Travis Pastrana on Passion VS Money, His Worst Crash, & Electric Vehicles in Motorsports

Summary

Podcast Summary: Life Wide Open with CboysTV Episode Title: Travis Pastrana on Passion VS Money, His Worst Crash, & Electric Vehicles in Motorsports
Release Date: November 26, 2024

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Guest:
Travis Pastrana – Renowned motocross racer, stunt performer, and founder of Nitro Circus.

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1. Introduction to Travis Pastrana's Journey

The episode kicks off with a warm welcome to Travis Pastrana, celebrating his iconic status in the action sports world. The hosts express their admiration, highlighting how Travis has inspired them and countless fans through his daring stunts and relentless passion.

Notable Quote:

"My goal now, honestly with starting a YouTube channel is to be like you guys."
— Travis Pastrana [00:00]

2. The Legacy of Nitro Circus and Its Influence

Travis delves into the origins of Nitro Circus, emphasizing its role in revolutionizing action sports entertainment. He reminisces about Nitro Circus's early days, the camaraderie among the crew, and how the platform allowed him and others to live life "wide open."

Notable Quote:

"It's been awesome to be able to make a living never growing up, just living life wide open, having a lot of fun."
— Travis Pastrana [04:20]

3. Competitive Spirit and Racing Dynamics

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Travis's foray into competitive racing, including his experiences in NASCAR and rally racing. He shares anecdotes about racing against seasoned drivers, the challenges of transitioning between different motorsports disciplines, and the invaluable lessons learned from each race.

Notable Quote:

"I hired a ringer because this is a two person race. So the first person's job is just to not crash the vehicle."
— Travis Pastrana [07:06]

4. Electric Vehicles: The Future of Motorsports

Travis offers a critical perspective on the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) in motorsports. While he appreciates the technological advancements and the simplicity EVs bring to driving, he expresses concerns about the loss of traditional motorsport elements like engine noise and the visceral experience of racing with combustion engines.

Notable Quote:

"Kind of killing motorsport in general. But as a rider and a driver, like, I love them. They're just..."
— Travis Pastrana [10:25]

5. Evolution of Freestyle Motocross and Social Media's Impact

Travis discusses the progression of freestyle motocross, highlighting how the advent of social media has accelerated the escalation of stunts. He reflects on the shift from waiting for major events like the X Games to the immediate feedback and competition fueled by online platforms.

Notable Quote:

"Now, as soon as you do it, it's online and you have to do something better next week, not even next month."
— Travis Pastrana [14:27]

6. Safety Innovations: Airbags and Pastrana Land

Safety remains a paramount concern for Travis. He narrates the development of airbags for stunts, detailing the collaboration with Austrian company Bag Jump and the subsequent improvements in safety gear. Additionally, he introduces Pastrana Land, his expansive compound designed for training, stunts, and fostering a safe environment for performers.

Notable Quote:

"We developed the first bag on an angle and it was cool because when we got hit up by all this, like snowboarders and Olympic committees from all over the world..."
— Travis Pastrana [25:26]

7. Collaborations and Relationships with Other Athletes

The podcast touches upon Travis's relationships with fellow action sports legends like Brian Deegan and Ken Block. He shares insights into their collaborative efforts, mutual respect, and the influence they've had on each other's careers.

Notable Quote:

"He was the guy that I went to whenever there was anything in life or anything. Like, he was just a solid human being."
— Travis Pastrana [60:07]

8. Overcoming Adversity: Injuries and Resilience

Travis opens up about the physical toll of his career, recounting numerous injuries and surgeries. He emphasizes the importance of resilience, passion, and the unwavering support of his family in overcoming setbacks.

Notable Quote:

"I had this feeling for a split second, and it was like, everything kind of slowed down for me, and I giggled, and I was like, well, this is kind of cool."
— Travis Pastrana [54:27]

9. Advice for Aspiring Athletes and Creators

Towards the end of the episode, Travis offers heartfelt advice to the hosts and listeners. He underscores the significance of passion over money, the value of maintaining authentic relationships, and the need to prioritize safety without sacrificing the thrill of the sport.

Notable Quote:

"If you love it, you're going to do it anyway and you're going to find people that are passionate about the same thing."
— Travis Pastrana [15:34]

10. Closing Reflections and Future Endeavors

Travis reflects on his illustrious career, expressing gratitude for the opportunities and the enduring friendships he's forged. He hints at future projects, including expanding Pastrana Land and continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible in action sports.

Notable Quote:

"My goal now, honestly, with starting a YouTube channel is to have this group together."
— Travis Pastrana [38:29]

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Conclusion:

This episode of Life Wide Open with CboysTV provides an in-depth look into Travis Pastrana's multifaceted career, his unwavering passion for motorsports, and the intricate balance between thrill and safety. Listeners gain valuable insights into the evolution of action sports, the impact of social media, and the personal resilience required to sustain a career in such a demanding field. Travis's candid reflections and motivational advice make this a must-listen episode for enthusiasts and aspiring athletes alike.

Transcript

[Travis Pastrana]

My goal now, honestly with starting a YouTube channel is to be like, you.

[Cletus McFarland]

Guys, he's gonna do a burnout. Let's go.

[Travis Pastrana]

He sees that I'm okay. He starts yelling and I'm laughing. I'm like did you see that?

[Evan Shanks]

And then you just go straight for.

[Travis Pastrana]

The backflip because I crashed anyway. It sucked. I might as well look. But he goes, I want proximity to near death situations. You're too stupid to ever make it as a racer. And thank God freestyle came out. You know what? I turned down a multi million dollar contract to race motorcycles because I wanted to try racing cars. There's no amount of money worth what you're going to put your body through.

[Drew]

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Man, thank you for coming. This is quite an honor being the Life Wide Open podcast. I think there's no better guest to have that, quite honestly lives their life Wide Open more than you.

[Travis Pastrana]

I really appreciate you guys having me on. I like the three wheelers. I like you guys. Went to Nitro Circus this last week. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, thanks for. Thanks for the support, dude.

[Cletus McFarland]

I mean, we wouldn't be here without you. And I know you hear this all the time, but like, we grew up watching Nitro Circus, like wanting to be just like you. And we're not. We're nothing like you. We can't ride like you. We can't do. But, I mean, I think without what you've done, we wouldn't be making the videos and we wouldn't be sitting here right now. So it's super, like. It feels really weird for me, like, sitting here with you on our podcast. It feels so cool. So thank you.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's been awesome to be able to make a living never growing up, just living life wide open, having a lot of fun. So it's. It's always really cool when I see, you know, people coming up that did watch Nitro Circus or that, you know, and like my dad said, he's like, it's nothing new. He's like, we've been towing stuff behind cars and doing all this stuff. He goes, just. We finally have a platform now with. We had DVDs before, you know, YouTube, and now you guys. With YouTube, you can actually go out, have fun with your friends and, you know, try to make a living, travel in the world doing what you want to do.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, dude. We hear the same thing, though. It's like, dude, if me and my buddies had video cameras and YouTube back when we were young, we'd be bigger than you guys. You know, all that. But, no, I was pumped to see Andy Bell hop out of the van, dude. I was like, what? Dude, that was sick. Because, like I said, we've just been big Nitro Circus fans for a long time. So.

[Travis Pastrana]

He hasn't cut his hair.

[Cletus McFarland]

That's why I didn't really recognize him right away. He had the sunglasses, the hat on, but, yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

So literally, Jimmie Johnson way back when was like, hey, you got to be the biggest fan. And no matter what, through thick and thin, until. Until I won a NASCAR race, he couldn't cut his hair. And then he kind of liked it, so he just kind of kept running it super long and, like, in a mullet. So, yeah, he's here to finally get a haircut.

[Cletus McFarland]

It's a good friend.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. 15 years.

[Cletus McFarland]

He's doing it today.

[Travis Pastrana]

Only if I win. Well, that's what he.

[Cletus McFarland]

Only if you win. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Drew]

We made a big competition with Ben, dude.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah. We made a deal. If Ben wins, we're going straight to.

[Travis Pastrana]

Vegas, straight to vote the Starks.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah. Yeah, we're taking the Starks to Vegas.

[Travis Pastrana]

The rule has always been with. With here that you have to ride the vehicle home. So, like, if it's a helicopter, you.

[Drew]

Have to fly it.

[Cletus McFarland]

Might need a couple charges.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, it's going to be interesting.

[Unknown]

We'll figure it out. Honestly, that seems like the least of our concerns right now is how we're going to get our Starks home. That's pretty low on our figure out list.

[Evan Shanks]

Pretty wishful thinking to have that problem.

