Travis Pastrana's Nascar Debut

[Burhead]

He is making his Nationwide debut this Friday. I'm pretty eager to see how he does, any thoughts on him? Do you think he'll stick with Nascar full time or give up and quit?

I'm also excited to see Ryan Blaney's first race as well. Just be a pretty fun race Friday night.

[DynamiteMcGhee]

As long as people realize he could eventually be good, it will be fine. If everyone thinks he's going to be scoring top 5's off the bat, then disappointment might set in.

[Yankee_Vol]

I'm excited to see how he does

[milohimself]

Originally Posted by DynamiteMcGhee

As long as people realize he could eventually be good, it will be fine. If everyone thinks he's going to be scoring top 5's off the bat, then disappointment might set in.

I think he'll be good relatively quickly. Dude is supremely talented at operating anything with an engine

[DynamiteMcGhee]

I think he'll be good. I just won't be surprised if he posts a twenty something finish Friday night.

[milohimself]

Who will he be driving for?

[DynamiteMcGhee]

I believe it's a Waltrip/RAB collaboration.

[Burhead]

Originally Posted by milohimself

Who will he be driving for?

Running the #99 Toyota for RAB Racing in partnership with MWR.

[milohimself]

If he does even modestly well over his first few races, he'll be given the best possible opportunity to succeed. He would be incredibly important to NASCAR as a marketable driver.

[Burhead]

There is a lot of good talent coming through the pipeline the next few years; Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Ross Kenseth, the Dillon brothers, John Hunter Nemechek, just to name a few.

[milohimself]

No doubt, but Pastrana carries his own demographic. He has massive appeal to a crowd that typically wouldn't watch stock car racing.

[Burhead]

Originally Posted by milohimself

No doubt, but Pastrana carries his own demographic. He has massive appeal to a crowd that typically wouldn't watch stock car racing.

No I agree. I was merely pointing that with the new young stars coming through and with people like Travis and I hate to admit it, but Dancia too, should really help the sport in terms of media and younger viewers.

[milohimself]

True, and young stars are good for any sport, but the cross-appeal is what's needed if NASCAR wants another popularity explosion. New guys coming up the pipeline from regional stock car outfits doesn't really provide that. Danica does to an extent, but it seems like the IRL crowd probably already follows NASCAR.

If they play this right, Pastrana could bring a big dirtbike crowd with him. I know a lot of people in that sort of crowd, most of them don't watch stock cars, but I get the feeling they could be into it with a rooting interest and a good presentation.

[SyxxSynse]

I hope it works better for him than the Ricky Carmichael experiment.

[milohimself]

Unlike Carmichael, Pastrana has already experienced a fairly high level of driving competition with P-WRC and Rally USA to a lesser extent. Dude can handle a car.