Travis Pastrana continues to find 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 were “still really good friends.” There is history. There is luggage. And every now and then there’s a late-night text message that starts with: “Hey…are you busy?”

That text message arrived again this week.

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

The whole saga really started in 2012, when Pastrana – who looked like the friendly guy at your cul-de-sac and exuded 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 on oval tracks are unwilling to negotiate.

There were moments when you leaned forward in your seat. There were also moments that made you shudder 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. Things went well enough that Roush did what seemed logical at the time: He offered Pastrana a full-time Xfinity ride for 2013.

ForbesTravis Pastrana ready to cross NASCAR’s Daytona 500 off his bucket listBy means of Greg Angel

However, that season was not one for the memory books.

Yes, Pastrana grabbed a post at Talladega. Yes, he scored a career-best 10th in Indianapolis. On paper there were signs of progress. In reality, the magic that had flickered briefly disappeared just as quickly. Inconsistency became the theme. The injuries piled up. The walls continued to win most arguments. By the end of the season, the relationship quietly came to an end and Pastrana was once again free to do what he did best: things that would make insurance adjusters sweat.

You may also wonder whether boredom played a role. After all, this was a man used to jumping out of planes without parachutes, starring under the big top of Nitro Circus, and treating physics as a polite suggestion. Asking him to run in neat little circles almost every weekend might have been a tall order.

Since his departure in late 2013, Pastrana’s NASCAR appearances have been occasional and strategic. He stopped by for a one-off Truck Series start, most recently in 2023, when he finished the Daytona Truck season opener in a very respectable 13th place, followed by aAn even more impressive 11th place in the Daytona 500. Sensible even. Which for Pastrana counts as character development.

Now, after a few more years of doing the kind of wildly inadvisable things that made him famous in the first place, Pastrana returns once again. He climbs into a Niece Motorsports truck again in Daytona, this time supported by BRUNT Workwear, and tries to survive a 200-mph pack race with a smile on his face.

“I’m excited to get back on the track at Daytona with BRUNT Workwear and Niece Motorsports,” said Pastrana. “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 “a great partner,” adding that expanding that partnership to the track was “a no-brainer and a great opportunity for all of us.”

BRUNT is certainly not new to NASCAR, having sponsored driver Mason Massey in both stock car and truck events since 2021. For the brand, the combination with Pastrana feels less like a marketing experiment and more like an inevitability.

“We’ve been talking about making this happen 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 trust 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’s for sure: NASCAR and Travis Pastrana may never settle down together, yet they seem completely incapable of parting ways.