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It was only a matter of time until Travis Pastrana got more comfortable on the track as he showed it at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday.

During Friday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying session Pastrana reached a new career milestone as he captured his first NASCAR pole award. After more than a year later since his first Nationwide Series start, the action sports star has now gone on to become a competitor in one of NASCAR’s top series.

Heading into his first race at Talladega, Pastrana has gotten off to a great start and will be in a great starting position up in the first spot.

Along with winning his first career NASCAR pole, Pastrana has made several improvements as well in his first full-time season. So far in the 2013 Nationwide Series he has accomplished better finishes than in his debut season.

In seven races Pastrana has captured three top 10 finishes, a 10th place finish at Daytona, 10th at Las Vegas and a ninth-place finish at Richmond. The race at Richmond gave him his best career finish to date, and it’s also the one-year anniversary of his Nationwide Series debut.

In just the first seven races of the 2013 season Pastrana has averaged better starts and finishes than his first season in 2012. Throughout the first seven starts he has averaged a 16.7 start and a 17.0 average finish compared to averaging a 22.1 start and a 21.4 finish in 2012.

Currently sitting 13th in the Nationwide Series points standings Pastrana has been working his way up the NASCAR ranks. The pole win at Talladega is the latest of all Pastrana has been able to accomplish throughout his career but this time he’s taking the iconic No. 60 car with him.

Christy Valdez is a NASCAR writer for Rant Sports. Follow her on Twitter @Knowursports and on Facebook at On The Sidelines With Christy