Catchfence

Travis Pastrana

No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota driver Travis Pastrana returns to the K&N Pro Series East this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Friday’s race at 5 p.m. marks Pastrana’s final start before his July 30 NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

His NASCAR debut comes in the middle of the 17th annual X Games competition in Los Angeles. Boost Mobile held a national contest that dubbed Pastrana’s week of racing and X Games competition as “PASTRANATHON.” The 11-time X Games gold medal winner plans to compete in the X Games Thursday and Friday then fly to Indianapolis for his Nationwide debut on Saturday. He’ll return to Los Angeles to compete in the RallyCross finals on Sunday logging more than 4,000 air miles.

PASTRANA ON NASCAR VS. RALLY CAR RACING: “It’s all about aggression. In Rally you can make up time by simply taking chances if you will. You listen to your co-driver and you just start cutting corners a little bit more. You can carry more momentum into your corners, you’re breaking later and you’re breaking harder. Here, in NASCAR, you know the track so it’s not about taking chances. If you take a chance you’re just simply overshooting the corner. You’re pushing up the corner. It comes down to communication with your team. Letting the team know exactly what the car is doing and how they can help you get around the track faster. Everyone is very close and it’s just a matter of figuring out that exact line and the line changes every lap. It’s been a big adjustment for me.”

LESSONS LEARNED IN PRO SERIES STARTS: The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that when you think you leave something in the corner, you didn’t. Which basically means the harder you try to drive these cars the slower you seem to go. It’s was interesting because at my first race at Irwindale I just drove. I was like, ‘I don’t want to get in a crash.’ At the end of the race we had a car that was untouched, a car that the tires were still good and a car that was ready to race and we were able to race the last couple of laps really hard and it was my best finish. The last few races I have worked my car and banged it up a lot during the race, so by the end we had nothing to race with. I think this weekend I am going to take an in-between approach. I also learned that qualifying is important.”

NOTES OF INTEREST

· Stats: Pastrana’s sixth-place finish in the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale is his best finish in four K&N starts.

· Tape Delayed: SPEED will televise Friday’s race at 6 p.m. on August 4.

· Pastrana’s Schedule: Pastrana’s Nationwide schedule includes: July 30 in Indianapolis, Sept. 9 in Richmond, Va., Oct. 1 in Dover, Del., Oct. 8 in Kansas, Nov. 5 in Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 12 in Phoenix and Nov. 19 in Homestead-Miami.

· Engagement - Pastrana and longtime girlfriend and professional skateboarder Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins were engaged in June during a Nitro-Circus Live tour event in Las Vegas.

· Experience - Jerry Baxter serves as Pastrana’s East Series crew chief.

- Pastrana-Waltrip Racing Press Release