Travis Pastrana: X Games Glory, Nitro Circus, and Living on the Edge

22:11They know their abilities. And, yeah, we overestimate our abilities. We're overconfident at times. But, you know, you analyze the risk and you say, this is worth it. And, you know, you make that judgment call and you say, this is what he did. This is what I did. This is what I think can be done. What do I need to work on to get to that level? But then, you know, as a crowd, you only see that final step. And if they make it, oh, well, obviously they practiced or they got lucky. And if they didn't make it, oh, well, they're just crazy and nuts. But really, there's a lot that went into it that you didn't see.

22:38And understandably, you've said you're better now at sort of analyzing risk than you were earlier on. What's involved in that decision-making process? A lot of past experiences. Like I was talking to Jimmy Johnson about NASCAR. And with these, I was racing on kind of, you know, the bias ply tires and, you know, rally cars were drilling the dirt. and we're getting on to the, you know, with the Cop and the Nationwide Series, they're on radials. And I said, how do you know when they're going to step out? Because they just go and you're into the wall. He's like, you hit about 20, 30, maybe 130 walls and you kind of get that feel.

23:11I was like, thanks, Jimmy, that's going to be really helpful. Same for you. It's the same thing with action sports. I mean, you know what the feel is when you hit a certain jump at a certain angle and your brain is an amazing calculator. You know, a lot of the guys, you're like, oh, they're not very smart, but they're really smart at what they do. so I mean a lot of the guys are smart off book smart and bike smart but most of the guys just really bike smart what would you do at 16 years old that you wouldn't do now I do a lot at 16 years old that I wouldn't do now but I think that's why I was able to make it to where I am now if I had the outlook that I do now I definitely wouldn't have tried a lot of the stuff that I did along the way but that's kind of what made maybe me it's what made Nitro Circus Nitro Circus but you say that and I mean I've heard stories of you still doing stuff that it's like, you got to be kidding me.

23:54Yeah. I was talking to Andy Bell and he was telling me about Nitro Circus, May, 2010. What happens with your collarbone? Oh, that was bad. Yeah. So collarbone, they told me to stay off the, uh, the, the gigantic ramp side. Okay. Basically like, look, we just need, we need you for the motorcycle side. You got to do a double backflip at the end of this show. I was like, I really want to try, you know, the 720 I was trying on a dirt bike. I want to try on a bicycle. So I talked to one of my friends, Dusty and to go into the top and I'm like, let's hit it at the same time. And we had ramps that of distances we had never really hit.

24:22And we're like, we can do this. And we both actually landed exactly the same way. I broke my collarbone and we're both sliding, wind knocked out of us heading there. He's like, how'd it go for you? I'm like, about the same. And then I had to get up and I wasn't really sure. I was like, I think it's broken. But you know, right then, uh, Camp Sinclair called me. I was like, double backflip. I was like, right. All right. And I was just thinking on the way up. And you knew it was broken though. I knew it was broken, but I had a plate in there. And I was like, the plate couldn't have broken. Maybe it just bent.

24:49Maybe the bone's broken, but the plate's still holding on. And I took off and I just felt the collarbone kind of went and the bike's sideways and I'm pulling around. It's amazing what adrenaline overrides almost any kind of pain that you can have. And I was able to pull the double backflip around and actually did the entire next show and then went home and the plate was broken and the bone was broken all the way through. So what I was feeling was the plate was getting held up on the bone, on the top and bottom. But, you know, there was enough around that area to kind of support it. And what was the purpose of the plate?

25:18Oh, because I had broken it before, so I had to plate it to... And you not only did that, you then do a backflip with somebody on your bike too? The next day I had to do a backflip with someone on the front. And I told the girl, I was like, look, this is what's going on. I'm not sure it's going to work. And she's like, well, I didn't come here not to flip. I was like, all right, nitro circus it is, let's go. Somebody close to you said that they've never seen anybody that's able to compartmentalize pain to the extent you can. How do you do it? It's just what needs to be done. I definitely don't have a higher pain tolerance than other people.

25:52But what do you mean? Well, it still hurts. I get a paper cut. I'm like, ow, you know, I mean, stub your toe, you know, it's still the same pain. But when it comes down to it, it's what's worth it. You know, I had, for instance, I blew out my ACL and my LCL, which meant there was no stability. And there's an artery that goes through there that said basically you can bleed out if it does it. And the doctors were like, look, you know, don't do this. And I couldn't really walk, but I was like, duct tape my knee together. So we decided to duct tape the knee together. My mom actually had someone try to get me off.

26:22What happened on the airplane? Yeah, on the airplane. My mom had a security come into the airplane to pull me off the airplane when I was coming to L.A. Because I told her I was going to see the doctors. And I did, and they told me not to go. So I told her it was fine. She called the doctors. Found out that they said, absolutely not, do not go out. So she had security come try to escort me off the plane. And I was like, no, no, no, we've already gone over this. It's okay. She's like, she told me you'd say that. I was like, wow, my mom's smarter than I think she is. But anyway, we went out there, we duct taped my whole knee together, so I couldn't bend, and couldn't go out literally with duct tape to the boot, to the knee brace, and all the way up to the top of the leg.

