Travis Pastrana sat for a featured one-on-one interview during day two of the Motorsports Marketing Forum in Las Vegas. Pastrana noted his recovery process from a broken ankle, which delayed his NASCAR career, saying, “I actually became a bigger fan and feel I learned a lot by watching on television.” Asked about the biggest adjustment to NASCAR, he said, “The biggest adjustment, to me, is that the rider and the driver is the biggest factor. In Rally, if you want to make up time, you can take chances to jump up further. In NASCAR, you really have to not only know what the car is doing, but how to relate that. I was like, ‘The car is really loose!’ And they would say, ‘How loose?’ And I was like, ‘Really loose! Fix it.’ So that is going to come with experience and time. I will have to learn how to adjust the car.” On partnering with sponsors: “I would love to keep the same sponsor all the way through. Let’s say to fans, ‘These are the products we believe in, and let’s get fans to understand what these products are about and why we believe in these products.” He thinks sponsorship consistency is key: “It’s best to really rally around that, rather than have a sponsor one week and another the week that you don’t know anything about.”
QUICK HITS
* On the biggest cultural change in coming to NASCAR: “In NASCAR, if you wear a flat-brimmed hat, you get killed. They don’t like flat-brimmed hats in NASCAR!”
* On his goals for next year: “I want to drive as many different cars, as much as I can. And hopefully I can learn how to adjust to the car so I can help the team, and explain to them about how I need to work in order for me to drive the car.”
