coast before it was J HR, it was whom coast racing in 2019 and then won the championship in 2020.
So like, I was there for a while.
We were knocking on the door, like top five finishes quite often, but like no dominance whatsoever, which in the lower ranks, like you kind of have to be dominant or to get recognized to move on.
Yeah.
So then 2020 happened.
So 2020 was dominant.
2022, you finished second in India, in India next, right?
Yeah.
Which Linus won the championship that year.
Is that correct?
So obviously a very good caliber guy.
So the two of you, it's not like you were competing against nobody, right?
So that's a, that's an awesome result.
Then you get to IndyCar, like this, this dream is achieved and you are now two and a half, three and a half years in.
What, what has it been like?
Because I know personally, like there's been, there's been challenges and there's been some difficult situations that you've had to navigate.
But that being said, you're still here.
You had a great weekend in Detroit last weekend.
So kind of in your own words, walk us through these three and a half years, like what has gone well, what you wish was different and kind of what you see the vision for, you know, the second half of 2026 to be.
Well, the dream, it hasn't been a dream to say the least.
The last three and a half years I have learned that IndyCar drivers are pretty good at what they do and the teams that are around them are pretty good at what they do.
So my large head is now much smaller and humble, but y'all go for that if it makes you feel any better, literally every time it has that realization, you're not alone.
It's been interesting too, because like no one, no one told me that going in.
They're like, oh, you'll be great.
It'll be fun.
And it's like, no, it won't.
We love motorsports, but this sucks sometimes.
Nonetheless, we persevere and, you know, three and a half years on the road, I'm still learning and gaining knowledge, but, you know, I think the first year in IndyCar, I think was a tough one coming into a team that lacks some stability, I would say first year was was coin or flight.
Yeah, it was coin.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah.
And so that was the year after Takuma and David and then Takuma left.
I came in with David and David was good.
I mean, he was a really good teammate.
I think that he really just focused on his own program.
So I didn't learn a whole lot from him other than just like, what did the squiggly line say?
Which like that's only part of the equation, right?
So I think that that was kind of like a bit of a shocking season and it really made me backpedal mentally, which is a tough thing to do as a driver that's that young in a sport.
That's this challenging.
And like I had my identity, right?
Like I have my identity outside of motorsports.
So I didn't like completely fall down and just collapse as a human.
But nonetheless, like my confidence was definitely shocked.
And then 2024, I think it was a little bit of a rebound.
But then again, like you mentioned Alex, I had a steering wheel literally fall off into race.
So like there was things like that throughout the year that were just frustrating again, backpedaling.
We had our fun.
You gave me a, well, I gave myself a lesson in flying at Iowa, another conference terror to say the least.
Yeah, anyways, I did that.
And then, you know, 2024, I think that everyone on the team was really excited for the potential because that was the first year of like the Penske Alliance.
But we didn't see that really come to fruition totally as far as what I think that we hoped it could have been.
And so Centino had a really good season that year, which made my year look even that much worse.
And then 2025, I joined up with JHR.
And I felt like that was the first time that I had really landed on my feet with a team in OA.
And in the last two years, I mean, it's kind of been up and down.
I think the team we've suffered a little bit from just lack of development at times, but for the most part, like the group around me has been really fun to work with.
And there's been a lot that I've learned as an indie car driver over the last couple years, like from Connor, from Rena's, both those guys, like very well experienced.
They kind of know what's going on at least a little bit.
So having some answers to some questions that I've had over the last few years, but still asking more because you don't know what you don't know.
And then I'm hoping that the second half of this year is kind of like everything coming together.
I mean, this year alone, I feel like we've had the answers to the right equation at times.
It's just we haven't put it together.
And then Detroit was kind of like the first time where I say we put it together.
But then again, we had clutch failure in practice one, so almost no track time.
And then an inch in failure in practice two, so almost no track time.
So when to qualify, absolutely not knowing what it had.
And then the race worked out pretty good.
So I'm like, all right, well, if we can do that, I mean, indie cars tough every weekend.
But if we can make the most of those weekends and just finish top 15 the rest of the year, I'd be pretty happy about it.
I think a lot of what you're saying is something that the greater audience doesn't appreciate.
You're talking to James and I. Tim is excluded from this because, you know, greater audience.
We don't like them.
But I think that, you know, drivers for the most part, you can't just go around after a weekend and be like, well, in these three sessions, there was a failure that had nothing to do with me.
And the reason why the results were what they were, were because of things were completely outside of my control, right?
So people, the sport, and we all have to, we live and die by it, right?
Is a black and white piece of paper at the end of the weekend.
And that is what you're judged on.
But I do think that there is a relatability to what you're saying to us and a lot of listeners on this show because the sport, the variables, man are incredible, right?