26:56And it was basically like a cast, and I was able to do the trick, and I won the X Games. Did they end up letting you go on the airplane? They did, yes. I was basically, I was like, look, sorry, officer, I am over 18, and I have the right ticket. And he's like, all right, hey, your call. But I've been told, like, after you do whatever you need to do, whatever the stunts may be, when you really are injured and just, you know, toughing your way through it. You'll just kind of collapse when you're done with it. What happens? No, I think when the adrenaline wears off, I mean, it's still a broken bone.

27:28It's still pain. It's still, you still have, if the bone's sticking through the skin, just because you duct taped it back in doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. And has that happened before? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's basically what happened with the collarbone. I mean, and the first time I broke the collarbone, I woke up in the middle of the desert. we were doing a 24-hour race, and collarbone was through the skin. And, you know, I'm sitting there half conscious and just looking around. I'm like kind of put two and two together and had to ride four miles back to the pit area where I had my teammate, Greg Godfrey, get on the bike and continue on from there.

27:59But it's, you have to, is it worth it? And for me, what's worth it might be a little different scale than what's worth it to other people. Can you run through all your serious injuries? No, I've definitely had a lot, but I mean, I try not to dwell on what's been broken and really focus on every time I woke up from concussion, every time I've been hurt, every time I've been injured. My mom has always been a huge factor. She's like, are you sure this is worth it? And to me, it always has been. So whether it's broken backs or separated pelvis or wrists or whatever it is, I still can't wait to get back on the motorcycle.

28:34I can't wait to do that. And I said, when are you going to retire? When are you going to quit? I said, well, when I wake up one time or when I get hurt one time and say, you know what? I don't want to go through this pain again. I don't want to be traveling all over from state to state, from country to country every day of the week. I don't want to live in hotels. That's when it's over. But for me, I love this lifestyle, and I love the friends that I have, and I love the places we get to go. How many concussions have you had? I don't remember. Over 25? No, I mean, what do you really call a concussion?

29:05I have no idea. Yeah, you see, I mean, there's times when you hit your head and you're just a little dingy. There's times when you're not actually concussed, but you don't remember a little bit of time, and do they count? No, I'm actually just joking on that, but concussions really scare me. And they're the thing that I have a few friends that have had knock themselves out on a daily basis. Not daily, but that's an exaggeration. Regularly, sure. Regularly, and they're still just as normal, just as smart, just as quick as they ever were. And I've had some friends that have had one concussion, and they're not the same.

29:32So, you know, I don't really think, in my unprofessional opinion, that doctors know a lot about concussions about the brain. I mean, there's a lot of research being done, but it's basically we try to avoid that at all costs. And that's the one thing that's worse than a broken bone. It's worse than anything. I know these are outdated, but some of what I've read that's been done to you, four ACL reconstructions, a couple of back surgeries, broken tibia, broken fibula, metal plate holding your left shoulder together, at least 10 blood transfusions. I think only six blood transfusions. Talk about you're 14, 15 years old and what happens that nearly killed you.

30:12Well, bottom line was I didn't go fast enough. I mean, it's as simple as that sometimes, but everything was feeling good. And there was a big jump on the course and I wanted to, I went outside the stadium and came through with, I thought enough speed to jump it and took off. And right away, I was like, oh, didn't go fast enough and came up short and basically the whole spinal column went through the the pelvis shattered the sacroiliac joint and they ended up having to fuse the the SI joints together and you know almost bled out that was the third known case in medical history to to have that happen where it didn't bleed out or die or whatnot so definitely lucky and you know definitely uh live a very blessed life in that way but I in my opinion I didn't feel like it was lucky.

30:54If I was lucky, I would have made the jump like I intended to and would have kept going. But when I woke up from that, the first thing I thought was, well, can you get this back together so I can try that jump again before they take it down? And it was just, it's part of the sports. And if it's worth it to you, there's no better life. And not only do you avoid being paralyzed, but then obviously you go on to become a world-class athlete. When something that painful happens, do you remember the actual incident or does it kind of get blocked out of your mind? learned a very interesting part of life, I guess, on that.

31:26And that's, I hit and didn't actually hit my head, but just passed out. And every time I woke up, I can remember for brief moments waking up and then if I'd move, I'd pass out again because nothing was really connected. So it just kind of, so you can really only take so much pain and your body will shut it off. And it's a scary thought to really dive into that. But, you know, I've experienced the most pain that my body will allowed me to experience. And even at that moment, this sport was what I live for. So it's, you know, for most people, it's not the same, but for me, this is a lifestyle. What's the daily maintenance like on your body?

