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AJ Foyt Racing signs Sting Ray Robb to No. 41 for 2024 season, replacing Benjamin Pedersen

nathan brown, indianapolis star
·3 min read

Long known to have at least one of its two full-time IndyCar entries open for the 2024 season, AJ Foyt Racing announced a new driver Friday for its Indianapolis-based ride that was previously said to be locked down by a young driver's multi-year deal.

The team has swapped one second-year driver for another, with Sting Ray Robb landing what will now be numbered the No. 41 Chevy (previously No. 55) for the 2024 season, leaving the future of its incumbent Benjamin Pedersen unknown.

Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing driver Sting Ray Robb (51) smiles Sunday, May 21, 2023, after earning a spot in the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing driver Sting Ray Robb (51) smiles Sunday, May 21, 2023, after earning a spot in the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Robb, whose best finish of his rookie IndyCar campaign with Dale Coyne Racing came in the season-finale at Laguna Seca (12th), finished second-to-last in points among full-time drivers last season. His No. 51 Honda machine with DCR finished in an identical spot in the entrant points race -- in both instances one spot ahead of Pedersen and Foyt's No. 55.

Ahead of the upcoming season, the Foyt program has linked up with Team Penske for a technical alliance that is bound to bolster the struggling program's engineering department.

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"This is a dream come true, to be driving for the legendary A.J. Foyt and his team under the leadership of Larry Foyt," Robb said in a release. "It provides an opportunity for me to implement past lessons and carry momentum forward in my sophomore season as we enter a very competitive field of teams and drivers”

Coming off a runner-up championship finish in his second of two seasons in Indy Lights, Robb's IndyCar career hit a rough patch early-on, including five DNFs in his first six starts last year -- capped with a crash before the halfway point of the Indy 500 that saw him finish 31st. Finishes of 22nd, 22nd, 22nd and 19th between Detroit and Toronto seemed to be a sign Robb and his team had found some semblance of consistency, but a doubleheader at Iowa that ended with DCR's No. 51 being black-flagged for a loose wheel coming off on-track after an error-filled pitstop signaled that a change for both sides may be imminent.

After initially looking with an eye towards DCR's top ride, the No. 18 Honda vacated at the end of last season by David Malukas, Robb's camp and the 22-year-old's high-seven-figure full-season budget began searching elsewhere for a full-time ride.

What's in a name: Yes, his name is actually Sting Ray Robb. Here's how he got it.

Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing driver Sting Ray Robb (51) sits in his pit box Sunday, May 21, 2023, alongside Dale Coyne before the Last Chance Qualifying session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing driver Sting Ray Robb (51) sits in his pit box Sunday, May 21, 2023, alongside Dale Coyne before the Last Chance Qualifying session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.

His opportunity seems to have come at the expense of Pedersen, who with a sizable budget himself was announced last offseason as having inked a multi-year deal to drive Foyt's No. 55 Chevy run out of the team's Speedway shop. In response to growing rumors that the team may be looking to swap out Pedersen after just one year, team president Larry Foyt told IndyStar at the finale in September -- where his rookie driver landed his second-best finish of the year (16th) -- that he "didn't foresee any big changes in the driver area" looking ahead to next season.

At the time, Foyt also said he was "going to try and work out" a deal for Santino Ferrucci's return after the veteran driver ran the No. 14 Chevy full-time out of the team's Texas-based shop on a one-year deal a year ago. In his lone season with Foyt, Ferrucci finished 19th in driver points (his car finished 20th in entrant points), highlighted by leading 10 laps in the final quarter of the Indy 500 (and 11 total). After qualifying 4th for his fifth 500, Ferrucci and his No. 14 Chevy crew finished in 3rd-place, marking the driver's fifth top-10 in as many starts in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The No. 14, along with Coyne's pair of Honda-powered full-time rides, remain the final three unfilled seats remaining with just under three months until the 2024 season-opener in St. Pete March 10.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: AJ Foyt Racing signs Sting Ray Robb for 2024 full-time ride