Travis Pastrana's Dream Is About to Come True, Daytona 500 Is Just Weeks Away

Take, for instance, Isaac Asimov. During a lifespan of 72 years, he wrote hundreds and hundreds of books on various subjects. The Foundation series is one of the most iconic Sci-Fi creations of all time, and some of his stories have even made it to the big screen. You could easily say that this man was born to be a storyteller. And as soon as you're done reading about all of Travis Pastrana's motorsport achievements in the past quarter of a century, you'll know that he was born for racing.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic

Most often than not, world-class pilots have to work their way up through the ranks, progressing from the Junior Leagues up to the pinnacle of their chosen sport. If you plan on becoming the best in your field, you'd better focus and use all your energy towards that goal. And for many years, Travis showed everyone just how talented he was when riding a motorcycle. But he wasn't going to stop there, as he loved all things that could go fast and increase his adrenaline levels.

Even though he's currently 39 years old, there are no signs of him slowing down anytime soon. Some of you will know him from his recent Gymkhana adventures, as he performed quite a few mindblowing stunts in two different Subaru vehicles. But you might have also seen him racing rallycross cars, oval tracks, or going flat-out through the high-speed stages of the American Rally Association Championship.

And now, he'll be taking on a lifelong dream that can be described by using two words: NASCAR and Daytona. Despite his busy schedule, Travis managed to find the time to sit down for an interview as we wanted to learn more about what makes him tick going into the big event next month. Needless to say, his story is inspiring to say the least, and it just goes to show how far determination and enthusiasm can take you in life.

Travis was successful from a very young age, and he can still remember a time when his trophies were bigger than he was. Still, we were curious to know what he'd choose between cars and motorcycles if he had to give up on one or the other. "Well, that's a hard question. I like it all. When I was in my heyday at 18 or 19, I felt like I was the best rider in the world, at least in freestyle and maybe supercross in terms of speed. As for cars, I feel like, on any given day, I'm good enough to compete or even win against anyone as long as we're talking dirt tracks and AWD cars."

Racing Colin McRae was the best

"I struggle a lot with RWD and pavement, as that's not my specialty, but we're getting better. The Gymkhana experience has helped considerably, as you learn a lot of things sliding around a corner at speeds of up to 130 mph. And I think this is going to help with my NASCAR challenge, too. But obviously, I'll always be known for motorcycle racing, and I think people will never fully appreciate the car side of things and how far we've come. But for me, it's cool that I've accomplished so much on both two wheels and four wheels."

Speaking of which, just mentioning all of his previous victories, titles and medals would be quite a lengthy endeavor, so we decided to learn about it from his perspective instead. After all, people will perceive these accomplishments differently, judging by their experience or affiliation with various sports. So on a list of three of the proudest/most memorable motorsport-related moments, these are the ones that Travis chose to speak of. "The 2006 X-Games was a big one for me, as I managed to land the Double Backflip in front of a live audience."

"Everyone in the stadium was standing up, and I remember that some people didn't think anyone could pull it off. Probably the coolest part about the stunt was that Colin McRae was in the stands and he got to see it as well. And then I switched to four wheels and we raced against each other. Going into the final heat he had it covered, but he rolled the car toward the end. He landed back on the wheels and was instantly on the gas, but I ultimately ended up winning the race. All things considered, that was probably the best all-around weekend for me!"

"I also can't forget about the 2000 Motocross des Nations event in France, at Saint-Jean-d'Angely. There I was representing the United States, at 16 years old, and winning against the French team even though they were the favorites at the time. I've never had almost 200,000 booing at me before, it was the biggest compliment I could've taken. Last but not least, I'd have to say that starting the Nitro Circus is one of my proudest accomplishments. Being able to tour the world at almost 40 years old with my best friends and my family is pretty cool."