[Cletus McFarland]

This race has real, actual drivers like yourself, and then it has people like Ben. Have you seen the video of him hitting the tree in the unicorn?

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, that was like a really short video.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, his quick one. I mean, it was first turn, it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Was a long video. I'm just saying, like, you know, I was all excited to see it go, like went into a tree.

[Cletus McFarland]

Hey, it was secondary.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah.

[Cletus McFarland]

So anyways, luckily there's, there's no trees today.

[Unknown]

I just got done with like pretty much an hour long podcast of Cletus just cooking me on it, so. And then everyone I've met here has brought that up immediately. So I've figured out that, you know, word has spread that I'm a part of this race and I think it's going to actually do me a favor because they're going to just get out of my way.

[Travis Pastrana]

But I mean, you got guys like Greg Biffle, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. I actually, you know, I hired a ringer because this is a, you know, a two person race. So the first person's job is just to not crash the vehicle. Are you going first?

[Unknown]

Yeah, dude, I'm going first. What are we doing?

[Travis Pastrana]

So the second person then is really 99.9% of the race. However, I'm going first, so I'll be with you. Just like, I'm here for the show, man.

[Drew]

There's backup cars for a reason.

[Unknown]

Yeah, the boys were just joking like, oh, damn, dude, we should have thrown some tree stickers on the back of people's cars. So I'm driving around. Where is the tree? I mean, you're sitting pretty good. You got Noah, who is actually a NASCAR racer, who we got the privilege of meeting when we were at Talladega. Great, dude. But yeah, as soon as I saw that that was the lineup, I was like, dude, we're so cooked.

[Travis Pastrana]

They'll be your guys that are up front every time. But at the end of the day, there's probably a half second difference between the best car and the worst car. And Cletus doesn't stack it. Like, Cletus has been in the worst car quite a few times where you can tell like, okay, this person's good, but I'm just, I'm flogging those straightaways. Or like my first time we could qualify. Well, we'd ran okay, but it didn't have first gear. So I went to last every restart. So as long as it didn't restart, like you're coming up. So they're old, you know, Crown Vics. There's going to be a difference. Now, generally, one of your top drivers is going to win because one of them is going to be in a car that's decent. But, you know, Greg Biffle jumps in and like I said, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. And he goes out there and he's running, you know, seventh, eighth, ninth. To some YouTubers, that, yeah, makes no sense. But at the end of the day, it's a low horsepower car. You're pretty much wide open most of the time. This is a cool track because you got some, some zigzags.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yep.

[Travis Pastrana]

No trees though.

[Unknown]

Do you have any advice for me?

[Travis Pastrana]

I haven't won yet. I hired a ringer. Get a better person to run the second half.

[Cletus McFarland]

Oh, my gosh.

[Unknown]

I got Mike, dude, I got this.

[Travis Pastrana]

I got Camel guy.

[Cletus McFarland]

Slow and steady.

[Evan Shanks]

Yeah. We have a flawed plan. It sounds like.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I told Cletus this too. I was like, well, I know that you didn't invite us here for the competition, so I hope that we can at least provide on the entertainment factor.

[Travis Pastrana]

You know, the sickos came out, that whole group. Awesome athletes, worst drivers. I was like, what? In every group there's like one redneck that can just drive. You know, they didn't have that. But he stayed on the lead lap and actually had a decent finish at the end because we'll all be bumping each other. I mean, Cletus and I will be spinning each other every chance that we get. Like we were one, two and spun each other back to like almost completely out of the race, but it was great.

[Unknown]

So, you know, bumpins racing, right?

[Travis Pastrana]

Robins racing. Harry Robins racing.

[Unknown]

Shows what I know.

[Travis Pastrana]

Just a movie quote, dude.

[Unknown]

So you've done so many different things as far as, you know, racing motocross to freestyle to rally car. Is it kind of fun being a part of just something that is just like, so just low risk, I guess you could call it of like, you know, what's on the line as far as, you know, sponsorships or anything like that. But you just get to go out there and have fun. When you've done, you know, about every race that you can imagine.

[Travis Pastrana]

At the end of the day you have, it's already lined up. There's going to be a completely sold out crowd of car enthusiasts, of people that love motors. They love, you know, they might be Rooting for one of their favorite YouTubers might root for one of their favorite drivers. They come from all over the country and they stay and they clean up the trash. Like they, at the end of the race, they feel like they're part of this. It's so cool. So everyone goes out, signs autographs, but what other event can you fly in in the morning? Like, not even that early. You go, you hang out, you sign autographs, you talk to everyone, you talk cars, you have fun, you meet some of your heroes, some legends, some past drivers, some, you know, up and coming celebrities, whatever it is. And then you go out there and you have the best time that you can possibly have. Destroying your Crown Vic where, you know, at the end of the day, it's not a fast car. You're not going to hit anything that hard.

[Cletus McFarland]

Then you just wipe your hands and walk away.

[Travis Pastrana]

That's it. It's a. It's beautiful.

[Cletus McFarland]

So obviously the, the Starks are the prize of today. What do you think about, like, the electric Stark Vars? I know you posted a video a while ago, riding it so electric is.

[Travis Pastrana]

Kind of killing motorsport in general. But as a rider and a driver, like, I love them. They're. I mean, I don't mean that negatively. Like, that's my dad. It doesn't matter how fast they are. Like, I literally, I put him in a car. 0 to 60 in 1.2 seconds, all wheel drive, thousand horsepower with an extra 200 horsepower boost. The car is the most fun thing you could ever drive. And you be going 100 miles an hour, break the wheels loose and do a doughnut and never worry about stalling. It just makes driving so much simpler. So these things, as soon as people really figured out and they get the brake where you don't have to change your foot to where the brake goes and I can like, you can literally almost flip over frontwards and almost loop out in the same jump. So like a double backflip on these off a normal ramp, I can do like I'm doing a backflip, a single flip, go wide open just because. So much more and it'll spin too. So triple flips on these are so much easier. And the guys are thinking quad flips are easy. No, no.

[Evan Shanks]

It's just a crazy statement, though.

[Travis Pastrana]

But even front flips, like when you, if you're wide open on the gas and you hit the brake for whatever reason, you know, you don't have to worry about the clutching, you don't have to worry about stalling. I'm Thinking like bike flips, like what they do in BMX world that you can't really do on motorcycles because of the gyro. Like, you can hit the brakes, lock everything down and then start it back up and not worry about stalling. Like there's. I wish I was younger. Cause the. It's. I'm just old and crippled.

[Cletus McFarland]

But it's gonna push the progression of the sport.

[Travis Pastrana]

You think it's gonna be great.

[Cletus McFarland]

Even though a lot of the old timers, like you're kind of, I think, alluding to your dad, don't like it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, it's just if it doesn't make noise, that. That feeling, the smell of gasoline, I feel that. But at the end of the day, like my kids growing up, they can, you know, we're watching supercross or something in the backyard, and their friends can all be riding motorcycles, you know, and they can all be on their go karts and their whatever, and as long as there's no dust, no one really cares. So it allows. It just opens up so many more tracks and opportunities.

[Cletus McFarland]

The neighbors love it.

[Travis Pastrana]

They do.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Our neighbors are.

[Evan Shanks]

What about like the urban moto, like the skate parks and the star with the Starks and stuff like that? I mean, it's cool. You can kind of get away with it, but it also might not be the best. You know, got Starks flying around the skate park with little kids on scooters.

[Travis Pastrana]

Like, I mean, I'm kind of against that part because eventually we're just going to get shut down and thrown out. Everything. But the fact that they are quiet enough that you can do it is pretty cool.

[Drew]

You really got into freestyle motocross and the bikes started progressing through that. But I would feel like gas bikes are pretty similar to what they would be. I mean, I don't know, what would you say 2004 to now? There's not massive change. So short of going to electric, do you feel like you would have been better if you had the bikes now versus the bikes you had when you were a kid?

[Travis Pastrana]

No, not. Not really. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, if you watch supercross back in. In 96, like, it's so slow compared to Supercross in 2005. Compared to the riders get in better shape. But by the time you get great at your sport nowadays, you no longer love what you do. By the time you get good enough to do what you love, you no longer love what you do. Because these kids are starting. I mean, I started at 4, but it was about having fun like, no one was pushing you. Oh, yeah, let's go. You're going to make a living doing this. It was trying to push you the opposite direction. Like, what are you. You're wasting your time on skateboards and BMX and all this stuff. And now you can go to the Olympics doing this stuff. And it's gotten so much more difficult to be the best you have to be. So it's taken a sport, in my opinion. I mean, motocross always been around, but you have all these sports and freestyle and X Games that were all about having fun. Now you put it into the Olympics and it changes the sport.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

You know, the video parts aren't as big, but then. And we used to have a year to make a video part. You guys have to a video part every week. Yeah.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's tough.

