Christian NASCAR driver shares Jesus on the track
A Christian pastor who is also a driver of the nationwide NASCAR series is using his gift in race car driving to spread the gospel.
Blake Koch, 25, wears a race suit with a slogan on the back of it that says, “I’ve got your back—God.” His sponsors include Daystar Television Network and GodSpeaks.com, Star-Telegram said.
Koch told Star-Telegram that when he is racing, he knows he is alone with God and as he surrenders the race to God, he is confident that God is watching his back.
Koch told Star-Telegram, “When they roll up the window of the race car, it’s just God and me. I ask God to drive the car through me. Put it where you want it. Drive it with my hands and my feet and my mind and my heart. After that I don’t think of anything but winning the race and doing the best I can.”
Last Friday Koch joined the Nationwide O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 held in Texas Motor Speedway, according to Star-Telegram. Before that he addressed a group of hundreds of youth at Arlington High Point saying, “Racing has really brought me closer to God. When you drive one of these cars, I don’t know how you could not be close to God.”
Koch told The 33 News, “God’s given me the opportunity to race in NASCAR and I feel like and I know as a Christian I have to give back by living out my Christianity.”
Dirt bike racer
Koch started as a dirt bike racer when he was nine, and within eight years reached the professional level. He was also getting hurt a lot including five concussions, eight broken bones and three surgeries, Star-Telegram said.
He got into his first race car when he was 20 and now, five years later, is competing for rookie of the year in the Nationwide Series, Star-Telegram said.
Koch is also part of a weekly bible study with other race-car drivers. Before every race they pray, followed by the national anthem. A pastor also invokes Jesus’ name before the race begins. He told Star-Telegram, “I like to say 80 to 90 percent of the fans believe in God.”
Blake says that whenever he is inside his car, just before a race, he prays. He told The 33 News that he believes God is riding
with him. “There are so many situations during a race where you almost get into wreck, you did get hit, you’re safe and protected and maybe you’re spinning out and you do go straight miraculously somehow. You definitely feel as a believer I know those are close connections to God.”
In 2009 NASCAR driver Eric Holmes knocked his car, and Koch laughingly told The 33 News, “[A]fter the race his wife’s like, ‘we’re so worried we don’t know what’s going to happen we might go to hell, we just took out the God car.’”