Travis Pastrana to Nascar?

Reports are coming out today from Sirius XM128 that Travis Pastrana is headed to Nascar. Does not mention which series, but Travis has been a huge Red Bull star.

With Vickers future unknown and Kahne good for 1 year, Red Bull could be geting Travis in Nascar's Nationwide or Truck series in preperation for the 2012 season in Cup?

Travis dropped some hint sduring a interview here:

http://www.speedfreaks.tv/articles1-1588/TravisPastranaTalksRallycr...

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Permalink Reply by Wheaton56 on November 11, 2010 at 9:17am

Was robby considered a crossover driver

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Permalink Reply by Thomas on November 11, 2010 at 2:38pm

Tony Stewart. Crossover driver.

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Permalink Reply by Joey Brasil on November 11, 2010 at 11:51pm

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are the most successful of the crossovers so far.

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Permalink Reply by NIKAL on November 11, 2010 at 5:06pm

Its official! TP is partnering with MWR and formed Pastrana Waltrip Racing. Travis will run 7 NW races in 2011 and plans to run 20 more in 2012. Pastrana-Waltrip Racing will field Toyotas out of the Michael Waltrip Racing shop in Cornelius, N.C. Backers of this team are the Bechtel family, Michael Waltrip Racing and Wasserman media group. Waltrip noted the importance of the youth demographic Pastrana brings to NASCAR. Pastrana-Waltrip Racing will focus on creating programs that expose the action sports world's fans and participants to NASCAR and develop youth marketing initiatives designed to create greater awareness of both sports.

TP's schedule and sponsors will be announced in January. At the end of the video TP shot announcing his NASCAR future it did show DC shoes and Red Bull logo's. So I would have to assume they will support this race team some way.

http://pastranawaltrip.com/

Personally I am really surprised TP will not be using the K&N series as a stepping stone and he is jumping directly into NW. I hope it works out, but as Danica Patrick has shown its not as easy as it might look to go from one form of motorsports to another. And her jump over was a lot more similar then where TP is coming from.

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Permalink Reply by Dave-O on November 11, 2010 at 5:28pm

He's definitely using the Danica Plan to get into the game. Maybe even give RG a challenge on the nationwide road courses?

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Permalink Reply by TOG on November 11, 2010 at 5:59pm

TP Give RG a challenge on the NW road courses ? No f-ing way.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Stone on November 11, 2010 at 6:35pm

Trav hasn't raced much in years.. X games.. snore..

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Permalink Reply by Scott B on November 11, 2010 at 6:48pm

I am excited to see what Pastrana can do. I will be cheering for him, unlike Danica.

Is there a special reason this is 'Pastrana-Waltrip' Racing?

I don't really think it makes sense for TP to jump right in as a team owner...maybe a sponsor (Red Bull) contract made this happen?

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Permalink Reply by RG7FAN on November 11, 2010 at 9:47pm

Maybe the first thing they can teach him is to fasten the shoulder harness in the show car

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Smith on November 12, 2010 at 6:57pm

Travis who??? Yup, I am over 40. Way over 40 and have no clue who this guy is. So I did some research.

This guy isn't a racer, he's is nothing more than an entertainer. He did good racing 125cc bikes a long time ago. B.F.D. And he raced a rally car? I hate to even say "raced" as the rally series in the USA is mostly just a bunch of amateurs out playing in the dirt. He is a champion? No one really cares about rallying in this country.

I bet NASCAR isn't too impressed with his resume either. Sure, I know they really want to see him in a race car as he has a lot of fans. And by the way that is the only reason this is happening. I read that the plan is for him to run the Nationwide race next spring in Phoenix? Where is he going to get the seat time in a stock car over the Winter that he really has to have? I can see him in his first few races on a 1/2 mile with 40 other stock cars. He will be up against the wall shaking his head wondering WTF just happened? This is going to be fun to watch. I just hope no one gets hurt while he tries to figure this type of racing out.

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Permalink Reply by ShaneH on November 13, 2010 at 9:38am

I somewhat disagree, Bruce.You can't teach some things. People have described Travis as being able to get behind the wheel or on anything and go all out. Now that said, it will be very interesting to see how he does. I'm hearing that he's raced under a psuedonym this year to get some seat time in full bodied round track cars without anyone knowing. He's known as someone who really gets involved with the fans and that's good for the sport.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Smith on November 13, 2010 at 11:38am

Hey Shane, OK that sounds logical. There is no way that NASCAR would let him in a Nationwide car with his background. At least what the public knows.

I only know what I read yesterday about him and I can't say about his natural talent. It was easy to see he is very, very popular with younger people though. NASCAR needs to save the Nationwide Series and at the same time stop letting the Cup drivers in all the races. Bringing in new talent from outside of stock cars must be one of the plans. Danica has helped this year, but ready or not she will be in a Cup car sometime next year.

I guess what worries me a little about this guy is he likes to stick his neck out and that can really cause problems in a pack of stock cars. He is a stunt man and that always doesn't make for a good racer. Bobby Ferro and Stan Barrett did fine, but there have been many others that didn't do jack in race cars.