There's so many different things that can go right and most of the time, unfortunately, can go wrong.
So I think that it's cool to hear you talk about like how you've had to change your mindset and your philosophy a little bit as you've come into the championship.
As we all know, it's very difficult, but also I don't think what you're going through is something specific to you.
I think all of us at various points, James can attest to this has been through the same thing.
So you just got to keep hammering away at it and eventually it'll work out.
Yeah.
I wonder, you know, so I, if this is where Ryan Hunter Ray is listening, I'll have a big smile on his face because he likes to make fun of me about this.
Because of his smile on his face, on his yacht.
Well, yeah, it's hard to frown when you're on a yacht.
Right, yeah, must be nice.
It must be incredible.
He's never invited us, so I wouldn't know.
But I, my path up, I had a weird time in the global financial, you know, world in in 08 being a really key year of my career.
So long story short, I spent like way too long at like the Indie light slash from the Atlantic level, which Ryan likes to make fun of me about.
But the, but Stingray, the knock on effect of that was when I got to Indie car, I was your age, I was 24, my rookie season.
And, you know, it felt late, less late back then than certainly compared to today.
But I'll never forget, you know, my engineer at the time, Craig Hamson said to me, he's like, look, man, you may be like a rookie here.
But at 24, you're just, you've got so much more racing experience having done like eight years at the junior level.
And you've got that maturity of being a couple of years older that it probably served you really well.
And I wonder if you look back on, you know, your junior years, do you think that spending over the course of the, you know, five years or whatever you were in cars before you got into Indie car?
If another, say two seasons were spent, maybe one more at this level and one more at Indie next, and you get to Indie car a little bit older, wiser.
Do you think that prepares you more?
Or do you think that doing your learning at the top is actually the best kind of crash course on how to get up to speed in Indie car?
It's a great question, James.
If I had all the answers, I would love to give them to you.
I could tell you what I would probably like to do differently.
But that's only my story and yeah, I think I would have changed the timeline a little bit.
I mean, hindsight being what it is, I think that we rushed my sort of early stages development because we were reliant upon a talent and skill that I had developed in karting.
And it simply does not translate.
Like, it is so different.
But it is so different.
And actually, I think that Max for Stoppin is the one that's been quoted most recently saying it at interviews is like, almost don't get your kids in karting.
Get them into a race car as soon as possible and also like get them a simulator.
And like, I think that we kind of did those things, but we just really rushed the process.
I mean, going from Skip Barber to Pro Mazda was a bit aggressive probably for me at the time because I went from I am much more familiar with a single speed go kart, let alone a car that has wings and shifting gears and actually weighs like a certain amount of poundage because
Just to put that in perspective for the listener, that's like skipping two full championships on the current ladder, right?
Like out of Skip Barber, you would maybe do like F4, then F2000, then Pro 2000, which is essentially Star Mazda.
So you went from karting, kind of skip the first or Skip Barbers, all right?
Kind of skip the first two and straight into that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then also along with that, like I think that there are much better ways to develop speed in a car other than just racing because like I was just going to races and getting beat up a lot of times where it was like a matter of survival more than it was developing.
And that's not really the way to learn.
And I think that hindsight again, if I could just go testing more, I mean, I think David or actually Renus, Renus was the one telling me about it.
Like how they got him going was like in an old F2 car.
Like that was his development, was just going to tracks, driving in Europe in an old F2 car.
And like that was almost as quick as the modern F or modern Indy car.
So for him, he was doing that from very early stages so that when he got into USF 2000, Pro Mazda, Indy next, like they weren't shocking to him.
But at every stage, like I was shocked by the change and the team or the speed or whatever else.
And then it took me a year or two to kind of catch back up.
And so like Indy next was I think a great example of that because like I went my first year, got pummeled, the team struggled a little bit, but then went with Indredi year two.
And it was like, oh, like I kind of found my footing halfway through the year.
I mean, I say that I was on the podium my first year in the Indy next car.
So then again, I mean, that's just a great program.
But like I think that if we could have slowed down in the development stages somewhere in there and like really take a step back and say, OK, what is really the most valuable?
To be fully honest with you guys, we didn't have that luxury because we didn't just keep me in the car.
I mean, you talk about you were in a very tough time in the crash.
It's like we were going to the same thing where like I probably went to Indy car a year earlier than I should have.
But I knew that we were out of money and I could go to Indy car.
The opportunity was there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And my stock value was probably the highest that it could have been so far in my career.
And it's like, who to say next year will be even better?
No one, you know, we can assume, but it's just the path was there.
So we had to take advantage of it.
It's it all comes back to how this sport is so wild and it's different than any other like ball sport, right?
Or you have these programs where you know, OK, you you have to meet these timelines.