[Unknown]

It's interesting how social media has played a factor in that of, you know, everything is so readily available now where you're scrolling Instagram and you might see somebody do a double backflip and you might not even finish the video because it's like the next thing that you see is going to be just as insane. Whereas when you did the first double backflip, one of the greatest X Games. But, like, you had to be watching X Games to, like, see that. And I think just X Games in general was probably like, you know, at the peak when you had to be like, physically watching it. Yeah. Like, what do you think that, like, social media has played a factor in just, like, elevating the sport of freestyle motocross and like, how much crazier the tricks are getting?

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, it's made it reachable. Everyone says, how do I get a nitro circus? Or how do I become dude? If you're doing something that no one else is doing, you can be in anywhere in the world from any walk of life. It's going to get you wherever you want to go. The hard part is that everything is visible and they don't show. They do show the crash, but they don't show the injuries, the everything else. I think it's a. It's a catch 22 because it's like in your face all the time. And before, if you came up with a good trick, you could save it for six months and come out at X Games or Gravity Games or whatever the event was. Now, as soon as you do it, it's online and you have to do something better next week, not even next month.

[Unknown]

Where's the line in the sand get drawn of? Like, you know, this is this is how crazy the sport can get until it's like you're trying to five backflips and if you don't land it, you're dead.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, but it gets more creative. You got like, Axel Hodges, he's like, all right, I don't want to do the flips. He's doing flips now and stuff, but he's like, I'm going to do like, land and wheelies and all this other fun stuff. So it's. It's always about being creative and finding, like, you guys. It's. You're not reinventing the wheel, but you're like, what do I really love to do? And at the end of the day, Cletus has proved it out here. If you're passionate about something and you love it, you're going to do it anyway and you're going to find people that are passionate about the same thing.

[Cletus McFarland]

No, I think for sure, though, like, when you're passionate about something or you just want to do it, the end result is going to be so much better than if you're just doing something for money or clout or whatever. But. And that is a testament of today. You look at the lineup of people that are coming here, like huge, huge names and like, they're just coming literally for fun. No one's being paid to do this. They're coming because they love driving. They love, you know, this scene. I mean, I still go back and watch your double backflip. Dude, it's so lit. It's just so lit. And like, it was packed, jam packed in there, like.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, well, you got. I mean, it's Tony Hawk's 900 and now there was literally an 11 year old that was warming up with nines, going for tens. And you're like, when did this happen?

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, so do you think that it happened? Because now it's like the training regimen is just. People are crafting a training regimen. I can't imagine people were training as hard back in the day versus now, like, in terms of, like, fitness. Do you feel like they're.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, definitely. Oh, motocross. A little bit. But now that there's so much more at your fingertips, I mean, success leaves breadcrumbs and. But the thing was, it used to be the metal militia and, you know, Brian Deegan crushed teams of dirt. People just went out, like, Jeff Immin were the top racers and they were still doing freestyle. They were going out and riding and having fun. At a certain extent, racing has lost a little bit of that passion. But at the same time, not taking anything away because these guys work so much harder. They put their whole lives, their parents have sacrificed, their family. And if you can get on top of a sport nowadays, I don't care what it is, you have dedicated, sacrificed, you've blood, sweat and tears. And I have so much respect for anyone that's made it. But that's why events like this work. It's not about the money. People just love driving. They love being around people that are passionate and having fun. And it's really cool to be able to come out and meet you guys, hang out and have some fun.

[Cletus McFarland]

How about. So like you mentioned Metal Militia back when it was Brian Deegan versus Travis Pastrana. Like, did you guys actually not like each other? Or maybe he, I don't know, like, how did you feel like, towards each other? Like, do you think you would ever like get in a physical altercation back then? Like, was it possible or was that even like.

[Travis Pastrana]

So the funniest part about that was in the start of freestyle motocross, you had Mad Mike Jones, Clifford the Flying Hawaiian, Adam Tante, Cowboy Kenny Bartram. Yeah, like, we just wanted to figure out how to ride a motorcycle and have fun and to make a living at it. And everyone was building the sport in any way they could, building their image, building whatever we could to, to be able to go and do circus tricks on a motorcycle and to be able to travel the world with your friends and find cool places to ride. So I was just this goody two shoes straight a student racer that happened to really like freestyle motocross. And Brian as a showman was like, hey, I got a way that this is going to work. Like, Brian went to a level so far above and beyond, like, he didn't have a trick for Gravity Games one year. And he told all the producers and everyone at NBC like, this is when, you know, before YouTube, like, it's a big network. And he's like, I got the biggest tricks. I'm not showing anyone. I got the biggest tricks. It's gonna be. It's. Everyone's building up. Brian D in the middle. Militia, he picks a fight with a police officer the day before. Wow. Doesn't post bail.

[Cletus McFarland]

What a businessman.

[Travis Pastrana]

And the whole thing was all the man's keeping him down. And I'm like, dude, oh, he would have crushed you. Like, I wouldn't grab it again. So he just took the rug right.

[Cletus McFarland]

Out from under you completely.

[Travis Pastrana]

I'm like, he didn't have, he had nothing but like, he's, he's a very smart human being. I wouldn't have gone the same route, but it was. I mean, Deacon was great because he knew he did work hard, you know, despite what his image and everything. And he knew exactly what he had to do and when he had to do it. And even if he didn't have it, he would go for it anyway. And I think that's what the crowd liked, because he's like, well, I haven't won in two years. I got to send something big. And he'd go out and he'd be willing to die. Literally.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

So were people taking sides as far as, like, you know, I'm Team TP or Team Deegan. And would they have any kind of, like, altercations?

[Cletus McFarland]

Like, if you were walking down the street and you saw someone in some Metal Militia Gear where you're like, oh, fuck.

[Travis Pastrana]

I was just too goofy to realize anything was going on. Honestly, Deegan was great. Like, my parents would come up, he's like, hello, Ms. Pastrana. Oh.

[Cletus McFarland]

So he was pretty cordial behind the scenes, almost.

[Travis Pastrana]

He was. But it's not that he didn't believe anything. Like, he was. He was honest. He just figured out a way. He's like, look, this kid. There has to be an opposite. There's gotta be. There's gotta be a fight. There's gotta be a show. I just didn't know that I was part of it.

[Cletus McFarland]

So that answers my question.

[Drew]

Yeah, it's kind of like a wwe, almost like you had the heel and you had the. I can't. What do they call it? Like, the good guy and the bad guy. Yeah, exactly.

[Travis Pastrana]

I just didn't know I was playing a role that Deegan did because it helped us all the way through. Unfortunately, like, as a teenage kid coming up, like, you know, kind of dorky, straight A student guy, like, Deegan had all of the girls, all of the really, like. Yeah. All the parents were like, oh, go get him. His line is, like, just strippers and stuff.

[Cletus McFarland]

I feel like you would have been in Metal Militia.

[Unknown]

Yeah. The whole time. I just picture. I just picture ev being that I.

[Evan Shanks]

Did run a rock. A lot of Metal Militia Gear over the years. I will admit that.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah.

[Evan Shanks]

But I was never not on Team Pastrana.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, thanks, man.

[Evan Shanks]

Dude, what year was it that you guys were both going for the 360s?

[Travis Pastrana]

You see now this. This was 2002, La Coliseum. It was absolutely awesome. So I didn't know, like, YouTube was just really starting, and my friend posted something on the Internet. Deegan saw it. So my Friend, Chris Haynes. Thank you, Chris. Post this on the Internet about a month and a half before X Games. Deegan sees it has a foam pit and gets. It doesn't qualify as well, does the 360. First names it the Militia Twist. I'm like, how did he see it? He's like, yeah, I saw it. I saw it on the YouTube, man. You should check it out. Oh, God, yeah. And that was the first of many, many leaks. Now that's, you know. But now it's a. It's a platform that's not just a leak platform. It's a. You can, like, literally, you guys are.

[Drew]

Doing it back then those, like, kind of. You just posted it and you weren't expecting people to see, you know, you saw it.

[Unknown]

Has anyone recreated the TP7?

[Travis Pastrana]

Not yet. So the.

[Unknown]

Dude, that's the craziest, like, to date. I've said it on this podcast multiple times. That is the craziest trick I've ever seen done.

[Travis Pastrana]

So it was easier to add a flip. So with the dirt bike, the only way to really start the rotation, like, you can get it spinning real fast in a flip, but it's not like a BMX bike or something, or scooter where you can kind of spin it off the lip. So you kind of got to pull the flip first. And it's so hard. Like, you do a backflip on 80 pretty easily because you pull a flip and as hard as you can pull and as hard as you can spin, you get a half of a rotation of spin to a full rotation of flip. So I was like, it's going to be easier to add a flip. It's like just, I'm going to do a double cork 1080 or, you know, or whatever.