32:02The daily maintenance is definitely, I mean, I'm 27 and it's getting a lot more. It's just, you know, especially with knees, with backs and shoulders, with my back, I have about a half hour stretching and core every morning just to, you know, to be able to go through the day without, really where I can sit down and be comfortable. Shoulders, you know, three to four times a week. It's not heavy weights, but you know, if you don't do your ins and outs, you don't do your ups and downs, your basic motor skills on that, the shoulder falls out of place often. Really? Same thing with the knee. You know, I don't have a PCL or an ACL on my knee right now.

32:34So until you get that fixed, you know, I got the quad and the hamstring, I got to keep strong. It actually allows us to live a very healthy lifestyle and it makes you mandatory to get to the gym. How much pain are you in on a daily basis? No, on a daily basis, I mean, pretty much none. It's just as long as you keep, you have to stretch every morning. You have to, you have to be fit. You know, it sucks when I get, you get sick or you get hurt or you get something where you can't do those activities. You know, then, then the pain sets in and then you go, man, I really have to stay active the rest of my life, but I like being active.

33:03So. Yeah. I talked to somebody close to you who's just kind of worried for you personally about just like the long-term quality of life because you know just all the wear and tear and all the injuries you've had how much if at all does that concern you long term oh for sure I mean you know no one in the sports we do are stupid in the matter that you know if you're in a sport you know there's risks and you know they're looking into football and they're like oh it's a danger sport or this and that but you know as much as it is what are the alternative is a real job we get to travel the world you know there's I keep getting back to this but I have my best friends and the closest group of friends you could ever imagine and we travel the world and we get to ride dirt bikes and we get to we get to play we our work maybe one day maybe two days a week maybe once a month is what we do for fun every day and if we don't do our job, we'll go and we'll pay to do the same job anyway.

34:00So for us, I feel like I've lived and experienced more than most people will ever experience in their entire life. And most people go through life trying not to die. I go through my life making sure that I live. And I apologize for all these questions. It's just interesting to kind of get into your psyche as much as I can, because I obviously don't understand what it's like to do some of these crazy things and get injured to the extent you have. I was talking to your mom yesterday, and she was telling me about how, you know, a few years ago she was in a terrible car accident that left her in critical condition.

34:33And she said that kind of changed your perspective on things, because generally it had always been her visiting you in the hospital, not the other way around. How did your outlook kind of change there? It was so hard seeing my mom hurt. And actually, she was hurt worse in that car accident than I was hurt through everything that I've had. You know, she's knee replacements and just her ankles, her shoulders, her everything was just, and it's tough to see, you know, when you care about someone to see them in that position. You know, I really felt for my mom to have to see me, you know, hurt a lot and injured a lot.

35:08And even when, you know, now I call mom, like, well, I had a little accident. It's all good. She's like, oh, when are you going to surgery? What'd you break? Like, you know, she knows I always downplay it, but for me to see her, you know, and she was, you know, concussed. So she kept asking the same questions over and over again. I kept answering the same questions because it just made her, you know, she would smile for a second. And the doctor's like, oh, don't worry, she won't remember. I'm like, no, but, like, I've been there before, and I can remember people not answering my questions. Like, that's the first thing you remember is you come out, and you're like, you just feel so alone.

35:35And I felt like it helped me to, you know, to be there for her. But also it made me really feel how bad, you know, because when you wake up from concussion, you don't remember all the stuff that happened before. She's like, oh, I'm fine. And you're willing to take most risks, but I understand you're increasingly concerned when you're doing a stunt with somebody else, when somebody else is involved. So like the Grand Canyon jump with Jolene. And tell me about what you guys were doing and then what you thought was going to happen. Green Canyon Jump was the closest I've ever come to have a heart attack.

36:09I actually, I lost. Really? I lost like all my motor skills, my vision. This is still while I was under canopy. So I went with Jolene, who's a good friend of mine, Nitro Circus. And I said, look, I want a girl that can go in the back of a street bike, and it'll be a cool closing to the 199 Lives movie we were making. Now, we had fun with it. But so we went and she only had a chance to get, you know, 25, 26 skydives in. The minimum that they'd recommend is between 250 and 500 skydives before you do any base jumps, let alone a tandem base jump, let alone on a motorcycle, off of a ramp. And every skydive person was like, you can't do that.

36:47You're going to kill her. She's going to die. You're going to be responsible. And I'm like, I know Jolene. I know my friend. And I went to Jolene. I'm like, look, I don't want you to do this stunt. She's like, if you pull me from this stunt, I'm like, all right, just know what you have to do. and sure enough things went a little wrong she got caught on the motorcycle you know she was stuck underneath the bike and it's a few hundred pound motorcycle over her head she doesn't have much skydive experience she has five seconds to pull the chute and I'm I'm okay I know I'm gonna be fine I'm just looking I'm I couldn't pull the chute I was watching her go watching her go down watching her go down and finally she opens up she opens up towards the the rock wall almost hits the rock wall turns around and you know for me like literally my peripheral vision went in I got lightheaded.

