Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack takes Rally Racing Super Special on final day of X Games

Indy 500 winner Brack takes X Games rally racing

CARSON, Calif. — At an event that celebrates the young, new and radical, it was instead a 43-year-old from a traditional sport that dominated the final day of the X Games.

Former Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack emerged with a gold medal Sunday in the Rally Car Racing Super Special while making his X Games debut.

Brack, a CART and IRL driver from Sweden who retired from racing after the 2003 season, leaped onto the roof of his car to celebrate his win in the final official event of the action sports showcase.

“It was fantastic to come back to the states this way,” Brack said. “It’s a fun event.”

After thanking the X Games’ organizers and sponsors, Brack playfully thanked his competitors who “let me win.”

Defending champion and nine-time X Games gold medalist Travis Pastrana took the silver medal after he crashed into a wall towards the end of the first lap and wasn’t able to complete the head-to-head final race.

The crash, along with another wreck and early exit from Moto X Best Trick on Friday night, made for a down week for Pastrana. He has been the X Games’ most successful and dynamic star in recent years.

“I finally had a good shot at a really good race and I hit a wall, not for any other reason than I was pushing very, very hard,” Pastrana said. “If he wasn’t quite so fast that would not have happened. It definitely was a disappointing way to end.”

Tanner Foust, the 2007 Rally Car Racing gold medalist and a movie stunt driver, took the bronze medal.

Freestyle motocross star Brian Deegan, one of many rally competitors to come from different X Games disciplines, finished fourth in his debut in the event.

Though Brack accepted an invitation to compete in the X Games, the 43-year-old said he doesn’t plan on coming out of retirement. Brack occupies his time with his family and a young driver program.

“I’m not looking to get into this full-time again,” Brack said. “It’s a lot easier standing on the sidelines telling somebody how they need to do it than to actually do it yourself so that’s what I enjoy now.”

Brack didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the X Games next year.

“You never, know, but I don’t want it as my day job again,” Brack said. “I have a family now and other things to do and if you don’t have the commitment that you need for something like this, you’re not going to be successful.”

After making its debut last year with mixed reviews from the competitors, the Skateboard SuperPark event enjoyed a favorable makeover.

Rune Glifberg successfully defended his SuperPark gold medal while Andy Macdonald took the silver and Chad Bartie the bronze.

Glifberg, who has competed in all 15 X Games, won his first gold medal last year in SuperPark.

“I’m stoked,” Glifberg said. “I worked hard all week to try to get as much practice as possible to just really get comfortable with the course and my lines.”

After skaters complained about the original course, designed to bring together vert and street skaters in a single competition, organizers revamped and enlarged it to include concrete bowls and more street features.

The course design drew rave reviews from all three medalists, who applauded the changes, though Macdonald said it took three to four days to get used to the course.

“Last year it was good for a first event, no one knew what to do, no one knew how it was gonna be,” Bartie said. “It still worked, but what they wanted and what they did was perfect.”

The event still failed to draw most major stars from street or vert skateboarding.