Travis Pastrana Will Reportedly Attempt the 2023 Daytona 500 With 23XI Racing

Legendary stunt driver Travis Pastrana will reportedly attempt the Daytona 500 with Denny Hamlin's race-winning 23XI Racing team. The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi reports that Pastrana will be joining the team in an additional car fielded as an open entry, meaning that he would have to earn a spot on the grid through the race's arcane qualifying procedure.

As a driver in an open entry, Pastrana would be fighting for one of just four spots in the 40-car field available to entries that do not participate in NASCAR's charter franchising system. Two of those four spots will be given to the two fastest open cars in qualifying, while the other two will only be available to the top open finisher in either "Duel" qualifying race the Thursday before the 500-mile event. Pastrana will be racing for spots in a more competitive field than last year's event, with the returning Jimmie Johnson known to be among the other open entrants.

Pastrana's potential debut in the NASCAR Cup Series comes more than a decade after his debut in stock cars back in 2012. Pastrana ran a full season of the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Roush-Fenway Racing back in 2013, but his stock car career since has largely been limited to one-off appearances in the NASCAR Truck Series.

The 23XI team, a factory-supported Toyota program entered by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and NBA icon Michael Jordan, is in its third year. The team has won three races in its first two seasons and will run chartered full-time entries for Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick alongside its open car for Pastrana.

23XI Racing had previously teased the one-off program with a video released via Twitter on Friday. The video does not name Pastrana, but it does announce the team's third car and does include a brief shot of what appears to be the back of Pastrana's head.

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