37:26I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. And that was like, okay, I was responsible for one of my best friend's lives. And I gave her the okay to do this. And I went against what everyone else had told me. And she hit the bottom. She was like, that was the greatest thing ever. And she wasn't scared at all. And I hit the bottom. And I went down to hands and knees. And I'm thinking, Julian, I can never do this again. That was insane. Reading about that, it got me wondering, when you were much younger, you were in a car accident. where you're driving your car very fast, late at night, you end up seriously injuring the passenger injuries that the person will have for the rest of their life.

38:05To what extent did that play into any sensitivities you have now when you're doing stunts that involve other people? This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

38:39Stream the biggest moments in sports live on Fox 1. The biggest names, the biggest games, the biggest matchups. Watch live or catch up on your schedule. At home or on the go, never miss a moment. All on Fox 1. Stream now. I think, for me, one of the biggest mistakes that I've ever made was basically trying to drive race speeds on public roads. And there's, you know, when it's not a race environment and you don't have the proper safety equipment, you don't have roll cages, you don't have, you know, five-point harnesses, helmets, Hans devices, any of that stuff, or even on motorcycles, whatever you have, if you're not fully in control of the circumstances around you.

39:23And, you know, I made a huge mistake. And, you know, at 18, I thought it was a great idea to get a Corvette. And, you know, everyone said it was a stupid idea. I was like, no, I'll be responsible. I'll be mature. And, you know, had a friend in the car. And, you know, some things happened that were outside my control. And I made some bad mistakes. And we were going way too fast. And I went into a tree. And I woke up. I was unconscious. And I'm sitting there. heads actually, you know, hands, everything's dragging the ground because the car was completely destroyed and, you know, we're at a stop and I'm just trying to figure out what's going on, blood everywhere and I have my friend that's just yelling, I can't feel my legs, I can't feel my legs and you know, that was the worst time in my life that for the next year, like I really took a step back from everything and I didn't want to be anywhere, I didn't, I wanted to be, didn't want to have friends at that point, like I was, you know, kind of just in my own world to say that I don't ever want to do that to anyone again.

40:19Now Matt actually, as a positive person as he is, he took that and he's a world class athlete right now where he's doing triathlons and mostly doing the bicycle stuff. He's in the Olympic training center all the time for the Paralympic team. He's more motivated and more focused. He said that coming back from that, he wishes now that he had half of the strength that he had to come, you know, coming back from that and working so hard, you know, just to be able to walk again. He wished he had that strength in motocross and knew how hard he had to work. And he's like, man, maybe I would have been, you know, maybe I would have been, you know, Ricky Carmichael or whatnot.

40:54And it's, it's still tough for me to see, you know, even though he is, I feel like he's, he's done great and he's really excited. And he's, he moved to California and that's all he does is just ride his bicycle every day. And, you know, he's in a good place, but it's still hard for me to see that he's not ever able to be the person that he was before. He loved riding motorcycles and he can ride, but it's not the same. And that's tough. The nightmares, how common is that among action sports stars? It was really funny. We put in the movie 109 Lives about the nightmares and I was skeptical. I was like, I don't really want that out to the general public, but I'm like, well, if we're going to do it, let's do everything.

41:35And it was just, it was neat to see how many military guys actually more than anything have come up to me and been like dude I've got the same thing or dude there's some guy that that's in you know our unit or our division or our whatever that he's got he screams every night or he does this really I don't know per se that it's um you know just action sports or you know everyone there's a lot of people that night terrors but it was kind of interesting for me how many more of my peers actually actually had that even like Ryan Sheckler um you know got up and most of them they kind of slows down as they get older.

42:07For me, it's kind of sped up, so I'm not exactly sure what the deal is with that. To what extent have you tried to fix it, or is there anything that can be done for somebody? I tried to fix it a little bit when, you know, because when I have broken bones or something, and I still get up, and I wake up, and I'm jumping, and I realize I have a broken ankle when I'm in the air, or tumbling down a set of steps, or I've knocked my front tooth out. The only time I've knocked a tooth out was actually having a night terror. Dogs, right? Yeah, I was diving away from dogs, and I was in the air going, I don't have any dogs, and just, yeah, tumbling down a set of steps.

42:36So yeah, I mean, yeah, that kind of sucks. And your mom said she's literally almost had to jump on top of you when you're in a hospital bed to avoid you having to jump up. What happens? Some I remember, some I don't. Most of the times that I remember now, if I can actually feel like I'm awake, then I can just sit there and be like, okay, I'm schizophrenic or something and just go right back to sleep. But most of the time that I'm running around now, I just I have no idea so really I know I wake up and I'm just in midair running full sprint through the desert or down the road or you know out of my hotel room I can get out of locked doors I can I mean I'm fully functional but how much does it interrupt or how often does it interrupt your sleep quite uh quite often actually it's very odd but uh haven't had a single night terror since been with my girlfriend now but every night that I'm away from her pretty much have a night terror So it's my excuse to be like, hey, you got to hang out more.