[Unknown]

Yeah, it makes sense.

[Travis Pastrana]

So that was actually way easier. So I started doing on mountain bikes and I'm so inconsistent with, like the Backflip360.

[Unknown]

Just add another flip. Would that have been easier on a stark?

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, yeah, Way easier.

[Unknown]

With the electric torque, 100%.

[Evan Shanks]

Did I hear rumor that there might be like a triple 720 maybe in the works?

[Travis Pastrana]

Not for me. Not.

[Unknown]

Not for you?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. No. No one's completed any, like, even a backflip with the twist yet. So they're still catching up to 2012, but they'll get it.

[Drew]

That is pretty cool. That's what I mean. Like, on technically, older technology, people are still chasing what you. The bar that you set.

[Travis Pastrana]

So most people, they wanted to win. For me, racing was winning. Freestyle was always about fun. So even when there was money involved, like, I was always a racer at heart. And I'll be like, all right, I don't even care really, if I win this event, I want to do something cool, something that's never been done, something that pushes myself and the bounds of what can be done. Like on a motorcycle in general. And I would use kind of all the money that I made in freestyle to build ramps and just, I mean, we had a 44 foot tall takeoff ramp, we were going over 100ft in the air trying triple backflips and most people just showed up, looked at the ramp, giggled and left. Never came back.

[Drew]

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[Unknown]

It is time to get started with.

[Drew]

Your new face, eye and body routine at a discounted rate today. Get 15% off with the code wide open at onco has 15% off One Skin Co with code wide open. When did airbags come into the landing?

[Travis Pastrana]

Carrie Hart actually started with an airbag before even the phone picks. We thought, you know, being a petroleum product, that foam wasn't going to be a great idea. They didn't have the double compartment. The technology wasn't quite there. So like Kerry actually dislocated his shoulder and broke his collarbone. First time on an airbag. He landed on it fine, did a backflip. He's like, I did it. And then it bounced him off onto the ground.

[Evan Shanks]

So the first airbag was more just like a bouncy castle. Yeah, just a one chamber full of air.

[Travis Pastrana]

So as stunts and as everything gets better. But we actually worked with a company called Bag Jump out of Austria. And Josh Ian could only do about three triples attempts a day. So he would drop about 60ft out of the air onto a flat bag. And with the motorcycle on top of you, like, it was just bad, like pissing blood. Not, not a good thing. Like. So he's like, what if we can get the bag flat? Because, like, even with front flips, anything you're doing, how you're landing on a flat bag is totally different than you're going to land. So we developed the first bag on an angle and it was cool because when we got hit up by all this, like snowboarders and, you know, Olympic committees from all over the world, they're like, oh, how'd you do this? And then Back Jump took it and they perfected and made it a lot cheaper eventually. But it's, it's cool to be on that kind of forefront of safety. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Your compound, Pastrana Land, I mean, just legendary in itself. And I think anyone growing up that watched Nitro Circus or Freedom Factory, you know, looked at like having a compound like that and was just like dreamed of it. And especially with us, you know, when we, when we got our shop and, you know, we built our tracks and everything like that, you know, you just kind of like chip away at it and eventually you got a cool compound. Is that kind of what the case was with Pastrana Land? Did you Just get a piece of land and add a ramp and a foam pit and just kind of just continue to build onto it and make it into what it is.

[Travis Pastrana]

My hero growing up was a guy named Guy Airtime Cooper. He was on Suzuki. Was Mr. Suzuki, they called him. So I was on Suzuki. I'm eight years old. This guy's, you know, a multimillionaire. And he comes around the corner in a beater car just flogging this thing and just like smashes into the side of his shed. Didn't even know we're there. He's just doing it because he just. Yeah. And I'm like, this guy's awesome. My mom's like, can you believe this guy? That's just. He's like, literally has. He's got blood on him from whatever from this morning. He's covered in just Oklahoma red dirt. All you can see is the whites of his teeth. Just giggling. He's like, that doesn't seem like someone that has a lot of money.

[Unknown]

I'm like, you were like, that's the dream.

[Travis Pastrana]

This is, this is what? And he had tracks and motorcycles and go karts and it was just, it was Cooperland. So that was always my goal was to have like a little Mini Cooper land. And over the years it's become like a Mega Cooper.

[Cletus McFarland]

It's a, it's a full on compound.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

But I think anyone dreams of going there. Our buddy Gavin's been there. Hopefully one day we can come. Quite honestly, we're pretty scared because being forced into doing something like a backflip, not forced into it, but I feel like you have to. When you go to Pastrana, the hard.

[Travis Pastrana]

Part is when there's like an 11 year old girl doing a backflip to dirt. And you're like, not to be sexist, but I. You, you have to like. It was cool. The blocks came over and Kira, Ken's middle daughter, like, doesn't really ride dirt bikes. And we were trying to get Micah to do it. Micah's like, I don't, I don't know. I don't think I want to. Kira just comes out of nowhere and just like launches it. Like seat bounces. She was so high. And I'm like, this is, this is awesome. It's a place that people either go and they go all out. They're like, I'm going to do everything. And they get hurt really quick. Or they go, I'm not touching anything here. And then they don't get to experience any of it. So it's rare that we find that crew, like, the Sickos came over. Like, those guys was just a crew that I didn't know a lot about. And, you know, five of seven of the guys went to dirt on day one.

[Unknown]

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

[Cletus McFarland]

They send it. They send it.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was awesome.

[Drew]

But they've got good aerial awareness. Like, they do flips on skis and stuff like that, which I feel like I know for 100% I lack.

[Unknown]

Or I did a backflip on a standup jet ski. It took him three years.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I did it.

[Evan Shanks]

Never give up.

[Travis Pastrana]

Never surrender.

[Cletus McFarland]

So you mentioned, like, the money and, like, putting it back into your compound. How much, like, different was the money back in, say, 2003, 2005 in freestyle versus now? Was there quite a bit more money? If you took first place at X Games, I would imagine you'd get a pretty good prize.

[Travis Pastrana]

Freestyle was huge. Heck, from 90, you know, the early 90s when X Games started. Then freestyle motocross got brought in in 1999. So we had just started. Our first ever, like, freestyle world championship was in 98, which was awesome because M G McGrath were judging. Yeah, it was good. I crashed and they gave me tens. It was like, kids, like, this is great, but. Sorry, tangent. But when we got to go to X Games, I mean, my grandma was watching. It was before, you know, the Internet. So it's like, people had to watch. It's on espn, right? It's on a regular network. Like, that was. It was so cool for you cancel.

[Cletus McFarland]

Your plans to be there to watch it live.

[Drew]

I remember that when X Games on in the summer, it was like, we didn't go outside for a whole week because you were watching X Games.

[Travis Pastrana]

For me and my ADHD friends, it was the only TV we watched, and we did not miss anything. You know, watching Mira and Hawk.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, that was so cool. Me and C.J.

[Unknown]

Used to watch Fuel TV. It was later, but Fuel had, like, all the channels like that firsthand.

[Cletus McFarland]

You'd have an episode on there. But yeah, like, so, like, the money was obviously greater. Like, are you able to say, like, if someone took first place, like, what kind of prize, like, cash prize was that?

[Travis Pastrana]

If you're able to say, yeah, no, in 99, the first place was $10,000. And generally there weren't a lot of sponsors that were like, Suzuki, I had to buy my own motorcycle. Like, Suzuki paid me as a racer. And they were like, if you take one of our bikes that we're giving you and do this freestyle stuff, like, you're Fired.

[Cletus McFarland]

They didn't want to touch it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Nobody. So it was kind of a weird little world that I was working in. But it's $10,000 for the first year, and by 2003, it's 50 grand for first. And generally there'd be a sponsor like a DC Shoes or whatever, energy drink or whatever. You're getting double that triple. You could go to X Games, and if you had decent sponsorship, you could win, you know, one. One year I won like three gold medals, and each one of those was 50 grand, plus it came with a, you know, a 50 grand bonus. Or you had medical bills that were bigger than that. But still, like it was. It was your one chance to just. To go.

[Unknown]

So is there more money now? Like with social media and sponsors, is there more money?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yes, but it's very. It's very different. Like, even racing, you know, Jet Lawrence, maybe Deegan, could be exceptions. They've gone beyond motorsport, if you will. Yeah, really taking that whole next generation up.

[Cletus McFarland]

Hey, Cletus, he's gonna do a burnout. Let's go. God, that thing's sick.

[Drew]

That's the fourth burnout I've seen him do today.

