Who is Sting Ray Robb? On his unique name, racing roots and being a foodie

Bruce Martin
Special to FOXSports.com

DETROIT — Who is Sting Ray Robb?

There is so much more to this race car driver than the fact that he has the most unique name of anyone in the INDYCAR SERIES. 

The driver from Payette, Idaho grew up in the same hometown as a National Baseball Hall of Famer, worked at his family’s supermarket beginning at age seven, considers himself a foodie and races for a cause.

No. 77, Sting Ray Robb, at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 

So, who exactly is Sting Ray Robb? We asked him that question to get more insight into his personality before last weekend’s Detroit Grand Prix.

Sting Ray Robb, a lot of people may not be familiar with your career. But when they watched the Indianapolis 500 on FOX, they certainly heard your name. I’ve been asked by a lot of people how you got your name Sting Ray. I’m sure you have been asked one million times. Now it’s one million and one.

The short story goes that my parents were big Corvette fans. They decided to name me after the Stingray Corvette. But the longer, more boring side of the story — but still very fun — is that my dad’s family’s heritage is from Sterling, Scotland. So, Sting is actually short for Sterling. Both my grandfathers had Ray in their name, and we made the combo deal out of that. And here I am, Sting Ray Robb, the INDYCAR driver.

You’re the most recent big-name sports figure from Payette, Idaho. But Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew from the original Washington Senators before the team moved to become the Minnesota Twins was also from your hometown. He hit 573 home runs in his Major League Baseball career. In a sense, are you following his path but in a different sport?

Harmon Killebrew is from our town. He’s our notable alum, for sure.

Did you ever have any experiences with Harmon Killebrew in town?

Harmon passed away before I got a chance to meet him. I have met his wife Anita, though, and she is an amazing soul. We love Anita and we love the impact that the Killebrews have had on our community just because it’s an inspiration for young athletes trying to compete at a high level in the future. It’s nice to have someone like that come from a place like Payette.

Everybody that thinks of Idaho thinks of either potatoes, fishing or hunting. Did you fish or hunt?

Oh yeah, I did a lot of it. I’ve spent my fair share of time in the outdoors. I used to go duck hunting on my lunch breaks with my best friend in high school, and then we would fish all summer. We have rivers that are great fishing spots. Obviously, the high mountain lakes are great for fly-fishing as well.

Do you get a lot of tourists in that area because Idaho is well-known for its hunting and fishing?

It seems like there’s been a big influx of out-of-staters in Idaho as of the COVID era. People are flooding in from the larger metropolitan areas, trying to get away from that and into more of a rural setting. And Idaho pretty much has everything that you could want, whether it’s outdoors or outdoor events or just different things that you can have fun doing. I always like to joke that there’s not too many pro athletes from Idaho because they’re too busy doing all the other things. Snow skiing, mountain biking, fishing, hiking, hunting. We got it all.

At the Indianapolis 500 Victory Award Celebration, you told the story about your parents’ supermarket. Go into a little more detail about that. How big of a store was it? How soon did they put you to work? 

I worked at that store probably from the time I was seven. I was pushing grocery carts in and trying to help out where I could just because if I was going to be at the store, why not do something to keep me busy? My parents owned the grocery store from about the time I was born up until a few years ago. It was an old Safeway supermarket, if anyone knows what that is. And it had been converted into a privately-owned grocery store before they had purchased it from the previous owner. It was right on the Idaho-Oregon border, and it was definitely a highlight in the town because there were only a few grocery stores in the Oregon side that had no sales tax, so it made us quite busy during the year. I worked pretty hard with my family there over the course of the last few years.

What are some of the things that you did at the store? 

I threw freight for quite a while. That was probably the biggest thing that I did. Pushing grocery carts was another thing. On our big sale days, we’d have hundreds and hundreds of people come through our store. We would sell truckloads of food and other products. The parking lot was definitely my area — my territory to take over and so I did that. I also bagged groceries and just tried to be helpful wherever I could.

What was your favorite department in the supermarket? 