43:30I don't know. A couple of stories involving the night terrors I was interested to you telling. A hotel lobby in like your underwear? Yeah. I mean, it's a good reason for me not to sleep naked for sure and definitely sleep with some shorts on. I was actually Mardi Gras. I went to sleep early because we had a race or whatnot and ended up woke up in the elevator. I was like in my underwear. Door opens at the bottom. Half my friends are sitting there. I'm like, hey, how's it going? Walked to the front desk. I'm like, I need a key for my room. I'm like, do you have any ID? I'm like, does it look like I have any ID right now?

44:08So it was nice. That worked out. How about the plane ride after 9-11? Oh, really bad. Only one time. I'm actually really afraid. People say, what are you scared of? I am most afraid and petrified of going to sleep on an airplane and waking up running through the halls. Because right before 9-11, actually. Luckily, I ended up going to the race, so most of my friends were on that flight as well. I took off running at full sprint, yelling, just dropping all kinds of four-letter words, screaming at the top of my lungs to the back. We were on the runway still because I was just tired. We fell asleep before we even took off.

44:45I had to walk back past all of my friends and all these people that were completely petrified and all the way back up to the front where my seat was and sit down. I was like, it's okay. The flight attendant saw everyone must remain in their seats. Like, yeah, that's all they did. That was it. And then we took off my back sleep. Well, I wanted to run through some other funny stories with you. How about the high dive with your father when you were like three years old? One of my first memories actually was was at the high dive local pool. And I can vividly remember saying, I want to do the high dive.

45:17I want to do the high dive and pestering my dad. And so we finally got to the high dive. And the most vivid memory of my childhood was at three years old, being on the top of the high dive going, I don't want to do the high dive. I don't want to and getting kicked off the top and screaming for probably the next 15 minutes and then going back up and being like this is a lot of fun. Okay I'll do that again. How about the time you were five and announced a bed sheet would allow you to fly? No I mean that's kind of a just what my parents you know where everyone said what do your parents allow you to do and it was kind of like a you know just having the opportunity to do stuff and my parents were always 100 % supportive.

45:56Sure. Like, and say, oh, I can fly. Like, okay, really, can you? Like, are you sure you can fly? Yep. It's not gonna work, Travis. Like, yeah, it will. And you know, you jump off and then you land on the ground and you're laying there like, it didn't work, did it? And that's just kind of, they always let me make my own mistakes and I think that was kind of neat. At a really young age, I mean, you're having unbelievable success even before your teenage years against people much older than you. What would your father do? What sort of games did he invent to make the competition a little more even?

46:27No, it was really funny. I had the local tracks and whatnot. He'd either, if they had a staggered start, I'd start with my class and then circle around and get more starting gate practice. And then when they dropped the gate for the second class to go, I would start with that gate. Or he'd tell me that, look, I want you to be 15 seconds ahead at the halfway point and I'll get you a snow cone or whatever. So I'd race my butt off, and I was so gullible I'd do it every time and try to be 15 seconds ahead, or whatever that time gap that he set. And then he'd stop me and be like, okay, when second place goes by, we're going to hold you for 15 seconds and you've got to catch him.

47:01And I lost more races than I won for sure, but it always gave me that rapid chase. It always gave me something to strive for. And where most parents were trying to hold their kids in the younger age group as long as they could or the lower class as long as they could, my parents were always trying to put me in the higher classes, more competition. You know, when I was 12, I was racing against 15-year-olds. And, you know, then when I was 16, I actually probably had the best pro career of my life because I had raced all those guys my whole life. You know, I'd raced the guys that were the top. And instead of being, you know, the guy that was 8 years old in the 8 and under class, I was the 7-year-old in the 7 through 11 class.

47:36What's the deal with you and elevators? Oh, man. We've had some great experiences in elevators, but we've been stuck in a few. After the Palms experience, though, I don't think we're going to jump in. Tell me about the Palms one. So it was a mass birthday party. A lot of our crew has birthdays around early October, basically. Missed your meet and greet. Missed the meet and greet. We just came from the pool. A couple of us had a few drinks, and we got in the elevator, and we're packed in the elevator, and we all decided we should jump up and down. But even when there are no drinks, this is something you have fun doing.

48:13Well, yeah, but after this last one, I think we're about done. So we jumped up and down the elevator, and it stopped. Well, the problem with the POMS elevator is that it's like 50 floors between the bottom and the top, and there's no middle floor. So they couldn't get to us for two hours. So three of the guys had to go to the bathroom. One of the guys was nauseous already before he got in, so he's throwing up in the elevator. This poor girl that was escorting us from the pool to the top actually ended up—we made friends with her by the end, but she was like, I'm claustrophobic, I'm claustrophobic.

