Pastrana To Focus On NASCAR
Cycle News Staff | September 20, 2011
Travis Pastrana will focus on his NASCAR career and not the 720-degree rotation trick that left him with a badly broken right foot and ankle at the X Games in late July.”That’s something I’ve been trying for four years now, that trick,” Pastrana said today on his website. “I definitely choked on it. It’s a disappointment to me, and a disappointment to the team that I’m not out here driving the cars. But it’s been interesting as it’s been healing up – to say, ‘Okay, where do you want to go? What do you want to do?’ I’d rather focus on this [car racing], and what I need to do to succeed in this sport more so than to make a legacy, or whatever you call it, in that sport. I’ve accomplished what I want to do there. Yes, I’d like to land that trick on dirt, but maybe not in a competition format. Maybe on your own terms.”
Pastrana was a spectator on Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway, the freestyle legend wearing a cast on his right foot. It was his first visit to a NASCAR track since he suffered the injury that forced him to abandon his Nationwide Series debut that weekend in Indianapolis, but also the entire 2011 schedule he had planned to run for the team he co-owns with Michael Waltrip.
Pastrana says his plan is to make his debut at Phoenix in the second week of the 2012 season. He has been basically bedridden since surgery.
“I crushed it pretty bad,” Pastrana said of his foot. “It’s really disappointing. I’ve had a lot of injuries, but this is only my second one that I haven’t been able to be competing with. It’s such a small area; it’s taking a long time. I start walking next month, and hopefully get in the car by December.”
Pastrana said he won’t know how much testing he’ll possibly be able to do later this year until surgeons remove the pins in his ankle and foot.”We just don’t want to rush it coming back and accidentally hurt anything,” he said. “By next year, no problem. But as soon as I can get in the car, I want to do as many laps as possible.”Check out this week’s issue of Cycle News at the following link:
http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/