Travis Pastrana admits Indianapolis Motor Speedway is intimidating

Travis Pastrana finished 13th today in the Indiana 250 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is his best career Nationwide Series finish. This is his seventh career start and the first at Indianapolis

Travis Pastrana

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota Camry, RAB Racing w/Brack Maggard Finishing

What was it like racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

"It's a very intimidating place. This is it for motorsports -- this and Daytona. Definitely an honor to race here. After practice I was really worried, I didn't think we had the speed. Definitely was a big gap between the guys out front and the guys in the back -- bigger than most of the short tracks. I felt really good. We learned a lot. They did a great job getting the car working because we just went back to what we had. It took me awhile to get the line on this track just because there is so much speed. This is the biggest track I've ever raced. I'm really excited with a top-15 -- the first top-15 and the crew did a great job."

What did you learn in today's race?

"The drafting and everything -- I'm just clueless. I understand racing, but when you have guys making up huge runs coming up and two or three-wide and all of the sudden it's like, 'Wow.' I'm earning a little respect in here and there's always going to be those few people that you lose respect for or they lose respect for you as it goes on. It's just racing situations. I'm really excited. We're just trying to go out there now and not damage the car, get all the experience we can, not crashing in qualifying -- I've done that a lot of times where we just didn't get the benefit of racing the race because I messed up the car early. That's what we did the last two races. I've learned my most in the last two races. Respectable finishes, but still every driver wants to win. It's going to take time."

Did you ever dream of racing at Indianapolis growing up?

"For me, Daytona was always the one that I looked up to in NASCAR because that's where all my friends and family -- that's where we would go and watch at my friend's house. My best friend Jim, him and his parents have been coming to Indy since he was three-years-old and they would come every single year. It's pretty cool to have his parents in the stands here. It's neat how much tradition -- kids come up to you and they understand racing and they know all the guys that have been racing and it's a privilege to be in that circle or at least starting to break into it."

Source: From Toyota Motorsports release