And the only way you're going to get to the NFL is if you're, you know, scattered by X college and you're on these.
You have these performance metrics, right?
Motorsports is such a wide range of solutions to get to the end result.
It's it's it's it's a wild thing.
I want to end on on one more question for you, Stingray.
Thank you for your time.
You're pretty vocal and public about your faith.
Why don't you just give us a quick rundown of, you know, you talk about these last three and a half years and how it hasn't always been fun, right?
How has that been something that, you know, has helped you, guided you and kept you going weekend to weekend?
Yeah, I didn't expect you guys to ask that.
So thank you for asking.
I'll actually I'll start with this.
I was talking to a former Olympian swimmer the other day and we were kind of like comparing notes of like, what is success defined in your sport?
And the question was kind of like, would you rather PR or would you rather win?
And like for him, his answer was PR because he knew that on any given day, if he did his best, that's all he could have done.
Because there's only so many variables that he could deal with, right?
Like you have the water and you.
It doesn't matter who you're lined up against.
Like that's that's as good as you can do.
But in motorsports, it's almost like the exact opposite.
It's like the standard is who's lined up next to you.
And over the course of the last few years, I think that my sort of definition of that has shifted a little bit.
So that's in the car.
But I think that like foundationally, like you said, faith is a big part of who I am and what I believe in and having identity outside the results of the day has been so important for me.
And I've kind of had like this growth in my faith along this journey of motorsports because I realized that like everything that we do inside of a car.
It's really fun and it's really cool, but it's not essential to our living.
And I think that we forget that as drivers sometimes because this is what we live for, right?
And I think that Alex, you probably have good perspective on this now being a dad because you realize like, oh, there's so much more to life.
And I've got to kind of see like the impact of my own life.
I'm a faith lived out because I have joy, I have happiness, I have excitement away from the race check, but I also have this passion that drives me insane.
And so it's been nice to lean on a faith that calls me into a deeper purpose outside of what the driver seat might hold for me.
And like this is probably not the typical driver's feedback, but I know that if I were to win races for the rest of my career, you guys can laugh now if you want.
But win races for the rest of my career, every single race, win every single 500 that I ever existed in from now until forever.
If that's all I did, I would still be a failure.
And I think it's the extent outside of that platform that we're given to utilize that makes such a big difference in the world.
And I feel like that should be what defines my identity and my success is what I'm called to do through the purpose of my faith.
It is so funny, man, we do exist in such a bubble and in that bubble of motorsports, the results, you live and die by them, right?
And you think it is like a bad day at the racetrack.
You think it's this world ending thing and it's just not.
And one of my favorite sayings that I've kind of adopted recently is zoom out.
And it doesn't just apply to motorsports.
Obviously, I don't drive much anymore, but it can in everyday life.
If there's some bad that's happening, like my wife and I will sometimes be spun up about something.
One of us will look at the other and just say, zoom out everything.
And if you really look in totality at the world where we are in it, we're very lucky.
Everything's going really well.
I'm just curious.
We will let you go, but you've touched on it a couple of times and I would love to just kind of like have this statement be, you know, Stingray sign off here.
You've mentioned, you know, how important it is that you have this identity outside of the racetrack and away from the sport.
What is that?
Who is Stingray Rob away from the racetrack?
It's an ever-growing picture.
I think that the easiest thing to say is I'm Molly's husband and we have a life outside of the racetrack that involves chickens and gardening and other fun things like that.
But I think the reality is, is that because of my faith, who I am is defined by who chooses crisis and that's my zoom out, right?
You talk about zooming out.
So like when I'm having a rough weekend, I think what I've noticed about who I kind of centralized my identity around or who I feel like I'm called to be, my zoom out, so to speak, is like when I go and read the Bible, I'll like highlight verses that are true.
Like what does this say about me or my character?
Or what does it say about God's character?
And those are the things that I focus on.
And when I do that, it doesn't matter what's happening.
It doesn't matter who other people say I am.
And so that's a bit of a confidence or reassurance to like re-centralize about who I'm called to be more than the results of the day.
So yeah, I think that who I am is an ever-growing thing and I think that it's not defined by the things that we do.
There's obviously like the passion of motorsports and I love being outdoors.
I love being from Idaho, being hunting, fishing, hiking, all those things.
But most of all, I want to be a child of God that is called to a purpose that's greater than what I'm doing in the day.
That's amazing, man.
A great lesson for a lot of people.
100%.
Yeah.
That was a much better answer than I think I could have given.
So bravo.
Well done.
Well, man, we appreciate your time.
Thank you for coming on.
Good job in Detroit last weekend and see you here in a couple of days under the lights in St. Louis.
On Twitter, we're at Hinchtown and at Alexander Rossi.
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