Travis Pastrana: Motocross, Rally, NASCAR and the Stunts Behind Nitro Circus

Travis Pastrana is an American athlete who has competed in motocross, freestyle, rallying, NASCAR and powerboat racing. He won the 125cc national motocross title in 2000 as a teenager, took multiple X Games golds and later earned four Rally America titles. He co-founded the Nitro Circus brand, which made stunt performance a central part of his public profile.

Who is Travis Pastrana?

Travis Alan Pastrana was born on 8 October 1983. He is best known for work across freestyle motocross, rallying, NASCAR and stunts, and his profile climbed quickly in the early 2000s as a multi-time X Games gold medallist, and he was the first to land a double backflip in competition.

Before his freestyle career he was a successful motorcycle racer. He won the AMA 125cc national title in 2000, becoming the youngest champion of that category at 16, and he took the East Coast title the following year. His career also includes induction into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2023.

In 2003 he co-founded Nitro Circus, an entertainment brand producing live shows, television and films built around extreme stunts. Separate from that brand, he has recreated several stunts made famous by Evel Knievel.

Motocross champion, X Games legend, rally title holder and Daytona 500 starter, with a stunt career built on surviving the risks.

How did his motocross career begin?

His first AMA Motocross race came in late 1999, and in 2000 he took the 125cc national title. He then moved in with Kevin Windham to train for the next season, and the two taught each other freestyle tricks in their downtime. That training paid off with the 125cc East Coast title in 2001.

He raced in the Supercross 250cc class from 2001 to 2005, peaking in 2002 with a 16th-place season. He also won the 125cc Rose Creek Invitational and rode at the 2000 Motocross des Nations.

His father's Puerto Rican descent made him eligible to race for Team Puerto Rico. His debut for the team came on 15 March 2008, when he qualified for the final and finished third. In 2018 he returned to the Motocross of Nations with teammates Kevin Windham and Ryan Sipes, to raise money and awareness after Hurricane Maria.

How did freestyle motocross make his name?

At 14 he won the World Freestyle Motocross Championship in Las Vegas, starting a winning run that lasted until 2003. After his gold at the 1999 X Games, he also won the inaugural Gravity Games in Rhode Island, and went on to win five golds at that event between 1999 and 2006.

At the 1999 X Games he won the first-ever MotoX Freestyle event, with the highest freestyle run score of 99.00 points. In 2000 he won the MotoX Freestyle gold again, although he attempted his first backflip on a motorcycle and broke his foot. He took a third gold in 2001 and a fourth in 2003, when he became only the second rider to complete a 360 in competition.

His 2006 X Games was his strongest. He collected gold in both motorbike Best Trick and freestyle, plus the rally event, which made him the third athlete to win three golds at one event. That year he also performed the first double backflip in competition, which scored 98.60, the highest in the Best Trick competition.

His tricks continued to draw attention. In 2009 he attempted a rodeo 720 at the X Games, crashed on his first try and placed fourth. Later that year he landed the trick himself. He named it the TP7, because he had been 20 degrees short of a full 720. In 2010 he won Moto X Freestyle with another double backflip, and he also won Speed and Style.

How did rallying fit into his career?

His rallying began in 2003 at the Race of Champions. Subaru signed him in 2006 to lead its new Subaru Rally Team USA, with co-driver Christian Edstrom. On 5 August 2006 he took the gold in the X Games' first rally car event, beating Colin McRae by 0.53 seconds; McRae had rolled his car over the final jump.

Later that August he and Edstrom won their first Rally America event, and on 22 October 2006 they clinched the series overall and open class titles. That made Pastrana the youngest ever American rally champion. In December he represented the United States in the Nations' Cup at the Race of Champions in Paris.

His World Rally Championship work was less successful. In 2007 he raced three P-WRC events in a Subaru Impreza, finishing fifth in the P-WRC class in Mexico, the best in-class result by an American in a WRC event since John Buffum in 1988. He then finished tenth in Argentina and eleventh in Great Britain. He described the season as having gone badly.

In September 2008 he took part in the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally in Scotland, driving a Ford Escort RS1600 with Derek Ringer. On 29 August 2009 he won at the Ojibwe Forests Rally, his fifth win of that Rally America season, and it sealed his fourth consecutive driver's championship, the most in the series' history.

He began competing in Global RallyCross in 2011 and became the 2021 Nitro Rallycross champion after a tiebreaker over Scott Speed. He built a test track on a 150-acre lot he bought near his home to prepare for that series.

Why did he race in NASCAR?