[Cletus McFarland]

He does that all day long.

[Travis Pastrana]

Smells like the Freedom Factory.

[Drew]

Kind of sounds like your truck been squeaking a little bit.

[Unknown]

Yeah, it's got a little squeak. Mine's got more of a. Of a tick and a rattle, though.

[Evan Shanks]

So he doesn't have a hole in his bumper either.

[Unknown]

Yeah, that thing's a little bit different than mine.

[Drew]

You think the, like, Moto guys are getting the money they deserve? I feel like they're underpaid right now.

[Travis Pastrana]

Look, at the end of the day, if you're able to do what you love for a living, you're going to do it anyway. You know, it's like Red Bull Rampage. You know, they were doing it for free. And then Red Bull steps up, gives them a little bit of money. Someone gets hurt, and they're like, well, why aren't you paying them more? And they're like, well, these guys are doing it anyway. We're giving them something. You know, for me, I've always thought I've been very fortunate to do what I love to do. And so my uncle was quarterback for Denver Broncos for two years. He got knocked out by probably before your time, but I mean, definitely for all of our times. But he got knocked out by Hightower from Police Academy. There's actually a Pastrana rule in the NFL. At the time, the quarterback was the only one allowed to call timeout, so it was the first year they had like, the playoffs and my uncle is knocked unconscious, his teammates trying to get him to take his hands and put them together. So after that, then the coaches are allowed to call timeout too. So. Yeah.

[Drew]

And just called the Pastrana rule.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, no, but that's.

[Drew]

We're calling it that for sure.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Wow. But long story long, my uncle, because he was never quite the same after just a lot of. They just didn't know a lot back in the day. His knees, they just, you know, inject him with whatever and just, hey, keep on going. So he destroyed his body and then became a, you know, health teacher in low community college. And my dad said he's the best athlete that's come out of our town, maybe our state. And he's still working construction and he's teaching health at the local community college. He's like, you're never going to make a living doing what you love to do, but any day that you cannot get up and do construction, do it. He's like, I would give anything to be able to take one lap around Daytona or to do whatever. So I kind of came at it with this different mentality where everyone else was like, oh, I got to win. My dad's like, look, just work hard. If you love it, do it. If you don't, it's not worth the physical. There's no amount of money worth what you're going to put your body through. So he was the guy on the pit board. Like, my dad's a Marine and, you know, he's tough, like, you know, work hard, but at the end of the day, he's the only dad that had slowed down on the pit board. Like, if I was going to I roll or like launching, so just don't do the big jump. You're gonna kill yourself.

[Drew]

You know, man, that did not work with you, I bet.

[Evan Shanks]

Say, was it like reverse psychology? Like, he knew what he was doing. Slow down, you were only gonna twist it wider.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, like, so there's one year. So I was. I'm 11 years old and I was pretty big for ADCC motorcycle at that time. And we basically mortgage completely out. And the dad's like, look, mom to, you know, hey, we'll. We'll work two jobs. We'll figure out how to make this happen. Are all my uncles are taking, you know, basically pay cuts to get the gas and everything. So we go out and he's like, we have to win this championship. And I'm dominate the first two Motos, three Moto format and there's this big jump that frickin Ricky Carmichael's doing. And you're 11. So he was like, he's 14 and he's on a big wheel, so he had like a little more power. And I'm like, I can do it. Dad's like, just, just win. Like, look, we've literally, we've spent every last dime. We need this championship. Like, we just. If you want to race motorcycles, you have to just don't do the jump. I'm like, but I can make it. Nobody cares. Like, literally no one cares. Just win this championship, please. Let's get Suzuki happy. Like, we're going to get sponsors. They're going to give us like enough money in Suzuki bucks to like pay for gas to. Right, last lap, hit the jump, landed two black eyes, bloody nose, didn't break anything because the motorcycle, the hub, like the whole, the whole wheel collapsed. Forks went in the ground, broke the bike off, like at the handlebars.

[Cletus McFarland]

You cased it that hard?

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, it was bad. It was 50, 50. Just the front end of the bike went that way, the back. So, you know, face plant. Like, it was a hit. My dad came over and he was deciding whether he was going to be super, super pissed off or like worried if I was actually alive because the bike, he just sees, it broke in half. So he jumps over the gate. So he sees that I'm okay. He starts yelling and I'm laughing. I'm like, did you see that? And he just starts laughing. He's like, okay. He's like, well, if I learned anything from his brother, it's that you do this because you love to do it. We're giving you an opportunity to chase your dreams, however far that may be. And you're going to. At 16, you're going to be working construction with us, or you're going to join the military like the rest of us did or whatever. But you're too stupid to ever make it as a racer. And thank God freestyle came out. Yeah, that's kind of my life in a nutshell. Wow.

[Cletus McFarland]

Don't do it. Don't do it. I'm going to do it.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Impulse thoughts one on that one, huh?

[Travis Pastrana]

I just, I thought I could make it.

[Cletus McFarland]

Realistically, going to freestyle was the best thing that ever happened to you. You just became an even bigger star.

[Travis Pastrana]

Like, so, I mean, racing like the motorcycle industry. The racers will never forget me. They're like, you came out at 16. I was the youngest person win outdoor national championship, went over, represent the US in motocross. Nations won the motocross, nations won the supercross. The next year at 17, like, it was a great start and I just wanted to have fun. And I want to do freestyle. And then Kerry Hart does a backflip. I'm like, oh, let's try that. And I break my foot halfway through the season. I didn't miss a race, but like, just, you know, there was just those things that Roger DeCoster is like, Dude, I'm paying you to do. And I would work hard, like I'd put in the time, I'd running, bicycling, doing everything. It's just when everyone else was resting.

[Cletus McFarland]

You were having fun.

[Travis Pastrana]

Still riding my dirt bike, that was what I love to do. And I was very fortunate that my parents allowed me to kind of chase these dreams. And, you know, I turned down a multi million dollar contract to race motorcycles because I wanted to try racing cars. And I put every dime that I made at motocross. My dad's just shaking his head. He's like, you why? But, you know, but it's because of him. It's because of my parents, because they always allowed me to chase my dreams. And if I did exactly what everyone wanted me to do. The oldest ever supercross champion was 29 years old. Like, I'm 41. We're here at the Freedom Factory. We're still living this, this dream. And it's, I mean, yeah, it's different now. It's changed. I'm a little bit older, a little bit more crippled, but like, I still have fun every day waking up. And now I get to do with my, my wife, who's three time X Games gold medalist. And you know, my kids, they went into cheer. I thought, you know, the tumbling and the flipping and stuff was going to lead them action sports. But it's great because I can go to a cheer comp and not one person recognizes me.

[Unknown]

All cheer dad, huh?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, Hell yeah. I'm just, I'm there.

[Unknown]

You know, you've been famous for a really long time. Over two decades now, right? Does it get old?

[Travis Pastrana]

So we were on, on vacation in Europe this, this year, and guy comes over and our waiter and he actually starts crying. He just pushes like my wife aside and like, he's like, can you take a photo? And she's like, really? He barely speak English. Yeah. And we can't get away from it. But what's really cool about that is the day that, that stops is the day that I can't go out and crash cars and ride motorcycles and hang out with My friends and fly around the world. Now, my goal now, honestly, with starting a YouTube channel is to be like you guys. It's to have this group together. Like, I wanted to have my friends together and travel the world, and we did that. Now, I don't really want to travel the world. I want to be with my family. And the YouTube's given us a chance to. All of us that are a little bit older, that don't really want to be the best in the world. Yeah, we still want to push ourselves, and sometimes that's doing stuff that's never been done, just taking that mentality and trying to get what we do.

[Cletus McFarland]

And that's something I really admire about you, is how you set up camp, you know, in. In Maryland, where you grew up, and then you still have all of your best friends around you. Like, you got street bike Tommy. And Andy Bell hops out of the van. Like, it is very much so. Like us, like I said, you guys are just a lot more skilled. But, like, we grew up, you know, a small town together, and. And now we're hanging out doing all this stuff.

[Unknown]

Is there any advice that you would have for us? You know, being that you've done so much with your friends? You know, just ways to avoid conflicts that you've maybe had?

