X Games legend Pastrana achieves one more thrill
39-year-old says, ‘Dude, how cool was that?’
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Travis Pastrana needed to stick his Toyota with all four wheels on the track — not hurled through the air in a death-defying stunt in much the same way he made his name — to pull off one more thrill in his motorsports career.
For a moment, Pastrana had a run at a Daytona 500 victory in his grasp.
But for all his X Games gold and motocross triumphs, it’s Pastrana’s highlight-worthy crashes, laundry list of broken bones and frightening falls that stamped him as a no-limits action star favorite.
So, it seemed fitting Pastrana’s Daytona 500 ended Sunday night in a wreck.
“Did someone get into me or did I spin on my own?” Pastrana asked nearby fans from a golf cart.
The fans who waited for
Pastrana in the garage let him know that another driver smacked into his Toyota.
Good to know, Pastrana assured them. Then he pondered his circumstances from this week — ones that took Pastrana from having to qualify just to make the Daytona 500, to a shot at the checkered flag, to a solid 11th in a one-off race — and it felt almost as good as gold.
“Dude, how cool was that? Coming to the line with one lap to go and in the hunt,” Pastrana said.
Pretty cool, indeed. Pastrana, 39, made the hard charge after he started last in his first NASCAR start in a decade. Pastrana deftly avoided trouble in his No. 67 Toyota and even led a couple of laps.
“Yeah! I led a lap at the Daytona 500,” Pastrana gushed.
Pastrana make his long-coveted attempt to race the Daytona 500 this year in an entry fielded by 23XI Racing and sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee. The Toyota was a third entry for the NASCAR team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and it gave the decorated driver the chance to fulfill his career dream.
“He survived, I guess,” Hamlin said. “But I think I saw some sparks there at the end. But, yeah, it was what we wanted him to do: Get a bunch of laps and enjoy the day, and I think he ran all of them.”
With massive fan appeal that stretches back to his X Games glory, Pastrana was a rock star around the track. Sure enough, bros flocked to greet him in the garage and mingled around a Toyota about as mangled as some of his body parts after a stunt gone awry.
Pastrana couldn’t stay for long. He had a mandatory trip to the medical center.
“Can I have your hat now?” one fan asked.
“How about your water bottle?” another wanted.
How about a sigh of relief Pastrana finished in one piece? His wife, Lyn-Z, a skateboarder, snowboarder and also an X Games medalist, said the entire Daytona experience was “exciting but very nerve-wracking.”