Travis Pastrana Keeps Finding His Way Back To NASCAR

Action sports star Travis Pastrana and NASCAR have always had the kind of relationship normally reserved for high school sweethearts who married too young, divorced loudly, and then spent the rest of their lives insisting they’re “still really good friends.” There’s history. There’s baggage. And every so often, there’s a late-night text that starts with, “Hey… you busy?”

That text arrived again this week.

Pastrana announced Tuesday that he will return to NASCAR competition, racing in the Craftsman Truck Series season opener at Daytona in a few short weeks. It’s another chapter in a story that never quite ends, mostly because Pastrana has never been very good at walking away from things with engines.

The whole saga really began in earnest in 2012, when Pastrana — who looked like the friendly guy on your cul-de-sac and radiated unmistakable golden retriever energy — dipped his toes into NASCAR’s Xfinity Series. He made nine starts that season, showing flashes of genuine speed while also demonstrating a recurring inability to remember that concrete walls at oval tracks are famously unwilling to negotiate.

There were moments that made you lean forward in your chair. There were also moments that made you wince and reach for the replay button. Still, Jack Roush saw enough promise to step in and put Pastrana in a Roush Fenway Racing car for the final Xfinity race of the year. It went well enough that Roush did what seemed logical at the time: he offered Pastrana a full-time Xfinity ride for 2013.

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That season, however, was not one for the memory books.

Yes, Pastrana grabbed a pole at Talladega. Yes, he scored a career-best 10th-place finish at Indianapolis. On paper, there were signs of progress. In reality, whatever magic had briefly flickered tended to vanish just as quickly. Inconsistency became the theme. Injuries piled up. The walls continued to win most arguments. By season’s end, the relationship quietly ended, and Pastrana was once again free to do the things he did best — namely, things that would make insurance adjusters sweat.

It’s also fair to wonder if boredom played a role. This was, after all, a man accustomed to jumping out of airplanes without parachutes, starring under the big top of Nitro Circus, and treating physics like a polite suggestion. Asking him to run nearly every weekend in tidy little circles may have been a stretch.

Since stepping away at the end of 2013, Pastrana’s NASCAR appearances have been occasional and strategic. He’s popped up for one-off Truck Series starts, most recently in 2023, when he finished the Daytona Truck season opener a very respectable 13th followed by an even more impressive 11th place in the Daytona 500. Sensible, even. Which, for Pastrana, counts as character development.

Now, after a couple more years doing the sort of wildly inadvisable things that made him famous in the first place, Pastrana is returning once again. He’ll once more climb into a Niece Motorsports truck at Daytona, this time backed by BRUNT Workwear, and attempt to survive 200 mph pack racing with a smile on his face.

“I’m excited to get back on the track in Daytona with BRUNT Workwear and Niece Motorsports,” Pastrana said. “This is my first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race since 2023, so it will be fun to get behind the wheel again and see what we can do.”

Pastrana also pointed to his relationship with the sponsor, calling BRUNT “an amazing partner,” adding that expanding that partnership to the racetrack “was a no-brainer and a great opportunity for all of us.”

BRUNT is hardly new to NASCAR, having sponsored driver Mason Massey in both stock car and truck events since 2021. For the brand, pairing with Pastrana feels less like a marketing experiment and more like an inevitability.

“We’ve been talking about making this happen ever since we started working with Travis,” said Eric Girouard, Founder and CEO of BRUNT Workwear. “If something has wheels and an engine, chances are Travis drives it better than most.”

Whether Daytona rewards that confidence remains to be seen. Superspeedway racing is equal parts courage, chaos, and timing — three things Pastrana has never lacked, even if they haven’t always arrived in equal measure. But one thing is certain: NASCAR and Travis Pastrana may never settle down together, yet they seem utterly incapable of saying goodbye.