[Travis Pastrana]

Not really. I think in the end, people grow apart and most of the time grow back together because what you. It's hard because a lot of times there's just so many hours. Like, everyone sees the good side of it, but, you know, editing the videos and getting stuff out and trying to get the sponsors and figure out, you know, how it's actually going to be sustainable. It's not easy. You guys have done awesome. But the. The biggest thing for us was that, like, Andy Bell, at one point, he goes, hey, it's not enough money for me. Like, it's $50,000 that we were all going to get to do a movie. And Andy goes, I can't put my life on hold for $50,000. He's like, I got a wife. I got a mortgage. I got, you know, I can't quit my job for this. So he went and he said, but I think I could be a producer. I could be a director. I could do this. So he started Sweatpants Media, and they had the second biggest commercial last year. He's going on to win Emmys and all kinds of stuff, and now he can run his production company, and he's the big boss that doesn't really have to be there. So he can come on and he can produce all this stuff, and then he can hire himself as the stunt driver for the stuff and to be doing it again.

[Cletus McFarland]

So.

[Travis Pastrana]

And a lot of times people will go away, but most of the time, they'll come back, like, you know, at the end of the day, Street Bike Tommy is still hanging Sheetrock, and Jim Dechamp is now working. He's a crane operator. And Jim we only see on the weekends. Yeah. But he still comes over and he puts on mountain bike races up Pastrana Land, you know, three, four times a year. And we go out there and. And we still push super hard, even though it looks like we're all out of shape and we are, but, you know, it's still fun.

[Drew]

Now, I'm sure you got billboards and whatever. You know, there's like, a home of Travis Pastrana when you drive into town. But, like, what did your town think of you hooligans as kids? Like, were they on board or were they, like, I don't know about these guys.

[Travis Pastrana]

We were pretty goody two shoe, if you like. I mean, we.

[Drew]

Okay, yeah, we did.

[Travis Pastrana]

The only thing that I'm amazed at was that we lived on a postage stamp. I mean, we use. My dad's, like, and my uncle's construction. It was on, like, a half acre. So that's why I did freestyle, because it was always, you know, you had, like, three piles of dirt, and they were always leaving and coming back in rock piles. And it was basically like, just build a track and, you know, race around the shop. But that's in the middle of Annapolis. It's a mile from downtown Annapolis. And no neighbors complained. So I. My dad was one of nine, and they were like, all American football across, like, and then construction. So the town knew you grew up. If you were in the town, you were with one of my uncles or aunts or, you know, the family is pretty big in that area, so they drove too fast. But, yeah, they had a general respect for the law, so they liked you guys. We didn't cause a lot of disturbances other than the fact that we're loud.

[Drew]

And we were surprised when we got to hang with Greg Godfrey. And some of, like, went to those places in Utah. And we couldn't believe that some of these zones that you thought were, like, way out in the middle of wherever, and you're like, oh, it's just right behind the trucking shop. Like, it was just.

[Travis Pastrana]

Just.

[Drew]

You guys had just carved what you needed into this little zone.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, everyone, even people think, like, Pastrana land is huge. And they go around back. It's just a ramp graveyard, but we build everything. It's 20 acres. Like, we've got some trees around the.

[Drew]

Outside going there for 20 acres.

[Travis Pastrana]

There's a lot of building, but, you know, it's our friends now. Like I said, like, Andy is a producer and we got. Nate Wessel is a welder and like our whole crew, no matter what we need done, no matter what we need built, we've got access to everything. And that's kind of what's really neat about. About being there and being home with the YouTube channel.

[Unknown]

Do you guys want to continue to do, you know, things outside of maybe dirt bikes and just the general motorsports that you've been doing?

[Travis Pastrana]

Without a doubt. My goal is to be able to build fun stuff. Go kart tracks, like drift pads, anything. Even what Cletus is doing here, like, really want to build a next level, like Nitro Cross style Can am course that is like hell track scary to drive and then just start inviting like guys like you and be like, all right, let's go.

[Unknown]

Have at it, dude. We will flip a Maverick so fast. That is one thing that we are guaranteed to do every single one.

[Travis Pastrana]

So that normally happens. But it was cool. We had Noah Gregson come over because he was going to drive the side by sides this weekend at Nitro Cross. He was on two wheels in the first turn. He had never driven all wheel drive in his life. He never flipped, he never broke anything, he never hit a tree. I've never been so impressed.

[Unknown]

Well, he's also a professional NASCAR racer.

[Travis Pastrana]

But some people just, they're like, oh, nascar. Those guys, you know, they just turn left. No, those. They're not only the best drivers, but they drive five times a week and every lap is on the clock, man. Anyone.

[Unknown]

That's just saying you just go fast and turn left. I don't think has been to a NASCAR race and like experienced it up close. Like, it's. It's insane how fast they're going.

[Travis Pastrana]

So street bike Tommy, we were doing a drift pad. He's like, why I could beat anyone at nascar. I'm like, all right. So we get out and he's like, well, I'm good. Until the car starts sliding. And I thought, Tommy, you're just aiming it. Until the car starts sliding. Like, I was going around the corner and I was drifting this whole corner and freaking. My. My teammate, Trevor Bane comes around the outside of me at Bristol. First time there. Like, what are you doing? He's like, well, what's what's sliding? I'm like, dude, I'm sliding the whole corner. He goes, front or rear? And I'm like, rear? He's like, well, then tighten it up. He goes until the car is sliding all four wheels equally. And then if one starts sliding more than the other, the front or whatever, it. You change your entry and then you change. We have these little fans that go to, like, basically just diverts air onto the tires. They're like, you got to have. The air pressure has to come up to temperature equally. So it's not just driving as fast as you can.

[Cletus McFarland]

It's so technical.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was amazing. So I learned a lot that I didn't know. I was cold. Trickle put me in the car. I could drive, could do a couple laps good. Could never figure it out to the end.

[Unknown]

Oh, my gosh. That's going to be me today. I'm just trying to figure out how to not hit the wall.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's going to be fun.

[Drew]

How long did you race NASCAR? You got to do the Daytona 500, and it's like the dream of any.

[Unknown]

Guy who's ever driven a car ever.

[Travis Pastrana]

So driving the Daytona 5, I literally went to NASCAR. So I won four US rally championships, and it was either go to Europe and chase the WRC or try something else. And I'm like, man, I don't know anything about nascar. Let's go. And I showed up to the first race with a T shirt that said boring in nascar. Font got my ass kicked. And I was like, all right. Not physically, just on the track. I'm like, wow, these guys are actually really, really good. And they all, like. Everyone's like, oh, it's a good old boys club. You'll never get in there. Dude, everyone helped out so much. No, Evan, it was just a. It was red.

[Cletus McFarland]

Not to call Evan out, but I'm going to. You feel the same way about nascar. You're like, they're just turning left.

[Evan Shanks]

No, no. I was stating from a spectators point of view that I didn't think it was the most exciting form of racing to watch, like, on tv, but I knew it's all strategy when, like, they're all on the same track. I never thought that you didn't have to have skill and just.

[Unknown]

Well, as soon as the cameras are off. Yeah, NASCAR's Cheeto.

[Cletus McFarland]

I think we have a podcast, Usain. All you got to do is turn left and push the gas.

[Evan Shanks]

Yes. I'm saying from the.

[Travis Pastrana]

From the. I said it from the viewing standpoint.

[Evan Shanks]

Like, I guess I'd rather watch like a drifting or something.

[Drew]

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[Cletus McFarland]

NASCAR guys as of recently. Actually, we went to our first race.

[Evan Shanks]

And especially when they gave us free drinks.

[Travis Pastrana]

April.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, that was a good part, too.

[Unknown]

That worked out.

[Travis Pastrana]

The cool part about NASCAR is like, literally anyone, not anybody can win. But the best average finish this year was 12th place. That's, like, unheard of.

[Cletus McFarland]

So many things can just happen.

[Unknown]

Crazy. We went to Talladega and there was a crash over the finish line. Well, thankfully no one was hurt, but it was so electric. Oh, my God. We're just like, throwing our drinks in the air. We're high five in each other.

[Evan Shanks]

Yeah, the car goes on its side, riding the wall, like, right there in front of us.

[Unknown]

It was across the finish line. It was so insane.

[Travis Pastrana]

My first run at Daytona following Tony Stewart I was like freaking, this is awesome. Like kind of getting bounced around. Last lap, someone hits Larson. He goes up, his car disintegrates. And it's like in the fence, you know, you're going 200 miles an hour. I didn't know where to go. So I go across the grass and I'm spinning backwards through the grass at 200 miles an hour and I still got 10th. And I was so bummed. I'm like, man, Tony, he won the race. We could have been like, he could have been top five events. Like, dude, I would have given anything to be going backwards across the grass. That looks awesome.

[Unknown]

How come you never got into riding snowmobiles?

[Travis Pastrana]

Because dirt bikes are snowmobiles. But you do it in the warm.

[Unknown]

You don't fuck cold. No, I can't blame you there did.

[Evan Shanks]

Backflip a snowmobile though, didn't you?

