Travis Pastrana at Richmond, 2011

Travis Pastrana at Richmond, 2011

After severely crushing his ankle trying to land a 720-degree trick he calls the "toilet paper roll," Travis Pastrana may be looking for a safer form of motorsport. Today, the motorcycle stuntman turned rally-racer said he'll be focusing on his NASCAR program with Michael Waltrip once he recovers from his injuries.

Pastrana's injury required surgery to install about a pound of metal into his ankle and foot, and laid him up long enough to keep him from racing in any of the seven NASCAR Nationwide events he'd planned this season. In fact, he's not even walking again yet--that won't happen until October. Nevertheless, he hopes to be back in a Nationwide car for practice by December.

Travis Pastrana's x-rays and injuries after his crash at X Games 17

Travis Pastrana's x-rays and injuries after his crash at X Games 17

"It's a disappointment to me, and a disappointment to the team that I'm not out here driving the cars. But it's been interesting as it's been healing up -- to say, 'OK, where do you want to go? What do you want to do?' I'd rather focus on this, and what I need to do to succeed in this sport more so than to make a legacy, or whatever you call it, in that sport," said Pastrana in NASCAR article posted to his Pastrana-Waltrip Racing site.

Pastrana now plans to make his NASCAR debut at Phoenix in the second race of the 2012 season. His original debut had been planned for late July at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

He still has to have yet more surgery to remove the pins in his injured foot, but he's eager to get back in the car. "We just don't want to rush it coming back and accidentally hurt anything," he said. "By next year, no problem. But as soon as I can get in the car, I want to do as many laps as possible."