Pastrana made his NASCAR debut in 2011 at the Toyota All-Star Showdown, where he finished sixth. He then competed in the Nationwide Series in 2012, starting with a 22nd place at Richmond. In his first seven races for RAB Racing he posted a best finish of 13th, and in September he drove for Roush Fenway Racing at Richmond.

He signed with Roush for the full 2013 season, driving the No. 60 Ford. He scored four top-ten finishes, with a best of ninth at Richmond. At Talladega he won his first career pole at a lap speed of 284.049 km/h (176.500 mph), but he was involved in a late crash there. He finished 14th in the points, 429 points behind champion Austin Dillon.

On 11 November 2013 he announced he would leave NASCAR, citing a lack of sponsorship and frustration with his performance. He returned to the Truck Series in 2015 at Las Vegas, finishing 16th, and raced for Niece Motorsports in 2017 and 2020.

In January 2023 23XI Racing announced a part-time third car for the Daytona 500, and Pastrana was confirmed as its driver, in the No. 67 Toyota with Black Rifle Coffee Company sponsorship. He qualified through the second-fastest lap among non-chartered teams. He finished 11th after completing all 212 laps, but was caught up in a multi-car crash that ended the race for others.

What did he do in powerboat and other racing?

In 2020 Pastrana expanded into offshore powerboat racing, joining the Miss GEICO Racing Team to drive a 47-foot catamaran alongside British racer Steve Curtis. In 2022 he and Curtis won the UIM Class 1 World Championship with the Huski Chocolate Racing Team.

His other racing included a charity dirt track event at Eldora Speedway in June 2010, where he finished 23rd after starting 15th. In September 2010 he set the world record for the fastest ascent of Mount Washington in a car, in 6 minutes 20.47 seconds. David Higgins took the record in June 2011, and Pastrana regained it in July 2017 with a time of 5 minutes 44.72 seconds. In August 2021 he cut more than 16 seconds from that in an 862 hp Subaru, with a time of 5 minutes 28.67 seconds.

In 2012 he drove a Ferrari 458 in the 24 Hours of Daytona for AF Waltrip, finishing 35th overall. He also competed in the Red Bull Straight Rhythm competition in 2014, where he was eliminated early.

How did Nitro Circus and his stunts develop?

Nitro Circus premiered on MTV in 2009. It was a spinoff of Jackass, shared producers with that show and was partly created by Johnny Knoxville, and it followed a cast of stunt performers. Pastrana is one of its executive producers. He sponsored a monster truck, the Pastrana 199, which debuted at Monster Jam in 2006.

On 26 September 2007 he jumped out of an aeroplane over Arecibo, Puerto Rico, without a parachute, then latched into a harness with another jumper for a safe tandem landing. He faced legal trouble for the stunt. On 1 January 2010 he set a ramp-to-ramp car jump record, flying a Subaru rally car from a pier onto a barge in Long Beach. The distance was 269 feet (82 m), beating the previous mark of 171 feet (52 m).

On 8 July 2018 in Las Vegas he paid tribute to Evel Knievel, his childhood role model, by clearing three record-breaking jumps. He cleared 52 cars at 143 feet, 16 buses at 192 feet and the Caesars Palace fountain at 149 feet, for a total of 484 feet in one night. Knievel had been unable to land the fountain jump in 1967, when he crushed his pelvis and femur.

What injuries has he suffered?

The injuries below are the most significant ones from his career. Injuries have repeatedly taken him off the circuit for weeks or months. A 2019 interview put the total at more than 90 broken bones and more than 25 concussions. He has said he cannot remember most of them.

At 14 he was severely hurt in a freestyle motocross competition, when he landed on the top of the ramp, decelerating from 50 mph (80 km/h) to zero in under a second. His spine separated from his pelvis. He spent three months in a wheelchair and needed six blood transfusions, and he vowed to keep jumping while recovering.

He broke his leg at a motocross exhibition at the 2005 Race of Champions but competed anyway. In July 2011 an ankle fracture came from a bad landing at the X Games, and he still raced in the RallyCross final that day. In 2022 a base jump in Fort Lauderdale, filmed for an internet series, left him with a broken pelvis, which kept him out of that year's Race of Champions.

Career summary at a glance

How has he been represented in media?

Pastrana lent his name to the Acclaim game Freestyle Motocross: McGrath vs. Pastrana in 2000, and he appeared in the 2004 game MTX Mototrax. He also voiced himself in the 2007 game Colin McRae: DiRT and appeared as a driver in its sequel.

He co-wrote a memoir with an ESPN writer, The Big Jump, which ESPN Books published in 2007, and an ESPN documentary, 199 Lives: The Travis Pastrana Story, followed in 2008. He judged AGT: Extreme on NBC in 2022.