[Travis Pastrana]

That was my first time on it, kind of. Yeah. My friends are horrible. They said it's like a four wheeler. It's not like a four wheeler. You guys, you guys all lied to me. I couldn't wheels, so I couldn't turn it at all. But I'm like, the jumping seems fine. It was like a little, you know, hill and like, we'll hit the freestyle ramp. Can't feel my fingers. Can't feel my feet. I got mittens on.

[Unknown]

Hard to hold on to the bars with mittens.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was. So I jumped it once and I went all the way to flat, like because it doesn't have gears. Like, I was kind of like the stark. I don't know.

[Unknown]

Hard to gauge.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I didn't gauge it correctly. So I over jump. So I like just slam and fall off. And then someone's like, you said you can flip anything fine. So I can't feel my fingers and the glove, the mitten blows off my right hand and I'm upside down doing a one handed backflip and I'm like, oh, I see, there's the ground. So I jumped off and I penguin dove down the landing and was ice.

[Unknown]

Oh, you were going. You were going straight to snow.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was a metal ramp set at 75ft because why would you try it at 41st or something, right? Yeah.

[Unknown]

So first like hour of riding a SnowMobile.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, first five minutes.

[Evan Shanks]

So you overshoot the first one and then you just go straight for the backflip.

[Travis Pastrana]

Because I crashed anyway. It sucked. I might as well look cool.

[Evan Shanks]

That is so insane.

[Travis Pastrana]

And then I didn't try it again because luckily the sled kind of like Disintegrated on landing. But I was fine. I was just penguin sliding down the landing. Like, please don't land on me.

[Drew]

It's a nice thing about snow. It's a little bit of cushion.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, this was ice.

[Drew]

Yeah. Ice doesn't have much cushion.

[Unknown]

You've never rode in the mountains.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yes. Andy Bell took me to the mountains, and they were very disappointed. They took me because I was stuck. The entire did nothing made sense. So I got on one that had, like, a track on the back of the motorcycle, and then I can. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Snow bike.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. But then it was, like, an underpowered. Yeah, like 125.

[Unknown]

That they don't get around that well.

[Drew]

And now you're, like, half metal, so the metal can't feel good in the cold.

[Travis Pastrana]

Right. I need a hot tub all the time. Yeah. And everyone's, like, dressed for it. But then you dress warmer, and then you're sweating, so then you take it off, and then you're frozen. It's just. No.

[Unknown]

So our friend Levi Lavalley, he's the man. He is the man. When we had him on the podcast, he said that when he had talked to you, you said that you're very jealous of Levi Lavalley because of the way that he's built.

[Drew]

Yes.

[Unknown]

Short and knows how to take a fall because he can just kind of roll out of it. Whereas you are taller, more lengthy, and you kind of more frail.

[Travis Pastrana]

We always called Greg Godfrey the muscle hamster, but if there was any other muscle hamster. Sorry, Levi, like, he's gotten away with stuff that would have killed a mere mortal.

[Cletus McFarland]

That's him.

[Unknown]

Like, Evan, stand up and kind of get a reference here. Yeah. So, like, Levi's about the same size as Evan.

[Evan Shanks]

He's got to be a little taller.

[Unknown]

He's in a way better shape. Doesn't have as much going on down here, but yeah. I mean, even with Evan, like, the dude knows how to take a fall. I think that's a big part of it.

[Evan Shanks]

You kind of have to. It's like survival mode. You take the fall or don't.

[Unknown]

Yeah, but it's like a cat, you know? You've kind of alluded to a couple crashes that you've had and injuries. I heard that you've had 35 different surgeries this year.

[Travis Pastrana]

I got my 40th operation.

[Unknown]

Which one is the worst?

[Travis Pastrana]

Anyone that keeps you from doing what you love, man. It's honestly the. I got a knee replacement that sucked. I got a. I'm going in this year for. Actually next month for a New hip.

[Drew]

Was gonna ask that what was the worst injury? Not because of the pain, but, like, the one that you miss. And maybe not like a competition, but maybe you were like, oh, you and Lindsay were gonna go on a trip, and you couldn't go because you were hurt or something like that. Was there ever one that you were like, man, this one really wasn't worth it or sucked most?

[Travis Pastrana]

No. I think everything kind of led me to where I am now. But definitely I had the flu really bad. I was. I was in the best shape of my life. It was one week from the start of the championship, and I've been sick for a whole week. And I was like, I'm just gonna go ride the hills against your ranch. And Greg Godfrey's there, and the film crew's there, and it was a big step up that we had built. You ever seen something that you look at it and you're like, it works. Like, the physics work. Everything masks out, and you come up to it, and you just have this gut feeling. You're like, it's. Something's not right. You had that?

[Evan Shanks]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Pretty often, actually.

[Unknown]

Not everything we build, Believe it or.

[Travis Pastrana]

Not, for whatever reason, your gut is usually right and whether you manifest that. So I hit this jump as fast as the bike would go. Just tapped out fifth gear on a 252 stroke, and I hit it, and my legs collapse, and I'm going up, and it was the funniest thing because I was in the air, and I'm freaking out because I'm going over 200ft up a hill, over two barbed wire fences.

[Evan Shanks]

Yeah, actually, I know exactly what you're talking about now.

[Travis Pastrana]

Right into the hill, and I'm going over the bars, and I'm like, I have to get off. But I'm going 70 miles an hour, and I'm 30ft off off the ground. I'm like, this sucks. So I jump off, and I had this feeling for a split second, and it was like, everything kind of slowed down for me, and I giggled, and I was like, well, this is kind of cool. I'm flying through the air, guys. And then it hurt really bad, and I blew up my knee, and I pretty much ruined my racing career, but because of that jump. And it seemed like the worst thing ever at the time. And even my dad was upset. He's like, dude, you committed to racing. Just like, what the hell are you doing? And it allowed me to then take a step back from racing, get into car racing. And, yeah, it changed my life to Where I can still be driving events now. So it was hindsight it was pretty good, but at the time it was pretty devastating.

[Cletus McFarland]

So you can imagine the feeling of.

[Drew]

Going flying 70 miles an hour just as you're going up into a hill.

[Cletus McFarland]

God, I bet, yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

But it's just like I've just never had that before where you had time to like be panicked and be like, now I'm cool, now this is going to suck. But it doesn't suck yet.

[Evan Shanks]

When I think about, what was it early 2000s? You're on a 125 and you case bad.

[Travis Pastrana]

Gotta be more specific.

[Unknown]

Lake Havasu.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Evan Shanks]

What year was that?

[Travis Pastrana]

So that was 1998. I actually signed my, my pro contract in a. It was my 15th birthday. I signed my pro contract for Suzuki in a, in a wheelchair at that point. So I got a question for you guys. Have you ever woken up and you think you're dreaming but you hear a. And you're wondering what. Who's making that sound? And you're just like, you're just like, I want to sleep, man. Who's making that God awful noise?

[Cletus McFarland]

You were making it.

[Travis Pastrana]

You can't breathe. It's stopping when you, when you're stopping. Yeah. Anyway, sorry.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, no, it's funny that you bring up the concussion thing. Like I've had like kind of a weird string pretty much for the last decade. Like I've just had a lot of concussions and like, it's just tougher for me now. Like small things can like make it almost feel that way. I oftentimes think about, like feel like I have a concussion even though I don't. And it goes away after like a day or two or sometimes a week, sometimes it takes a month. My question to you is like, how do you like, if you have a, do you have even a protocol after you knock yourself out or if you do something and does it ever, you know, you give yourself symptoms.

[Travis Pastrana]

Interesting thing about concussions is, you know, had a great opportunity to go down to some of the top military doctors through the boot campaign and they invited three of the Nitro Circus crew just to actually kind of do more data, more testing and whatnot. Generally on a dirt bike you're not as prone to like CTE and that kind of stuff because if you hit your head hard enough to have a concussion, you probably have something else that's, that's keeping you down. The interesting thing is the doctors down there said, look, if you're in an action sport, if you're in a contact sport and you've made it to a professional level, chances are you're predispositioned to be able to take a pretty good hit. So it was interesting that a lot of the top freestyle motocrossers and top racers, our grandfathers were almost all boxers. My grand. I was Golden Glo boxer. Like, I don't know, genetically or whatever. It just seems like the people that are able to make it long enough to get in there have ancestry of people that like to get hit. Interesting. Or maybe that's just the next step. I don't really know what's interesting. Talking to the doctor was. He's like, I could have someone that is knocked out cold for 15 minutes and I would, you know, do the test or whatever, but I would put them right back in and they're fine. And you have some people that don't even get knocked out that he goes, they could never come back to doing stuff. And so it. Each head injury is unique, and they have protocols in there to generally help because no athlete's ever going to say, oh, I'm not. Well, they're going to lie and they're going to get back out there. And the protocol is just a general. But the only person that really knows if you're okay to get back out there is the person that had the head injury. And sometimes you could have no real concussion. And I was throwing up for three months, and I didn't even get knocked out. You know, sometimes emotions are different. Like, one of my buddies, he was like, his mom said something. He yelled, his mom. He's like, well, which is like. And then you start crying. You're like, well, what's. Yeah, why am I crying? Like, what is going on? So definitely something that knowing more about is. Is good because even the people around you kind of have to understand that you got to take it easy during this time. Like, if you hit your head in the same spot twice before it heels, it's. It's a problem.