My whole life is a near miss

We all know that racing can be dangerous, and we're thankful that safety tech has come a long way since the early days of motorsports. But anything can and will happen at any given time, especially if you're always giving 110% out on the track. Given Pastrana's taste for speed, it's not at all shocking to learn that he's had to deal with plenty of injuries over the years.

And we all know how badly things went for him during the base jump sequence in Gymkhana 2022. Some of you might remember Mario Andretti's famous words: "People remember the crashes, but drivers remember the near misses." Naturally, our next question was aimed at finding out how many of these Travis has had during his career. He laughed upon hearing the question and added:

"My whole life is a near miss. That's where I shine. When the going gets tough, that's when I'm at my best. I feel like I'm always kind of bouncing around, easily excitable, even talking about Daytona I've got an ear-to-ear grin on my face. But when you put me into the car on the bike, it's that do-or-die situation. That's when my focus starts to work and those are the moments I live for." Speaking about Ken Block, Travis still remembers going to talk to him a week before the X-Games almost 20 years ago. "I said hey, would you sponsor me?"

Needless to say, Ken agreed, and he only asked that Travis introduced him to the people at Vermont Sportscar in return. "When he showed up, he was quick right off the bat. Everything was full send. He picked it up quickly and he invested in himself. We wanted to drift around and film it, and that's how he started a phenomenon that took over the world. He was equally as smart as he was brave. He always believed in himself and the people around him and he got things done."

Out of difficulties grow miracles

Just recently, we ranked our favorite Gymkhana videos featuring Ken Block, and of course, we can't ignore the fact that Travis Pastrana became the main star of the series in 2020. We imagined that taking over was a big responsibility for him, so we wanted to find out more about the topic.

"I've been asking him for a chance basically since Gymkhana in San Francisco. He was living every motorhead's dream, jumping through San Francisco, shutting down the Golden Gate Bridge, and all that. After Gymkhana Ten he asked: How would you like to do your own Gymkhana? He told me that it needs to involve proximity driving at high speed, an amazing car build, and an amazing location. Those were the basic rules, and I think we did pretty well overall."

Speaking about Gymkhana 2022, we all know how insane the most recent Hoonigan-directed viral video was. Most people might have given up after an incident as serious as the one Travis was involved in, but then again his list of motorsport-related injuries is longer than anything we have ever seen before.

"It was a really tough deal, I broke my back and my pelvis among other things, and it was a huge setback concerning the timeline we needed to follow. The guys over at Black Rifle Coffee Company played a big role in making the helicopter jump happen, as the town representatives were not keen on allowing us to shoot that at first. They brought out structural engineers to make sure that the bridge was going to withstand the impact of me landing on it, and it all worked out for us."

The winner ain’t the one with the fastest car. It’s the one who refuses to lose

Even though we had a relatively short talk, we managed to find out so many things about Travis Pastrana that we didn't know before. Some of you might be quite excited to know that he will be coordinating the development of a new rallycross-focused race track in Oklahoma, which will serve as a stepping stone for the development of the Nitro Rallycross series.

As is the case with most present-day race drivers, Travis also makes sure to get a lot of practice even when he's not at the track. Sim Racing is how he sharpens his skills without being in the car, and he uses Assetto Corsa for training at Pikes Peak. "For everything else, especially the NASCAR stuff there's nothing better than iRacing. It's fantastic."

And that's the main point of our story today. Travis Pastrana will be taking on the NASCAR challenge a few weeks from now, at the Daytona 500! You might already know by now that 23XI Racing will be fielding a third car for this race and that Travis will be the man behind the wheel. He is set to take on the difficult task of qualifying in the No. 67 Black Rifle Coffee Company Toyota Camry TRD.

Even though this will be his first entry in the NASCAR Cup Series, it's his third time in a stock car at Daytona International Speedway. "It's an event I've wanted to race my entire life" pretty much sums it up, and it would certainly be exciting to see Travis getting a good result for his inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event. We'll report back with more information as soon as we have it.