'Special Greg' To Make Pit Crew Debut In TP East Race

No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota driver Travis Pastrana returns to the K&N Pro Series this weekend at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. The eleven-time X Game gold medalist has competed in three K&N races this year as he prepares for his Nationwide Series debut July 30 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. The 27-year-old will also compete in the X Games in Los Angeles that weekend. The Annapolis, Md. native has been in Australia shooting the ?Nitro Circus? 3-D movie scheduled for release in 2012.

Debuting as a rear tire carrier on the No. 99 pit crew in Iowa this weekend is Pastrana?s cousin and fellow ?Nitro Circus? performer ?Special Greg? Powell. The 27-year-old former University of Maryland wide receiver recently landed the world?s first ?special flip? on a BMX bicycle. (Watch Powell?s flip here: http://bit.ly/gAMLGl.) Powell has trained with the Pastrana-Waltrip Racing pit crew several weeks preparing for Saturday?s race.

SPECIAL GREG ON HIS DEBUT AS A TIRE CARRIER: ?Once Travis decided to take on this NASCAR deal, running the No. 99 car and looking to make his entry into the Nationwide Series in Indy, this opportunity just presented itself to me to train as a pit crew guy. I?ve been training here with the boys at Pastrana-Waltrip Racing and all of the guys are phenomenal ? it?s just a top of the line deal. I?ve spent about 4 and a half weeks training with the pit crew and hanging tires. When you jump over the wall there?s just a huge rush of adrenaline. That adrenaline rush is an aspect of life Travis and I have always appreciated ? living life to the fullest.?

PWR PIT COACH GREG MILLER: ?He tells us the most exciting thing he?s ever done is pitting this race car. After watching him do flips 100 feet in the air and all the stuff he has done, it?s funny that pitting the car will probably be the safest thing he?s done in the last year. He?s actually very good for as short of time as we have had with him. When he is finished roaming the globe, he could certainly have a place in NASCAR.?

PASTRANA?S NASCAR EXPERIENCE: ?It?s been a lot of fun, just getting into the car and getting to really meet and drive with some of the guys. Michael (Waltrip) has just been awesome as well as Matt Crafton, who has been kind of a driver coach. Coming from the Truck side to just really help out and doing a lot of the spotting for me. I did the K&N East-West Shootout in Irwindale. Felt like we drove the worst there. Just kind of drove around, but we ended up sixth which was our best finish so far. Learned something every lap for sure. I definitely had a tough go at Richmond trying to jump from car to car. I have a lot of respect -- always did -- but have a lot more for guys like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin and all of those guys that can jump from one car to the other because it was very difficult for me. We qualified very far back in the K&N Series, but we were able to work our way up a little bit and had a little brush with the wall and ended up with a flat tire. It was a rough end of the day.?

05.20.2011