[Drew]

It's kind of what happened to you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Right.

[Drew]

I mean, there's like two injuries, short succession.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah. Similar. But no, I'm doing. I'm doing a lot better now, so. But I. You just kept bringing up. And I. I've always thought of you whenever. Like, I would be going through those times. I'm like, man, how was he? Like, okay. You know, and like, you're just like an insp. No, I mean, you are like, you're just like, you're. You're thriving. And I was just like, man, like, I mean, it's just inspiration, quite frankly. Like, I'll be okay. You know, it's.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's a tough one. It's probably the hardest because it's not like a bone is. You know, six weeks, you're healed, pin and plated, you're back on. But a head is. Is something that. And no one really else can understand what you're going through. So it's. It's a tough one. But glad you're glad you're doing it. Yeah.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

No.

[Cletus McFarland]

Evan's crying.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, dude, I sweating so bad.

[Unknown]

When we close this door, you're crying.

[Evan Shanks]

Sweat in my eyes, bro.

[Travis Pastrana]

Dude, you do look like you're crying. It's okay.

[Cletus McFarland]

He runs hot. He runs hot.

[Evan Shanks]

Yeah, dude, I don't know what happened.

[Cletus McFarland]

You were sweating after the plane last night.

[Unknown]

Might have been the whiskey.

[Evan Shanks]

No whiskey, no dark liquor.

[Unknown]

So, Travis, one of our biggest idols growing up, you know, was someone like you. Someone like Rob Dyrdek, but also Ken Block. And, you know, we were such big Ken Block fans when his passing, it was just devastating for, you know, everyone in the action sports world. I'm just curious, as someone that was close with him, what you thought his impact on the action sports world was and how prevalent it is now that he's gone.

[Travis Pastrana]

That's a. That's a. That's a tough question. A very long winded answer needed for it. But in general, you had a businessman that loved to ride motorcycles, that loved to drive, that love to snowboard. And after he was able to sell DC shoes and then still run it, he was able to build the sport of rally. And when no one, everyone was like, well, you can't. Like, what kind of. You gonna do a gymkhana video? Like, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm just gonna go have fun in my car. And just because he could and because he knew the business stuff, like, he shut down the Golden Gate Bridge just to see if he could do it, to do donuts on it. He shut down the 10110 intersection because it's the busiest intersection in the world. His mind worked very differently than, like, I was all about, hey, let's go drive and have fun. He was like, what can I do that no one else can do? And how can I do it better than it's ever been done before? He was thinking, two, three years out. I'm thinking, like, two, three hours out. If I ever had an idea, I would run it by Ken. And he was the first one to be like, that's stupid. You Know or whatever. That's great, but let's do it right.

[Cletus McFarland]

Tell you how it is.

[Travis Pastrana]

But yeah. So he was personally lost. I think a lot of people lost that. Like, he was the guy that. That I went to whenever there was anything in life or anything. Like, he was just a. Just a solid human being. Great family man, you know, great businessman, amazing driver. He was the one that was able to really take whatever he did and turned it to gold. And not just that, but he took the people around him. Like, for example, in rally, he took everyone in the U.S. championship and made us all heroes so that when he beat us, he could be beating.

[Cletus McFarland]

That's awesome.

[Travis Pastrana]

You know, he's smart. We're smart about what he did.

[Drew]

That's so cool.

[Cletus McFarland]

So cool.

[Drew]

He was, yeah. Such an impact on so many different industries. Honestly, how cool is it to be able to do a gym, Connor?

[Travis Pastrana]

So I had been bugging Ken for the longest time. Like, oh, if I had that, I could do that, you know, like everyone said. And he's like, hey, we're going to the final scene for gym kind of 10. I was like, sweet. He didn't. Literally didn't tell me. So he brings me out there. And they couldn't start the motor because, like, $10,000 to start this stupid thing. So they didn't bring the engineer out to do it. So I'm pushing the car. So I'm like, you brought me out here to push your car so that you could, like, stop in the last scene and him driving, but they couldn't. So it was pretty funny. But he's like, all right, now get in. Like, what? He's like, get in. This shot that we're doing is you getting in the car, and you're going to pretend that you're stealing it and you're going to start the next Gymkhana. And I was so excited, I completely forgot the monster car. And I just about got fired by all my sponsors. But now what's interesting about that is he was currently selling Hoonigan. Now, he needed to prove that without Ken Block, Gymkhana could continue doing what Gym Khan does. And he basically came to me, he's like, we need 20 million views on this. On this video. That's not me. He goes, the only thing that I'm going to say is it has to be an epic build, because I don't care what sponsor is, whatever. It has to be an epic build, has to be an epic location. And you can't do too much of this Nitro Circus, flying B.S. he's like, you can have a couple jumps, you got to be cool. But he goes, I want proximity to near death situations. I want this to be a gymkhana with your flair. He's like, go. And it was the second highest viewed gymkhana, which was an awesome. But it was Ken, as a businessman and as a friend to be like, all right, I'm going to give you this opportunity because you've talked so much crap. And at the end of the first day of filming, I actually was doing donuts. The car caught on fire. It's late at night. We had rain come in and it's supposed to be foggy the rest of the time. We had Covid. So it was our last. We had three days to shoot this and we're a day behind after day one. And I called him almost crying and he goes, all right, that's all I wanted because this is. No matter how this does, you calling me in tears has made my entire life. So it was pretty funny.

[Unknown]

That was the Florida.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, no, that was Maryland.

[Drew]

Was that the one where you jumped at like 16 super fast over like.

[Cletus McFarland]

A hill in the road above the power lines?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, we figured that out with a projectile calculator. But the downforce on that Subaru was like I took off 140, which I thought was like at least 5, 10 miles an hour faster. I needed to go. It was like the hand of God reached out. I was like just. No, really had a. Had a 28g impact. I was like seeing stars.

[Drew]

Yeah, but just absolutely that speed on a two lane road nonetheless.

[Unknown]

Had you been driving over that road like yes. Your entire life and you were like, I wonder how fast I could hit this.

[Travis Pastrana]

I thought I could make it. So it was. The world record is 260, 269ft. So that was about 250 to the lip. And I was like, you can go 350 on this because you're just going to keep falling down this hill. And no kidding, because it had like a bump in the road a week before we went. They repaved it.

[Unknown]

No. So I was like, you didn't tell them? Like they didn't know what you were doing.

[Travis Pastrana]

From the time we scouted this road, I'm like, dude, I know. Like I ride a road bike on this. Like when I was actually in shape and used to ride by, I was like, I rode over this every day thinking, man, you could probably hit this thing if you had a really fast car and make this big old tabletop. And they flattened it out. So we had to do. We had to fake it or not fake it. We had to build like a little, little kick at the top.

[Cletus McFarland]

Last question to ring it out. Really quick one. I don't know if you can even answer it, but out of all of the Subaru body styles, which one do you think is the best? Good looking because we're all Subaru guys. Like we grew up just thinking the STIs were the sickest car on the.

[Travis Pastrana]

Street, to be honest. Like that. When I think of a Subaru, I said it might not have been like the best looking body, but the 555 World Rally car from McRae era, like the 95 kind of era, the group B era was amazing. But yeah, kind of. That 2003 STI was definitely my favorite.

[Cletus McFarland]

My favorite is probably the 06, like the Hawkeye. I don't know. That's just what I like. When I was a kid, you see that driving on the street like mom look. And they just looked awesome.

[Drew]

But our cameras are over.

[Cletus McFarland]

Our cameras are overheating.

[Drew]

We appreciate your time today.

[Cletus McFarland]

Yeah, thank you so much. This is like checking off a big goal to have you on here. Like it almost seemed unattainable.

[Travis Pastrana]

Let's get you guys out to the house. I'd love to learn from you guys, whatever. Like even just film style, like we kept filming. We were just over producing stuff and the stuff that's done the best is just phones. I'd love to see how you guys.

[Unknown]

Next time we hang out, hopefully at Pastrana land.

[Cletus McFarland]

Thanks guys.

[Unknown]

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[Travis Pastrana]

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