Action sports icon Travis Pastrana is talking with a reporter at the Daytona International Speedway media center on Wednesday afternoon when his eyes dart to a guy in a blue fire suit walking his way.
“Jimmie!” Pastrana, 39, says as the man approaches.
“Travis. You made it,” seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, 47, replies. He smiles wide and pulls Pastrana in for a hug. The two men, one a rookie, the other a great, are here with the same goal: to qualify for Sunday’s 65th running of the Daytona 500.
Johnson and Pastrana are two of six drivers hoping to race their way into the 40-car field. Four will make the grid: two on Wednesday night and two on Thursday. Despite their pedigrees, qualifying is not a given for either of them.
Pastrana is returning to the sport for the first time after an inauspicious couple of years in NASCAR’s Xfinity series in 2012-2013. He has never driven the NextGen car NASCAR debuted last year. Johnson, who retired from the sport in 2020, is returning as a team owner of the rebranded Legacy Motor Club with fellow seven-time champ Richard Petty. He has driven the NextGen car once, about a month ago, but never on the banked turns of Daytona’s infamous tri-oval. There is more excitement around this year’s qualifying field, which also includes IndyCar driver Conor Daly and current NASCAR Truck Series champion Zane Smith, than perhaps ever before.
“This is truly an honor, man,” Pastrana says. He’s dressed in a gray-and-white-flannel fire suit and black hat. “This is too fun.”
A media scrum gathers to watch their reunion. It’s been a few years since the two men were in the same place, and with their jam-packed schedules this week, they don’t know if they’ll have an opportunity for a private moment. So they ask about each other’s wives and daughters. “If I qualify, they get here Sunday,” Pastrana says. “My girls have a cheerleading competition Saturday night.” Johnson says his family arrives a day earlier. “Evie has a horse competition in Tampa on Friday,” he says.
“Are Jimmie and Travis friends?” one journalist asks the group. They shrug. “That would be cool.”
It would be…
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