Travis Pastrana's busy weekend ended before it could even begin.
A broken right foot and ankle has forced the action sports star to pull out of his Nationwide Series debut this weekend in Clermont, Ind.
Pastrana's spokeswoman, Stacie Fandel, says he is expected to have surgery on his foot Friday, and it's unclear when he'll be able to climb back into a race car.
But one thing is clear. He will be back.
''I think they're kind of waiting to to see how long it takes,'' Fandel told The Associated Press less than 24 hours after Pastrana missed on one of his patented X Games tricks.
Pastrana has a legion of followers - and not just stock car fans, who were eager to see if he could bring the same kind of excitement to the race track that he has in other sports venues.
He's won 16 gold medals at the X Games, multiple supercross, motocross and rally championships and has become a fan favorite because of his motorcycle and automobile jumps. He is also interested in taking IndyCar's $5 million challenge at the season-ending race in Las Vegas.
Last week, after testing at Lucas Oil Raceway, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said he was shocked at how many emails he had received regarding Pastrana's decision to chase the $5 million prize.
But it was this weekend that was supposed to catapult Pastrana into the mainstream spotlight.
The plan was to win gold in the X Games' Best Trick competition Friday night, then fly to Indy for his Nationwide debut Saturday, then return to Los Angeles to compete in RallyCross.
Nationwide owner Michael Waltrip was excited to see it all play out. Thursday night's mishap, however, has changed the equation.
''Like fans everywhere we were so excited about Travis' debut Saturday night,'' Waltrip said in a statement. ''We have a long term vision with Travis, which includes lots of NASCAR. We can't wait to get him healed and in our race cars. We talked to our sponsor Boost Mobile and agreed to withdraw from Indy and delay our debut. We've waited a long time for someone like Travis Pastrana. I guess we'll just have to wait a little bit longer.''
