RICHMOND, VA (April 27, 2012) -- No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota driver Travis Pastrana finished 22nd in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut Friday at Richmond International Raceway.
The 11-time X Games gold medal winner qualified 25th and raced as high as 16th during the 250-lap event. Despite falling a lap behind the leaders at the lap 180-mark, the RAB Racing driver looked poised to grab a top-15 finish. However, a pit lane speeding penalty during the race’s final stop forced a return to pit lane and dropped him another lap to the leaders.
“The result wasn’t what we wanted, but to be perfectly honest -- I felt pretty good out there," said Pastrana. "You know we weren’t a top-10 car, but for a while we were closing in on what could have been a top-15 before I messed up the pits."
This is a long-awaited debut in the NASCAR Nationwide series for Pastrana, who thanked sponsors including KMC to ESPN reporters after the race. He was originally set to start his NASCAR career last summer, but was injured in a big crash in the X Games Best Trick competition and had to delay his plans. He said he's enjoying racing against big names in his new sport.
"We passed (Brad) Keselowski at one point and I was like, ‘That’s awesome.'"
Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond. Pastrana returns to action in No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota at Darlington Speedway on May 11. The Pastrana NASCAR Nationwide program is backed by iRacing, Boost Mobile, Toyota, Samsung and KMC Wheels.
SOURCE: Pastrana Waltrip Racing