48:46Like, we're so sorry. And yeah, we won't do that again, I don't think. Well, maybe we will, but no time soon. And there was a videotape of it, right? I mean, the security cam. Oh, no, you guys didn't get that video, did you? No, I didn't. They found out, like they looked at the security cam footage of it or something? Yeah, security cam footage. So it was, yeah, jumping in elevators. We got stuck in some nice places. We got stuck in the Ritz. Yeah, how about the one? The Ritz was longer than that, wasn't it? It was like three hours? The Ritz was, you know, that was a while ago. I was probably like 16 or 17.

49:15That was Andy Bell's fault. Really? Yeah, I'm blaming Andy. He claims it was yours. No, no, no, I'm blaming Andy. Doesn't he like punch you every time you start to do that? Now he does, yeah. I mean, that was our first elevator stopping experience. So as it turns out, if you start jumping in unison, you can actually get an elevator to stop. Yeah, wouldn't recommend it. I understand you're an ordained minister as well. Yes, yes. I actually married a few of my friends. that, right, I was the reverend at their ceremony, I guess, if you will. He said the most nervous he's ever seen you, Andy, was when you were the reverend at his wedding.

49:51How'd it go? It actually went okay. I feel like there's a lot of responsibility there. You know, with everything that we do, there's, you know, responsibility. But for me, it was, you know, something I took seriously and said, okay, if I get ordained. Really seriously, right? Yeah, I mean, I'll go ahead and I'll get my reverend. but I did it for my friend Jim. His sister was like, look, we really want, you know, kind of a more informal wedding. And I was like, yeah, no problem. That sounds good. Well, she gave me about 20 pages that I had to memorize. And she's like, I want you word for word, don't mess up.

50:21And I was like, you got to be kidding me. Yeah, being completely serious. So he was like, you got to be kidding me. So it was like the most stressful, like literally month of my life trying to get ready for this, the ceremony that I was going to do. And, you know, I feel like I came through all right. And we did it. And I was like, I'll never do that again. And then my team manager for the Subaru Rally team, USA, Lance, and his brother said, hey, would you marry us? It's going to be real mellow. And theirs was real mellow. They wrote everything down for me. I read from a page. Annie Bell's was the same way.

50:46But I keep getting suckered into this stuff, man. I'll tell you what, I'm done. It's stressful. He said to bring up, you were the first one to go streaking post-wedding. Annie Bell would. Yeah. Anyway, so I just announced, I said, you know, we're going to go streaking from the ocean to the pool. And there was... The entire wedding party, right? The entire wedding party was made up of about 60 people. And all of a sudden, we are all streaking, running full sprint from the beach to, well, now, Andy's parents were there, and Danielle's parents were there and everything. And I can just remember running by.

51:21And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, all right. I'm like, oh, man, this is probably not, I'm going to regret this in the morning. But so, I guess most reverends probably wouldn't have. Anyway, next subject. NASCAR. To what extent did your interest in car racing initially come from the fact that you just wanted to lessen the wear, the constant wear and tear and injuries on the body? They always say, with age, get a cage. And a lot of the top motocrossers, I mean, Jeff Ward, he got second in Indy 500 after winning Supercross and motocross championships. Rick Johnson's won the Baja 1000 in trophy trucks.

51:59And Brian Deegan's won some off-road truck races. And, you know, it's really, if you're really competitive and you love competition, you eat, breathe, and sleep racing. It's difficult to just stop, you know, if your body's too injured or whatnot. And for me, rally cars were what really seemed the closest fit. I was really good at reading dirt as far as knowing where the traction was. And I liked the fact that we had a co-driver now. And it was kind of a balance that I had never really experienced before. and the team camaraderie was something I was looking for that would be really cool. And, you know, that worked out really well.

52:34And then, you know, with that, I decided that NASCAR was, you know, we won four championships in rally and said, you know, where's the most competition? Where is the most competitive sport on earth? And frankly, it's NASCAR. It's because everybody is so close. Everybody is so good. All the cars are so even. And if anyone gets ahead, they make a rule to make sure that everything's even. And it's the probably most difficult sport in the world to ever get an advantage on. And I like that because no matter what happens, no matter how bad your car is, no matter what you set up, by the end of that race, you have to figure out a way to work with your team, to work with the other drivers on the track, and to keep your car in one piece, and to figure out how to be there at the end of the race.

53:10And that's, for me, pretty exciting. And I know this is a sport you initially, a long while back, were making fun of. So as you get into it, how did that sort of change your level of respect for the skill level that's necessary? You know, I've always had respect for anyone that makes it to the top of any sport. I mean, knowing what it takes to get to the top of a sport, you know that, I mean, it doesn't matter if it's chess or ping pong or badminton or, you know, NASCAR. It's difficult to be the best at whatever you do. But you realize it's more than just driving in an oval. So for me, I always had a shirt that said, it said boring in NASCAR print.

