Travis Pastrana Is Headed for the 2023 Daytona 500

UPDATE 02/16/2023: Travis Pastrana's practice and focus clearly paid off, as he managed the 25th-fastest lap in the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota and scored a spot in the 2023 running of the Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson claimed the other open spot with the 23rd-fastest lap. Pastrana and Johnson beat out four other hopefuls for the chance to race. On exiting the car, Pastrana fist-bumped his crew and said, grinning, "Hot diggity dog." Now that's a winning quote. The Daytona 500 starts at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, February 19.

Travis Pastrana's bucket list has a lot crossed off. He's won championships on both two wheels and four, raced motocross, supercross, rally car, and off-road. He's jumped cars with Ken Block and braved mountains at Pikes Peak. He isn't even new to NASCAR, racing both the Craftsman truck series and the Xfinity series. But in all the flips, spins, and burnouts of Pastrana's career, there's one race he's never had a chance to start: the Daytona 500.

For the 2023 running, Pastrana, with help from 23XI Racing [That's 23-eleven], Black Rifle Coffee, and Toyota, hopes to check a Cup car ride in NASCAR's most famous speedway off the list and take the green flag in the number 67 Toyota Camry TRD. It's not a done deal though; NASCAR fills out the four open spots in the Daytona field through a qualifying effort, and Pastrana will be up against racers including Jimmie Johnson fighting for a spot. In typical Pastrana fashion, he's just thrilled for the chance to do something fun in a car.

We caught up for a quick chat about going fast in a stock car.

C/D: With everything you've done, what's the draw of Daytona?

TP: It's the great American race. I think it's every redneck American's dream from the time they're young to . . .[He pauses, clearly concerned about his wording]

I use redneck with . . . I mean, I'm definitely a redneck.

Used with love.

Yeah! It was the one event that my whole family got together for. Friends, family, relatives, long-lost relatives. It's always had a real special spot in my heart. Also, Daytona, that was my first win in Supercross, in that infield, so it's a cool place and I've always wanted to be a part of it.

You race a lot of kinds of motorsport. That was normal in the '60s, but then racing became very segregated by specialty. Recently there’s been more swapover. For example, Tony Stewart going drag racing, Indy drivers looking at F1, stock car drivers at Indy, and so on. Are we going to see more people moving around from one kind of racing to another again?

Unser and Andretti, racing it all. That is what racing was all about. It used to be you only had a couple of big events a year, in the NASCAR series or the Indy series, and drivers just wanted to drive. They loved driving. They had so much passion. But now, how many races do the NASCAR guys have in a year? I see it with motocross, they are working so hard and it costs so much and you have to do it all, be an amazing driver, speak very well, promote. By the time you get to the top, you burn out. But I think what we’re seeing is that the drivers who have established names, when they get toward the end of their career, they're saying, "You know what? This has become a job. I really want to have fun. I’ve loved racing my whole life and I'm going to do it for the passion again."

Is that what racing the Daytona 500 is for you?