Why former NASCAR driver picked Richmond Raceway for Nitrocross opener: 'I'm super pumped'

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- For the first time since 1959, NASCAR will only host one race at Richmond Raceway, starting in 2025.

The announcement was a blow for some of Richmond's NASCAR racing fan base, like Reggie Johnson, who grew up across from RIR.

"It's always been two races a year. I never thought the day would come when they would take one way," he said when CBS 6 broke the news to him last August.

Neighbors 'never thought the day would come' after Richmond loses NASCAR race weekend

Now, a new kind of race is coming to the River City, hoping to capitalize off of fans that keep showing up for any kind of race: Nitrocross.

Travis Pastrana, an X Games medalist, former NASCAR driver, and a 2021 Nitro Rallycross Champion, considers himself the commissioner of Nitrocross racing.

"Nitrocross is a motocross with a roll cage. It takes the best of all different sports and all different types of driving, we add big jumps for cars, over under crosses, Talladega banks right and left, some tracks are snow, some tracks are pavements, some tracks are dirt, some tracks are a mix of everything. It’s supposed to challenge the drivers and the teams as much as it is excited the fans," Pastrana said.

“Richmond’s my hometown track," Pastrana said. "I’m super pumped. I’ve always come here, watched from the outside in, was able to race NASCAR a few years which was absolutely awesome, huge experience. But for me, to put a jump right down on the front stretch, free-style motocross going for all the crowd and the excitement. But also knowing this layout, and having always envisioned that there could be a track here, this is why we chose it as our first stop."

IN-DEPTH: What Richmond loss of NASCAR race weekend means for community

According to Nitrocross, this weekend's race is the first dirt event at the track since the late 1960s, and the first multi-surface racing event there, ever.

"I had over 100 locals separately come up to me, through autograph signings and just in passing saying ‘Hey, thank you, we need more events here.' This is an amazing facility, it has such a great fan base, a rich racing history. And for me, I didn’t really think of that, and NASCAR having pulled out one of the events before all the fans and all the locals had brought it up," Pastran said.

Without enough events, fans told us they, and the employees and businesses who rely on race weekends, would dwindle.

That's why Richmond was first on Pastrana's list.

"I think the crowd and fans of sport, this is a fun opportunity for them to see something new, something exciting, and to get racing back in the blood," Pastrana said.

WATCH: What Denny Hamlin is saying about Richmond Raceway's NASCAR race weekend loss

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