53:45And I wore that to all the rallies and stuff. And then I had an opportunity, a guy got hurt, actually broke his back crashing a sprint car and had the opportunity to get in the sprint car. I was like, oh, that'll be fun. Yeah, this will be awesome. So I'll jump right in. And, you know, I qualified like barely, barely at the, I was very back of the pack qualifying, barely made it in. And it was cool because Tony Stewart was at that race and I had a really good car because the guy actually was, you know, leading the championship that had crashed out and that I was taking his place basically. And he was spotting for me and it was, it was so much fun.

54:13And he was just, you know, we were just days of thunder and Talladega night, just dropping lines, you know, back and forth and just having fun and talking to him on the radio the whole time. And I didn't get lapped the whole time. and it was actually making it into the top 20. And, you know, I was pretty excited. I was like, this is really cool. I never knew how much went into this stuff. And, you know, those cars were so sideways. And it was a blast. And from that point on, I started looking into teams and said, okay, what team can I get in with that's going to be, you know, it's going to accept who I am and what I do, but at the same time, you know, allow me to be competitive.

54:46And I found that with Walter. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Stream the biggest moments in sports live on Fox 1. The biggest names, the biggest games, the biggest matchups.

55:21Watch live or catch up on your schedule. At home or on the go, never miss a moment. All on Fox 1. Stream now. Racing. How challenging was it to find that, though? It took a solid three years of really working with my agent, Travis Clark and Steve Astefan, and just saying what can we do to make a team where I still want to do Nitro Circus. I still want to do X Games. I want to have fun. If I want to go base jump, the hotel that I'm staying at that night, I don't want to have my contract where it says, you know, I'm fired. basically and you know even teams like Red Bull who are you know known for for fun known for you know just just a good time you know we're still very much look if you do NASCAR it's 100 % NASCAR and nothing else and I found with with racing motorcycles that that's just not how I operate I mean when I tried to be the most serious that I ever was I was the worst that ever was I actually when I didn't have fun when I wasn't over enthusiastic when I wasn't just give her everything she's got you know was was more toned back it wasn't me and it wasn't how I do well so So I feel if I can come in underprepared and overenthusiastic in every other sport that's worked, with NASCAR I'm finding it might not.

56:28And maybe I will have to drop everything, but I want that to be my choice. You're finding it might not? With every other sport in my entire life, I've been able to make up time by being willing to take risk. In Supercross, it was the whoop section. I'd come in, and you could close your eyes and pin it and make up two seconds a lap. And if you were a second a lap slower, you'd only have to do that every other lap. If you were on par, you'd have to do it maybe once. With rally, if you want to make up time, you listen to your co-driver. If he says left six minus over blind crest through narrow gate, you know you can hold it wide open.

57:04You know you're going to be in the air as you go through the narrow gate. But you can make up time by being aggressive. With NASCAR, you have to make up time by being good. And we're going to try to get good. Good takes practice. That was a question I had because if I'm interviewing a professional race car driver or a golfer or a baseball player, there's one sport that they have to focus on to be successful, and they focus on that and practice it all the time, whereas there are so many different things that you've had success at and do. What's it like kind of figuring out that practice schedule to make it work?

57:43You know, I think everything catches up with you. But as a racer, I would do everything that everyone else would do. I would do the same training, the same amount of riding, same amount of motos, same amount of everything. It's just when they were resting, I would go and I would do freestyle or I would do go-kart racing or I would do whatever. Our weekend off, they would sit at home and literally just let their bodies heal and I'd be doing X Games or doing this or doing that. And eventually, I was injured more than they were. I didn't give myself time to heal. I was sick more than they were. I didn't give myself time to rest and it catches up with you.

58:17But it was what allowed me to be so fast on the motorcycles that I was just passionate. I just couldn't wait to get back into it when they were like, oh, I'm so burnt out. That's all I've been doing. I've been like, dude, I raced go karts last weekend. I raced the Baja 1000. I went over here and did this. And everything that I did helped me understand a balance. And no matter what sport you're in, whether it's conventional sports or motorized sports, it's finding a balance. It's finding out how to be slightly quicker, You're slightly more centered than the other person. And every sport that I did helped me to build on every other sport that I did.

58:47And I think that's a big key to what I do. How would you assess how you're doing so far in NASCAR? NASCAR started out way better than anyone imagined, and it's gone downhill from there. So I've got to figure out. The first race I went in, and I had no expectations. I said, I'm just going to drive around. And stayed out of trouble, and I had a good car at the end, and we were able to pull up top ten finish. We ended up sixth. next race I was like, all right, I'm going to do better. And the faster I try to drive, the more I burn the tires off the car. And the more dings I put in the car and the less aerodynamics the car has at the end.

