“There’s not a lot on my bucket list I haven’t checked off,” Travis Pastrana says with a laugh. The professional motorsports competitor and stunt performer is a Supercross and Supermoto star, X Games gold medalist, and rally racer. But Daytona is one of those things. Pastrana is heading to Florida in hopes of qualifying for the 2023 Nascar Cup Series Daytona 500.
Which begs the question: Why now?
“I’m not getting any younger,” Pastrana admits. “Even 10 years ago, getting into Nascar was kind of the main goal. At the time, I was finishing U.S. rally championships and I said, ‘Let’s try to get there.’ Rear-wheel drive, pavement, and drafting were all newer to my driving career at the time.”
Pastrana entered a few Nascar races in 2011 before an injury at the X Games put a brief hiatus on things. He returned to race two full seasons in 2012 and 2013, plus competed in a handful of Truck Series events. But Pastrana’s most memorable Nascar moment came at Talladega Superspeedway in 2013.
“We qualified pole for Talladega, started front row, and finished 10th,” he recalls. “I was going backwards across the grass through the finish line, but we were looking at top five before [Kyle] Larson put his car into the catch fence on the last lap.”
Nascar Dreams Resurface at the Coliseum
Nascar began bubbling up again for Pastrana around the time of the 2022 Clash at The Coliseum in Los Angeles, a series of heats around the quarter-mile short track contained entirely within a ribbon laid into the stadium’s football field. It serves as more of a promo for the forthcoming Nascar season with little on the table other than bragging rights. Pastrana says a few teams—Robbie Benton at Team Penske, specifically—reached out about potentially returning to Nascar.
“You weren’t great at figuring out the aerodynamics and positioning and stuff, but this is in your wheelhouse,” Benton told him. “Everyone else is gonna be figuring out the sequential, but you’ve been doing sequential. You’re used to the shorter, tighter corners. How would you like to run a Cup car for Clash?”
Though Pastrana never actually climbed behind the wheel for Clash, Benton’s confidence stems from Nascar’s major rule changes for the so-called “Next Gen” Cup cars introduced in 2022: The use of five-speed sequential transmissions for the first time in place of outdated—but more demanding—four-speed manual gearboxes (known as H-patterns). Next Gen cars also employ independent rear suspension rather than solid rear axles, plus enhanced aerodynamic packages. All in all, the revisions update the field at Nascar into something much more similar to a rally or rallycross racer.
The difference in strategy between drafting full-time at the huge oval of Talladega and the tight cornering required on a road circuit at Daytona International Speedway caters to Pastrana’s unique skillset. But rather than join a team with a purchased charter in their back pocket, which would allow him to simply show up at the Daytona 500 main event, Pastrana decided to partner with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing project (pronounced “twenty-three-eleven”) and sponsor Black Rifle Coffee—planning the whole time to qualify for the main event on speed alone.
Getting a good jump at the start is a huge focus at qualifying. Thing is, Pastrana will not have previously driven the plaid-liveried 23XI Camry.
“I just did a pit practice, so I’ve never been outta second gear,” he says. “My first lap is gonna be qualifying. They say the first 60 feet matters most, just getting up through the gears. Luckily, it’s a sequential box, so I’ll feel right at home.”
Qualifying for Daytona not only gives 23XI and Black Rifle Coffee an additional day of media coverage—assuming a win and entry into the 500—but Pastrana also believes the Nascar community will more happily embrace his return if he earns an entry the hard way rather than waltzing in with a big check—especially this year at a stacked qualifying that’ll feature seven-time Nascar champion Jimmie Johnson and a slate of talented rookies.
Checking Off the Rest of the Bucket List
Pastrana’s success from the get-go with Subaru and the more recent work launching Nitro Rallycross quickly proved his ability to transition from two wheels to four. But no matter how much a chance to race on the iconic banked walls and infield hairpins at Daytona fits into the bucket list, the rest of the list still beckons—including more off-road racing I learn after mentioning my recent adventures embedded with race teams at the Baja 1000 and Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
“Dakar’s always been on the list,” Pastrana posits, “but winning the Baja 1000 would be a starting point before we really consider going further.”
Even at Daytona, Pastrana won’t limit the prospect of opportunities to Cup cars. Win or lose, at qualifying or in the Daytona 500 proper, he plans to enjoy his time in Florida to the fullest, just as we’ve come to expect from the first guy to ever double backflip a motorcycle and jump a Subaru over Long Beach Harbor one New Year’s Eve.
“I talked about maybe even racing the truck series and doing some other stuff,” Pastrana teases. “I know it’s all coming up quick, but it’s cool with the sponsors that we have and it’s not like this is the only race ever. It’s not about winning, it’s about going down, experiencing the Great American race, bringing in veterans, fans, friends, and family.”
That zeal for fun provides plenty of confidence, too.
“I’m the best I’ve ever been in a car,” Pastrana says, completely deadpan, even after breaking his back last year, which proved to be a challenging recovery.
Still, between when we spoke and qualifying at Daytona, Pastrana faced numerous challenges, including squaring off against arguably the greatest rally racer alive, Mattias Ekström, in the snow at Norway’s Race of Champions. Luckily, he’ll come flying into Daytona qualifying with the help of two proven Nascar vets and the grit of an experienced team behind him in the pits.
“Tyler Reddick is just such a great wheelman,” Pastrana gushes, “and Bubba [Wallace] has had such good results there. Denny [Hamlin], heck, he’s won there I think more times than any active driver. These are gonna be the most fun and exhausting two weeks of my entire life.”
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/2m5Ntbl
No comments:
Post a Comment