Revving Up Faith: A Journey with Indy Car Ministry's Jason Holt

Jason is a pastor and is currently a chaplain and director of ministry for Indy car racing . I told him earlier I saw him walking through the paddock at Mid-Ohio . I turned to my wife and I said I really got to get that guy's story . She goes well , get him on your podcast and find out . I'm excited to talk to Jason today . So welcome to the show , jason .

And you know , and I'm sure we'll get to it but just involved in various aspects of racing and then all of a sudden later in life met Jesus and everything shifted and changed . Currently I live in Ormond Beach , florida . We moved down here about what have we got ? Six years ago . I'm absolutely loving . I'm so thankful that I get to call this place home .

I have two little boys , a seven year old and a two year old . Needless to say , my wife loves me when I come home from the races over the weekend . We're a lot of fun , we hang out at the beach and then my seven year old's racing go carts now . So I spend a lot of time at the racetrack with him because , well , the generational curse repeats itself .

That's really just a bit about my life .

I met another dad who had an Eldora shirt on , which was my favorite racetrack . We started talking about it . Two months later , there's a racing go cart sitting in my garage .

I love good road trips and times in that car . It was really interesting how I got it as well when I was about 12 or 13, . I was an avid snowboarder growing up . I just I love snowboarding . I think I've always had a passion for surfing . But since I grew up in Indiana , it didn't make sense .

So I snowboarded instead and had some buddies and we I'm not sure why my mom let me do this , but I drove to Michigan with a bunch of older guys . These guys were like late teens , early 20s . They were driving up to Michigan to go snowboarding and body needed to come along . So at like I was like 13 or 14 , she let me go with them .

I'm crazy and not sure why , but anyway we went snowboarding . We went midnight boarding , snowboarded all night , drove back and so we're all tired . This is my Super early in the morning , a winter's day and indy , there's snow on the ground and I get out the car and there's this little lady laying on the ground . She's frozen . She wasn't .

She was still coherent , so I picked her up , help her into her apartment . I called nine one one . She had slipped and fell in . The ice broker hit . So she was . We live in apartment . She was our downstairs neighbor . I became friends with . Her name is a del . She was a male lady for like fifty years . I'm sweet old lady .

We became friends and so that was her car that she gave me for my sixteen month birthday . Oh , wow , yeah , it was just really special . We had a really special relationship . She , of course , went on to be with the lord , but you know , always remember that car . It always has a special place in my heart . See me , didn't hang on to it , right ?

No , no , unfortunately I had to let that go to one of my old roommates . I needed to buy a truck for for racing . My old roommate at the time , for five hundred bucks , sold it to him and send it on down the river .

There was one when I say it was two thousand and eight . I had a ride where I ran midgets are caught my car owner when to go race in oxville and I've always dreamed of racing not so I'd rather be there in a sprint car but I got to run there in a midget , my roommates and I , and then my what now is ?

My wife jumped in the car and we just made an incredible adventure out of it stop at all kinds of random roadside things and we ended up getting the Knoxville and we're so excited to get to the track . We stop at a gas station to get some ice and then drove over to the tracks . Are unloading the car , working on the car . My phone rang .

It was my crew guys , turns out . I left them at the gas station but I had to get back in . Go pick them up ? Yeah , certainly there . And then , of course , driving out to chili bowl was always an adventure .

You know we're laying up in the back deck of the rear window or floor board , or I remember going to florida a couple of times as a as a kid , in the back of my dad's truck , yet get a camper shell and he's to throw like a mattress back there and some other things and my sister and I would ride in the back of the truck .

Yeah , I'm not sure what they were thinking on that one , but hey , you know what I survived . Okay , here we are , and so it's all good .

Okay , so he's , he's been around a little while and knew some things , knew a lot of people in racing and so by the time I showed up in 79 and in the 80s he was a race fan to some degree , would take me to the races , we'd go see sprint cars , you know NASCAR , some Indy car stuff . But I didn't realize his history in racing .

I had no idea until one day I was being a kid at our , at our farmhouse and start digging around and I found an old picture of a midget back in the 60s and there's Mario and Dretty sitting in it . Oh my , and even as a young kid I knew who Mario and Dretty was and there was my dad .

So I took it to him and he was a little upset that I found it . Then he had to kind of share his story in racing . But it's interesting , he tried to keep me away from it . I think my dad's heart , he had been around long enough He'd known he tried to keep me away .

My mom , when I was like six , bought me a couple of racing RC cars and so that's what I focused on . I worked on those and ran a lot of big races , got sponsored as a kid .