Probably the freight throwing. I think that I loved doing that, but my favorite one to go visit was definitely the deli. We had a great smoked meat section there, and I was always the test dummy that got to try all the fresh smoked meats, and so I was like ‘No, no, no that’s not good. I’ll just take the rest from you and go from there.’

Well, who doesn’t like smoked meat? I think by taking a look at me, you can see my favorite department is the meat department, the butcher counter. That’s one reason why I need to go on a diet. Were you aware of the fact that Simon Pagenaud’s family owned a big supermarket chain in France? 

I was, yeah. I remember when he won the Indy 500 in 2019. When Simon won, that was a big storyline for him. So, I was like, ‘Oh man, a fellow grocery kid.’ That was fun.

What does Sting Ray Robb like to do when he’s not racing? 

Being in Indianapolis now, there are not as many outdoor activities as there are in Idaho. But I still like to do anything pretty active. I love rock climbing, something I’ve been doing as of late as a hobby. To be honest, our schedule during the racing season is quite busy, so I try and do as much as I can in between. But golfing is about the extent of it. My wife is a runner as well, and I try and keep up with her, but there’s no chance of that.

I know one activity they could do in Indiana and that’s highway repair, road repair, street repair. It seriously needs it. 

I need to pick that up as a hobby. Help the city out a little bit.

Favorite type of food, favorite restaurants?

Oh man, I’m a foodie. I love food. So for me, I can’t really pick a favorite type. If I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I’d probably choose Japanese. Favorite restaurant though? If we’re going chain, I’m going to go Texas Roadhouse. If we’re going privately held … I like little holes in the wall that people who aren’t local won’t know about. Somewhere that I can’t get when I’m out on the road.

I’ve seen you quite often in the month of May at the Garage Food Hall in downtown Indianapolis. That way you can try a little bit of everything when it comes to food. Is that a favorite spot of yours?

It is. It’s not too far from where I live, so if we have a big group of people going, I like to pop over there because you have so much variety. One person can get a crab roll. The next person can get a Gyro. You name it. They got everything.

You are known for having a pretty big entourage. How many people are part of the Robb caravan?

Oh man, so many. I had seven or eight people staying at my house besides my wife and me during the month of May. And then we have plenty more to go along with. That’s just our skeleton crew.

What are the goals for the rest of the season? It appears that Juncos Hollinger Racing has finally been able to put together a team that’s got some pretty good chemistry. You get along well with Conor Daly. Both of you seem to get along well with Ricardo Juncos. Do you feel that the teams finally hit on the right chemistry? And do you have some big goals ahead of you this season? 

Yeah, I think so. I think that we’ve had a good car at different times. It’s just a matter of capitalizing on it. And to be honest, we’re strongly in the mid-pack now. It’s just a matter of moving forward. Little things make a big difference. So I think for us, our goals are to get a few more top 10s, move up in the standings and hopefully keep the qualifying performances going. Because we’ve been qualifying better and better every weekend, it seems like. And so, our goal is just to keep executing on that. And when you do that, you just give yourself a better chance during the race weekend.

You seem to have hit it off very well with Junco’s Hollinger Racing. What do you see as being the great connection between you and them? 

We have common passions. Ricardo Juncos is a great leader. His passion bleeds down to the rest of the team, and they are committed to excellence. They’re a young up-and-coming team and I am a young up-and-coming driver. And I think that our communication — our understanding of one another — has been so good. That’s what’s led to our success so far. I hope that we continue to grow, and I think we will. There’s still a lot of room to grow, and you know this series is so competitive, but they know where all those areas are that we can improve.

There were 7.01 million viewers watching the 109th Indianapolis 500 on FOX. How big a deal was that for you with a peak of 8.5 million at the end? 

Awesome. We need that. We need more of that, to be honest, because this is a marketing-media-driven industry and if we don’t have that side capitalized on, we’re not going to be able to sustain it. For us, it’s great to see. It’s very encouraging, and we have a lot more hope for the future. 

