Shortly after the Global RallyCross announcement that Red Bull would become their title sponsor from 2014 on American Superstar Travis Pastrana revealed to leave NASCAR, but did not mention another GRC commitment.

The two year long cooperation of Travis Pastrana and Dodge in the Global RallyCross Championship series ended with the SEMA GRC Finale on November 7 in Las Vegas. Immediately after the event the two 500+bhp strong Dodge Dart SuperCars, originally built by OlsbergsMSE, disappeared in a truck of the Chrysler Group subsidiary. It did not take long that it became known that Dodge is currently not interested to continue with the GRC programme. “Yes, we’re wrapping up our partnership with the Pastrana 199 Racing team in the Global RallyCross series. At this point in time – Chrysler Group has no firm plans to participate in Global RallyCross next season,” commented a spokesman of the Chrysler Group a couple of days later to American radio journalist Bill Wood of ‘Tech House & Speed’.

The Global RallyCross Press Release of November 5:

Global Rallycross is pleased to announce today a multi-year agreement with Red Bull as the series’ title sponsor and official energy drink. The partnership will mark the first primary sponsorship for Global Rallycross since its inception in 2011.

“We see the team at Red Bull not just as our sponsor, but truly as our partner in helping us to build Global Rallycross into the premier motorsports platform,” says Colin Dyne, CEO of Global Rallycross. “Their legacy of growing brands in the motorsports arena, from Formula One to motocross and beyond, makes them the perfect partner to take GRC to the next level.”

The 2014 series calendar, consisting of 10–11 races, will be announced in late November. Fans can still expect the fastest and most exciting racing in all of motorsports, but with Red Bull’s added marketing and event expertise, they can look forward to an even higher-octane entertainment experience.

The Travis Pastrana announcement of November 11:

“This past season of NASCAR has been an awesome experience. I have made a lot of great friends, had a lot of fun and gained a new appreciation for all aspects of this sport. Jack Roush and everyone at Roush Fenway Racing have gone above and beyond to try and help me succeed and I am truly grateful for their support. I would like to thank them and all of the other people who stuck behind me during the last two years as I tried to learn how to make a successful career in NASCAR. It’s tough to step back now and prove the critics were right, but unfortunately my results were not good enough to get the sponsors I needed to appropriately fund next season.”

“My wife Lyn-z has been more then supportive of my foray into NASCAR, often times being my biggest source of encouragement and support. But as my wife had to take a step back from being a professional skater to let me chase my goals in racing, I too need to take a step back and look at my situation as a father and husband. The NASCAR schedule is grueling and takes enormous sacrifices from those you love to make work. With a lack of funding next year, now is my opportunity to sit back and offer support as she chases her goals.”

“I hate to quit and I hate to fail, but sometimes things work out as they should. I’ve never been able to figure out the finesse required in pavement racing and that is disappointing, but I’m looking forward to driving more rally and racing more off-road trucks and there will be some announcements on those fronts shortly! My wife is excited to get back to skating on the Nitro Circus Live Tour and I’m excited to spend some quality time with my girls. Thank you to all my fans for the support and I hope to see each of you at an event in the near future.”

Easy to see that there is no mentioning of a new RallyCross programme in Pastrana’s statement, but as most Americans do not care too much about the difference between the words Rallycross and Rally we cannot rule out that the term Rally stands for either Stage Rallying or Rallycross or both… However, we at ERC24 have a nice grapevine in the backyard, and we heard it mumbling the other day. Nothing straight or clear yet, but it was enough info to expect Mister Pastrana back to Global RallyCross business in 2014. And if we are not completely wrong, he will be back with a bang.