When I approached around the age of 10 , 11 years old , my dad's friends really laid into him and made fun of him for not putting me in a go kart , and so he finally caved into that peer pressure and so got me a racing go kart .

But my dad , you know it was interesting , he would help me a little bit , but because he's been around so long , he watched how a lot of race car drivers you see it today big time , it's on full display A lot of drivers , their parents , just ultimately ended up throwing money at it .

You know the kids for the most part didn't really have to work at it as much because mom and dad , just you know , they just threw money at it . My dad , although he did have quite a bit of money , you would never tell you know he'd shop at Dollar General . He drove a beat up pickup truck .

He was just , he lived through the depression , and so I think that affected him and how he certainly lived his life , and so for me he helped me . But then , when I was 15 , I'll never forget it he said Jason , if you want it bad enough , let's see you make it happen on your own , because I'm not going to pay for it .

That , as a young boy , that honestly devastated me , because I really wanted to go racing with my dad . So my career if I'm honest and I don't mean to be crass when I say it this way a majority of my career was set out to prove to my dad that I don't need you . That's what drove me .

That , and then , of course , starting to Indianapolis 500 was always my dream . So I made it happen . You know I worked hard . There were times where I'd work two and three jobs , you know , especially when I got , when I had a sprint car I own my own sprint car I did whatever it had to take .

I'd build Indy car headers in the in the morning and I'd go build , you know , sprint cars at DRC in the evening . I'd work weekends , do whatever I had to do to go racing until I could get rides and others would pay for it . But so for 24 years I got to drive . 12 years of that was in a USAC sprint car , ran some midget .

When I retired from cars I actually got a couple of race bikes , raced motorcycles for a little while and then for a season I had my own company building sports cars . So I ran some sports car stuff up in Chicago Wisconsin area , so kind of all over the place . But you know my heart was always Indy car .

That's all I cared about was making it to Indianapolis as a driver . Unfortunately that never happened . But that's just life .

I'll never forget I was sitting there in hot laps . I'm watching them push cars off . I'm suited up , I'm ready to go . I'm strapped in my dad's sitting on the left rear . Inside I'm freaking out , mike , there's no other way to describe it . My dad pats me on the shoulder . Push truck gets behind me . It starts shaking the car .

My dad gets up off the left rear . He pats me on the shoulder and said well , jace , just so you know you've been a good son and walked away . That first time of flipping the switch , hitting the throttle of a 900 horsepower sprint car at Eldora , is a moment I'll never forget .

Then fast forward quite a few years because it took me a little while the first time I ran the fence at Eldora , where I ran the right rear off the wall . Three and four I was able to run up on the fence and ended up running second that night .

That was probably one of the most memorable moments of my racing career because I never would have imagined I would be the guy that could run the fence at Eldora . A lot of people run Eldora . It's one thing to run the bottom or the middle of the racetrack , but it's the guys that can actually get up on the wall and run the fence .

That man , there's something special there .

I lived on the gas all the time , especially partying . We had a Jagger machine in my kitchen , had massive house parties all the time . It was just there was always something going on . You can only live life to the extreme like that for so long before it catches up to you .

In 2010 , my wife and I , frankly , we just burned our lives to the ground partying , living the life we lived , really caught up with us . Not to mention , racing was the centerpiece of my life . When you worship or essentially have something like racing , something so feeble as the centerpoint , foundation of your life , it's bound to crumble .

It did we just burned our lives to the ground , both financially . Our marriage was in the tank , you name it . It was just horrible . In a six-month period , anything that could go wrong did it was the absolute worst six months of my life . At the same time , a good friend of mine , his wife had just walked out on him . He was in a broken place .

His dad had helped move a church to their new building with their race trailer . He said hey , why don't you , let's go to church . I don't know what it's all about , let's just go . We showed up at church one Sunday . I don't know what the pastor talked about . It was cool . I mean it's fine , but we came back . We came back .

Then we kept coming back each and every week . I didn't know why . I didn't know what was going on . I don't remember any powerful sermon that he said or anything like that . I just know that God was drawing me unto himself .

We took the membership class , ended up hearing the gospel presented for the first time and really coming to understand what it meant for my life , that it wasn't about cleaning my act up . It wasn't about quitting partying . It wasn't about stop doing all this other junk that I was doing . It was just come , here's who Jesus is , just come . And so we did .

Over the next couple of years , god would just radically change my life . I was still racing , only now I was racing for Jesus . Right , I had a different purpose . It wasn't about me , it wasn't about my career . God just really changed my life .

