Travis Pastrana to Series at Richmond

After what seems like an interminably long rev-up, Travis Pastrana finally will make his Nationwide Series debut in Friday night's 250-lap race at Richmond International Raceway. And even though Richmond will be his first major NASCAR race, the X Games and action-sports star has an “owner points” provisional that assures he'll make the 43-car field.Although officially affiliated with Michael Waltrip Racing, Pastrana's Richmond debut will be in a Toyota owned and prepared by RAB Racing. That's because Pastrana's 199 Racing hasn't run this year and doesn't have owner points. Since RAB Racing has points but no full-schedule driver, Waltrip and fellow owner Robby Benton made a deal. The team gets some rolling stock and technical and marketing help from Michael Waltrip Racing, and Benton puts Pastrana in his cars and renumbers them from their familiar 09 to Pastrana's preferred 99. He's scheduled for seven Nationwide races this year: Richmond on Friday night, Darlington and Charlotte in May, New Hampshire, Chicago and Indianapolis in July, then Atlanta in September. RAB Racing will field entries for Michael Waltrip Racing in additional Nationwide races, even those that don't include Pastrana. “Whenever we have an opportunity to go Nationwide racing with any of our drivers, it'll be in the No. 99,” said Waltrip, the owner/driver/broadcaster/pitchman said in announcing the new deal with RAB Racing. It was almost two years ago when Pastrana said he wanted to go stock-car racing, an announcement that sent NASCAR's marketing and hype teams into overdrive. He didn't make any starts in 2010 but did six K&N Pro Series races last year, all with poor results. He wanted to make his Nationwide debut last summer at O'Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis but was injured when a motorcycle stunt went bad during that week's X Games. He'll prep for the Nationwide Series race by racing twice at Richmond on Thursday. First, he'll drive a Toyota in the 100-lap K&N Pro Series East race at 7 p.m. Later, he'll run the Denny Hamlin Short-Track Showdown, twin Late Model 75s pitting Cup stars Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Joey Logano against Late Model stars from Virginia and North Carolina.