The name Travis Pastrana is synonymous with action sports. In 1998, the then 14-year served the world with notice of his presence by scooping up the world freestyle championship trophy. Over the next 2 decades, Pastrana would go on to stun the masses by taking home medal after medal at the X-games. In tandem with his phenomenal motocross career, Pastrana found his way into the Us National Rally, where he proceeded to wreak havoc across the track, once again collecting gold medals an obscene number of times in his Subaru WRX. Following his success in rallying, he took a whack at NASCAR, but this time failed to climb up the ranks of the NASCAR elite. Quite downcast, he publicly retired from NASCAR but came back in 2020 to give it another go.
Proceedings from his largely lucrative career in the adrenaline-filled motocross and rally racing scene allowed Pastrana to put together the hugely popular Nitro Circus show which ran for 2 seasons before retiring from traditional television to reach their audience on the web, where they still actively stream their heart-stopping action.
In 2020, long-time partner and fierce competitor Ken Block officially handed over the reins of Gymkhana to Travis Pastrana where he is now working to match up to Ken Block’s drifting legacy. With over $25 million to his name, let’s break down Travis Pastrana’s vast income streams.
We Need To Talk About Travis Pastrana’s Ungodly X-Games Career
By the time Pastrana captured the 1998 world freestyle championship, he was no stranger to medals. In the previous years leading up to 1998, Pastrana had already gained a reputation of breaking hearts in the Loretta Lynn National Amateur competitions where he stole the crown 5 times and threw in a few more Canadian titles to boot.
Enter 2001 and Travis received the highly sought-after Motocross Rider of the Year from ESPN Action Sports & Music Awards. Incredibly, between 1999 and 2006, he only missed out on the gold twice; once due to injury, and the second after a crash then dealt him a nasty concussion, which he was thankfully able to recover from.
Put it all together, and Pastrana has amassed 17x Games medals, 11 being gold. Add 5 more gold medals from the Gravity Games, and a collection of medals from the Dew Tour and Red Bull X-Fighters, and you will quickly understand the menace that this daredevil millionaire has been on the track. Pastrana had been extremely loyal to Suzuki, and they were more than kind to him in return, but he has since moved on to KTM.
Pastrana Was An Absolute Beast In The US National Rally
Travis Pastrana made his debut in the rallying scene in the 2003 Race of Champions racing for the Vermont SportsCar rally team. Come 2006 and he was leading the pack in the first rally car competition at the X Games, having bested veteran Colin McRae. In the same year, with Pastrana at the helm of the Subaru Rally Team USA, the team closed out the year with first-place victories at both the Lake Superior Performance Rally and Wild West Rally in Olympia.
Over the next 3 years, Pastrana was to clinch the overall first position at several other Rally America competitions and by 2009 he had been dominating the track like no one else, clinching 4 consecutive Rally America driver’s titles, a feat that is yet to be matched. Between 2011 and 2013, Pastrana was still a force to reckon with on the rally track but his dominance had come to an end as several other elite drivers outperformed him in the races.
Investors Love Travis Pastrana And His Insane Ideas
Travis Pastrana insists that he is “not crazy, just competitive”, but the 37-year-old is yet to prove this statement when you see the number of times he’s been captured soaring through the air in machines meant for the ground! Redbull, of course, is on board with his death-defying stunts and has been a primary backer for Nitro Circus, which he co-founded in 2003. By and by Nitro Circus became a media company that has since gone on to create ridiculously popular events like the Nitro Rallycross and the Nitro World Games.
Hardly camera-shy, Pastrana and his team created Nitro Circus Live, a reality television show that showcases the daredevils all across the globe. His incredible works are showcased in X Games: The Movie, and he was also the star in the 2008 ESPN documentary, 199 Lives: The Travis Pastrana Story.
Game companies have also been hounding Pastrana as he has been featured in Freestyle Motocross: McGrath vs. Pastrana released in 2000, Collin McRae: Dirt along with its sequel Dirt2 as well as MTX Mototrax released in 2004.
In 2011, DC Shoes released the Travis Pastrana Collection, and on top of, well, shoes, it also featured Pastrana 199 Trucker hat and Big Rig flannel shirt. He now also owns shares in Ethika, an underwear company specializing in products for athletes.
Pastrana Feels Right At Home Keeping Gymkhana Alive
Travis Pastrana has since picked up the Gymkhana mantle from Ken Block, in a bid to maintain the legacy. He crushed his debut on the track, catching some massive air over his hometown. The eleventh installment of Gymkhana featured him in his monstrous 862-horsepower Subaru WRX STI custom-built for the ensuing madness by Vermont Sportscar. With the stay-at-home order that had been in place for months, fans of the show received a special treat of danger and excitement. He will continue to work with Hoonigan to keep the show running.
Accolades, championships, investments, media coverage; Travis Pastrana has done it all, and with it, ka-ching!