Also, there were a lot of people who watched the FOX telecast of the Indianapolis 500 who want to know Sting Ray Robb. If there is one chapter, in particular, that you’d like to point out, what is it? 

The name is probably the biggest. That’s the beginning of the story, if you will. So that’s always the first thing that people like to talk about. And you can look at that on other interviews as well as you’d like. But I think for me, the chapters I’ve enjoyed the most are obviously coming to INDYCAR and leading the Indy 500 last year was a big highlight for my career. Finishing second in the INDY NXT championship and then winning the Indy Pro 2000 championship back in 2020.

You’re from Idaho. Not a lot of INDYCAR drivers come from your state. Davey Hamilton is from Idaho. What was it like trying to become a young race driver coming from Idaho?

It was challenging. A lot of days on the road, like you mentioned. There are not too many of us from Idaho, and I think the reason is that there’s just not too many tracks around. Motorsports are growing in that area now, but when I was a young driver, we were traveling all over the country. We were on the road 42 weekends a year just to try and stay competitive in other regions because our region was very limited.

Sting Ray Robb racing a go-kart as a youth.

When you got into the INDYCAR Ladder System, could you explain your progress through that and talk about when you felt you were able to make the big jump? 

Yeah, so I moved straight from go-karting into the Road to Indy — the Pro Mazda level — which is the Double-A ladder back in 2017. That was the last year of the old Pro Mazda chassis. Then they reintroduced a new chassis with the Tattus PM 18 in 2018 and so I spent three years in that car before I was able to get my footing, if you will. My second year with Juncos Hollinger Racing, looking back, that was a team I won the championship with in 2020. I really began to build momentum from there.

How big a thrill was it to have the strategy that was able to get in contention during the Indianapolis 500? 

We weren’t really that far off the strategy this year. Last year was definitely a significantly different strategy and that’s what led to us leading the Indianapolis 500. But this year, I think that we were really quick.You look up and down the field, I think there were 15 guys that could have won that race, and unfortunately, our day ended early because of being a casualty to other events.

There was all this buildup for the start of the race and then, because of spotty showers, you’re sitting in the car, waiting for 36 minutes before they gave the command to start the engines. How strange was that? That has to seem interminable when you are inside the cockpit and not getting much information.

It was kind of funny. I was sitting on the grid. It felt like a quick sitting because I took a nap. I ended up falling asleep there on the grid waiting for them to tell me to start the engine up but that was the best way I knew how to handle the situation. Lay back, enjoy the seat and get ready to go.

We saw one of the best drivers in INDYCAR, Scott McLaughlin, spin himself out on the pace lap. We saw a crash at the first green flag lap with a veteran driver, Marco Andretti. From your standpoint, did it just seem like there was a lot of sloppiness at the beginning of the race, either driving or just track conditions? 

I think you look at the whole month, and there’s a lot of chaos, right? There were a lot of crashes in practice and qualifying — way more than we normally would see. And I think it’s due to the fact that the car is a lot more difficult to drive, very tricky to drive. I don’t know if it’s the weight of the vehicle or what but conditions throughout the month were definitely tricky with higher temps for most of the days and gusty winds. But race day was the opposite of that. Cool temperatures and good winds made it much better and much better conditions to race in but still led to a lot of chaos.

You also race for a cause. You race with a message. You have very good fundamental values. Could you tell us those causes?

Yeah, so we’ve been lucky enough to be partnered up with Goodheart Animal Health Centers the last few years, and they have partnered up with us and them together in Freedom Service Dogs of America. This year we wanted to show off a livery that was representative of Freedom Service Dogs of the principles that they stand upon and also honoring those that have come before us to give us the freedoms that we have been given in this country.

And also, you’re a man of faith and you like to tell people about your faith. How important is that to you, to witness to people throughout the INDYCAR community?

It’s foundational. I think that faith is one of the biggest decisions you can make in your life and for me, I’m willing to live that out, front center in my life because I know the impact it has on my life. And I’m hoping that can inspire the future generation with it as well.

Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsports writer and contributor to FOXSports.com. Follow him on X at @BruceMartin_500.