And then in 2012 , I had a full hired ride , was getting paid to drive sprint cars which , next to my dream of racing the 500 , was the ultimate for me , god .

I was leaving the racetrack I'll never forget it was gas city in April had my wife , my dog and my helmet bag just walking across the parking lot I think I ran fifth that night or something and God told me it's time to step away . I audibly heard God tell me this and I know for some that might sound a little spooky and weird , but it is what it is .

I thought honestly , god was telling me to take a break . You know , I've been doing it 24 years . You just need me to take a break and then he's going to bring me back better than ever . So I called my car owner the next day and just said hey , I can't explain it other than God told me to quit for now and so I need to step away Now .

He was a Christian , so he he understood . So for the first time in 24 years , I stepped away from racing . Little did I know that it would be six months later my transition into ministry , full time , would happen . I had no idea I've been serving at church doing a lot of things . I've been had a couple of guys discipling me .

Six months later , almost to the day , the church we were at Connection Point in Brownsburg approached me about a full-time position . It was at the time I was a welder , so I was building IndyCar exhaust , nascar exhaust a pretty specific welder . I welded in Cannell a lot of things that most welders can't do , so I was making pretty good money .

And Connection Point when they offered me the position , it was a 75% pay cut . I didn't know how I was going to pay my bills . I was so angry I felt led to it and my wife she's amazing she just helped me . See kind of God's hand in it . I stepped out of racing completely and came a pastor .

Let me say it that way . It was a really hard , dark season , and it still is . If I'm honest , there's times where I see a lot of the guys I raced with having incredible success now and it just like that could have been me . That's what I love about God and his power of redemption .

You know , I'll never forget the first time I preached God's word at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Because , again , that was my dream to make it there . I remember , you know God , I had this thought that you know what ?

There's a short list of great men and women that have taken the green flag at Indian apolis , but there's an even shorter list of people that have got to preach the gospel at Indian apolis Motor Speedway , and so , which is more important , Wow , cool story .

Yeah , because I've been away from racing for a long time and here I come back loving Jesus , wanting to pray . It was quite the transition .

bit . What's on your bucket list ? You know one that stands out Other than still driving it ? Indianapolis , right .

It didn't make sense , but you know I'm a surfer . Now I go out and I surf . You know , soon , every time there's waves I'm out in the water . I love surfing .

For me , I think , at this point in my life , a bucket list is the North Shore of Oahu in December and January when Bonsai Pipeline is 15 to 18 foot waves certainly way beyond my skill level , but just to be able to sit on the beach and watch those guys , just to be there would be . That would be it for me , I think .

But honestly , I think for me , one person that stands out that I would love to just jump in the car and drive to the West Coast with would be Jan Opperman . You know he just incredible , incredible guy , incredible story If you haven't read , dialed in just a really cool biography on his life .

But you know he was certainly somebody that loved Jesus , was an incredible race car driver and just his era of racing , the stories that guy could tell . It'd be me , him and probably Bobby Jones in the backseat .

I've known Bobby , you know he was an amazing man , and so those two just cruising to California , maybe one of their dirt tracks out there , just to hear their stories would be , would be amazing , fun road trip .

You see , as we're watching beautiful race cars and beautiful people on TV and we're entertained by the sport of Indy car racing and it's , in my opinion , the best racing in the world next to sprint cars Of course there's a high price that is paid to put on that show and that price is paid .

These guys are working insane amount of hours and incredible conditions , under Intense stress and anxiety and pressure . They're gone away from their families for weeks on end with very few days off . I mean it's incredible the amount of just Encouragement and and and things that we get to bring to the team .

We're at the track when they're at the track where they're all day , every day , I'm doing counseling and meeting and helping and serving people and so I say all that to say like being a part of Indy car ministry , we want to have as many people a part of this with us as possible , and so you can do that by joining us at Indy car ministry dot org , where

we are actually getting a new website coming in the next Few weeks . We have a YouTube station that you can follow us . We do devotionals each and every week and different updates there . And then , of course , social media Facebook , instagram , twitter all of those avenues you can stay up to date and and like I said , we we want people to partner with us .

We're a 503 , we're a non-for-profit Organization . The only way that we make it to the racetrack is because of people like you that support us , whether that's 25 a month , 50 a month or one-time gift , whatever that looks like . It is a tax donation , but beyond that , you know you get to . You get to make an impact in the sport that you love .

You know there's a lot of . There's thousands of fans around the world for Indy car , but how many of them are actually making a difference in the sport ? And you can do that today through supporting Indy car ministry . That's a bit about us and yeah , dan , thanks again for having me on thank you very much .