Part 7: Free time? Nope, Freestyle.
Travis Pastrana confirms: he will compete in Moto X Freestyle at X Games 17
Travis Pastrana has a busy summer ahead. By August, he will have brought his Nitro Circus Live show to the U.S., filmed for a 3-D movie full of first-time stunts, competed in Moto X Best Trick and RallyCross at X Games 17 and made his NASCAR debut in the Nationwide Series. And we'll have chronicled it all here, in a weekly(ish) column by Alyssa Roenigk, senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and author of The Big Jump: The Tao of Travis Pastrana. So much for a summer vacation. Or sleep.

Never trust Travis Pastrana. At least when he tells you that he absolutely, positively, definitely will not do something. That's not to say he's lying when he tells you these things. He's not. In that exact moment, whatever he says is the truth. In that moment. It is the truth.
"I am not doing a double backflip at X Games."
"I will never do the double backflip again. I promised my mom. I mean it this time."
The guy changes his mind faster than his pit crew can swap out four Goodyears. Two weeks ago, while shooting a commercial for X Games 17 at his home in Maryland, Pastrana said there was a zero percent chance he would sign on to compete in Moto X Freestyle this month. He was so certain, in fact, that he wasn't willing to say, on camera, that he was competing in FMX, "just in case" he changed his mind. "I am not doing freestyle," he said. "How many times can I say it? I'm not doing freestyle. Write that down."
Then, Sunday, he confirmed his spot to compete in Moto X Freestyle at X Games 17. "I hate that I'm such a delusion optimist," Pastrana texted Monday afternoon. "Basically, I've got the [720] spin somewhat figured out and I decided it would be cool to do that and a double in a freestyle run," he says. "The problem is that I'm still only landing three of four attempts into the foam pit, so that doubles my chance of screwing up the movie and the rest of the weekend."
It also means a lot less down time. The Freestyle contest takes place on Friday, the one day Pastrana had off to travel from Los Angeles to Indianapolis for his Nationwide debut. "The one day I could have taken off between today and after the X Games, I fill up," says Pastrana, who is on his way to Charlotte, N.C. for Nationwide testing. "I'll have to fly overnight from LA to Indy. Good times."
To recap: That's Moto X Best Trick on Thursday, Freestyle on Friday, Nationwide debut on Saturday and Rally Cross on Sunday. As far as we know, it is still impossible for Pastrana to be in two cities at once, so at this point, his schedule seems pretty locked in. Unless, of course, he's been working on his two-seam fastball. The Dodgers are playing at home Wednesday night.
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