Thursday night at the X Games, Travis Pastrana fell while attempting a trick called a "720 rodeo" on a motorcycle. The worst part was as he fell, the bike fell on his right leg hard.
Pastrana got up, took one small step and then went immediately to his knees. It was his right lower leg that was injured. Originally, the on-site ESPN doctor suspected a fracture of both the tibia and fibula bones.
At 11:30PM Eastern, both ESPN and several other news sources were quoted as saying Pastrana has a right foot and ankle fracture. The ESPN Motorsports Twitter account said he would likely not race this weekend and he is definitely done for the remainder of the X Games.
As Friday unfolds, we will use this post to continue to track the Pastrana injury and the effect it has on the ESPN plans for a sophisticated effort at making Pastrana a centerpiece of the Nationwide Series coverage on Saturday.
Veteran reporter Jim Utter of the Charlotte Observer indicated that he did not see the Pastrana-Waltrip Racing entry being driven by someone other than Travis due to sponsorship issues. He suggested it would be withdrawn.
Reporte Dustin Long from Landmark Newspapers says he asked co-owner Michael Waltrip what would happen if Pastrana was injured and Waltrip said he was packing his driving suit as a back-up. Now that could be interesting. We will certainly see as the weekend unfolds.
If you have information on this topic, just click the comments button below to add it. We are keeping our frame of reference on this topic limited to the media and TV aspects of this injury and how it is going to affect the race coverage. Thanks!