59:19And by the end of the race, I can't even drive my car. It's so beat up and I've been doing worse. So I figure I got to find a happy medium, but really my biggest thing is I have to qualify better. You know, I've been qualifying 20th to 25th. And by the time I get to the front, my car's completely destroyed. How about the best advice you've gotten from anybody about NASCAR so far? The best advice I've ever gotten was from Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy said it was the best advice he's ever gotten. And I think he got it from A.J. Foyt. And Jimmy said to me, you know, when you come into a corner and you think you come in too slow and you hit the middle and you think you got on the gas too easy and you come out and you think you could have done it faster, you couldn't.

1:00:00And that's the advice. One of your friends said, knowing you, you probably expect, not want, but expect to win or be champion of the Sprint Cup Series five years from now. How true is that? I think any driver thinks that they can be the best or they wouldn't be out there. Any rider thinks that they're going to win. It doesn't matter what, you know, you could be on the starting line with a car that's not as good or a motorcycle that's not as good and you could have a broken wrist or whatever, you're sick, and you still, you get on that starting line and you honestly believe in your heart that you're going to win.

1:00:32You're like, yeah, that guy's better. That guy's definitely faster. But you know what? Tonight, I'm going to beat him. And, yeah, I definitely believe that I can make it or I wouldn't be going into it. But, you know, being a realist, if I were to bet, I wouldn't bet on it. But every time I get in that car, I believe that I'm going to make it. I believe that I can win. Just a couple final questions for you. Tell me about this house you have in Maryland. I hear it's quite the compound. It's definitely the compound. My hero growing up was Guy Cooper. and he had a go-kart track and a pit bike track and a motocross track and enduro track and we've got all that and a mechanical bull and a rock climb wall foam really all that okay oh yeah no we've been trampolines we've got um jumps that jump onto the trampoline you jump off the trampoline so you can do like flips onto it with the bicycle flips off it on down to the skate park we got mega ramps we got uh resi landings we got pretty much everything that you could play with and the problem is every time i go home i'm usually hurt so i have all this playland and i just get to watch my friends, I'll use it.

1:01:31How involved were you with designing it? Oh, everything is pretty much, like I built almost everything. I'm on the dozer all the time and you build the courses and I really enjoy that. It's kind of like your artwork that you get to build and then you get to go try it and that's so much fun. You get to change the tracks all the time and I was, at first, I was like, I just want, you know, a little rhythm section around this area and we poured a slab of concrete. My dad came out and got it all poured and he's like, well, what if we do this and what if we do this? I'm like, yeah, it sounds great. That sounds great.

1:01:59And we turned a$50 ,000 project into a$300 ,000 project. And now I have pretty much the most amazing skate park, I'd say, in the United States. The problem is I have to really learn how to use a lot of the stuff. I can make it around the course now, but I'm still, it's just such a new challenge for me. Bicycling was something that I can do, but I'm not really great at. And most people go from bicycling to motorcycles. I want to go from motorcycles and learn how to ride a bicycle. How about your favorite feature of the house? My favorite feature of the house, it's definitely not the foam pit. I have to say that pit is pretty much hell all summer.

1:02:34It's like a death trap in there. But probably the gym, and that's just my whole basement is the gym, and it's just so much easier to wake up in the morning unmotivated, motivated. You walk down to go to the hot tub, and you're like, ah, all right, I'll stretch. And then once you stretch, you start doing everything. And we have what we call the buzzard club. They come over, all the old guys, my dad and all his friends come over three times a week, and then we have all the to work out. And, you know, they're just laughing and cutting up, and it's three hours from 4.30 in the afternoon for the next three hours.

1:03:05It's just fun, and it really makes you want to go there and work out. And it really brings a lot of people, like a lot of my cousins, football players for University of Maryland, or go to the Naval Academy, which is right down the road from the house. So they're always in there, and it's just no matter how lazy you want to be, it's impossible because at 6 o 'clock in the morning, someone's knocking on the door going, hey, I'm using the gym. You're like, ah, all right, I'll go down there with you. And that's kind of what I like the most about the house is that it motivates you. Or if you don't want to, you're like, you know what?

1:03:30I don't feel like pushing motorcycles right now. And you see someone do a double backflip with a full twist into the foam pit, and you're like, I want to try that. Or you see someone do a frontflip. It's just the house is the most motivating place on the face of the earth, and I'm glad it's my house. Really a pleasure. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to my chat with Travis Pastrana. Head over to YouTube.com slash Graham Bensinger to watch one of the more terrifying moments of my life when I joined Pastrana doing a motorcycle backflip at the MGM Arena in Vegas. Please remember to rate and review this podcast.

1:04:04Your feedback means a lot. And thanks again for listening.

1:04:13I'm not giving up. I am selling the building. The final season of FX is the bear. The restaurant is flooded. Everything's either going to be okay. No, stop! Or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned. We have each other. FX's The Bear, the final season. All episodes now streaming on Disney+.