So that was it?

All that hype. All that hoopla. All the pre-event press, including an ill-informed piece in The New York Times, which introduced America to the "most accomplished team" in the X Games Rally Car lineup—Paul Choiniere and Jeff Becker.

(No, I've never heard of them either, but they did win eight national championships in SCCA Pro Rally in the '80s and '90s, so that's pretty cool.)

This was supposed to be a defining moment, the grand entrance of rally racing into the mainstream—and what did we get? A half-hour recap of the eight special stages and an hour live coverage of the "super special", which turned out to be a lap around the Home Depot Center parking lot. Here comes Colin McRae, he's coming up to the fountain! He hugs the curbing. Car alarms are going off everywhere!

Granted, Colin's barrel roll in the final seconds made it all worthwhile, but the event was touch and go up until that point. It hardly came close to matching the other events on the thrill meter. The course felt short. It didn't have a high danger factor. And it was the only X Games event that didn't feature the best of the best.

The entire time, the announcer tried to sell us on the edgy nature of rally racing and the action, while the pictures undermined his words. Don't get me wrong, the camera work was great. I liked the Mountain Dew Sky Trak. I didn't even mind the fact that the co-driver/pace notes were unnecessary for the super special. My problem was that in the world of extreme sports, the X Games version of each sport usually meets or exceeds the level of that sport's average event. By that I mean the jumps are higher. The ramps are steeper. The courses are more complex. But in Rally Car, the super special stage seemed like a weak sauce version of the real thing.

All of this will be debated for a while as well as whether rally racing can be a viable TV sport on its own in America. There's always the argument that it should've been drifting in the X Games instead of rally racing. I'm leaning that way, but this is rally's first year, so it's easy to be critical, especially when the Race of Champions proves it can be done.

What did I take away from it?

Two things:

1. The emergence of Travis Pastrana. Travis has always been a popular figure at the X Games, but this year it was all Travis, all the time. He won three gold medals, took down a WRC champion and challenged death with the first double back flip in Moto X. I'm getting chills just writing about it. On top of that, is there a more likeable personality in sports? Yes, I mean all of sports. Before I explain why, let's acknowledge that we will remember X Games 12 as the one where Travis Pastrana officially took the baton from Tony Hawk as the face of extreme sports. Shaun White had a nice run, but he lost some cred on his 1,154th failed attempted to do a 1080.

In the Rally Car event, Travis kept up with Colin McRae and when the money was on the line he delivered a smooth and controlled super special-this after flipping his bike six ways to Sunday in the Moto X Freestyle competition. Talk about mental discipline. Remember folks, he's only 22.

(By the way, there was word behind the scenes at the X Games that the double back flip was Travis's swan song in Moto X, which would make sense. How can he top it without killing himself? And if that's the case, he's got more than enough time, talent and support to take a serious look at the WRC. Anyway, we'll have to revisit that at a later time. And my lasting image of Travis didn't come from anything he did on a bike or in a car.)

When Colin crashed, Travis suddenly found himself in an awkward position. He had defeated a rally icon, one who's not so removed from his prime. He also proved himself to be more than a rally novelty. At the same time, Travis realized that the crash wasn't exactly a great situation for Colin, often referred to as McCrash (quite unaffectionately) throughout the rest of the world. Even though Colin is still among the best, and this X Games result will hardly dent that position, he was visibly shaken by the loss.

Travis knew it. He gave himself a quick fist pump, before going into "I got lucky" mode. His first words to Jamie Little in the post-rally interview were: "Colin McRae is a god. He rolled the car and I don't think he lost any time. The guy's amazing." Not one mention of himself or how much the win meant to him. Complete selflessness. We need more like him. I'll be rooting for him from now on.

2. Colin McRae as the gracious loser. There was one moment after the crash when it seemed like Colin had a million things running through his mind. It was after they had crossed the finish in second place and backed the gold Subaru next to Pastrana's blue one. Colin let go of the steering wheel and sat there frozen for a bit.

At that moment, you could see that the competitor in Colin could not compute what had just happened. His cheeks red and Droopy Dog. Nicky Grist with the hint of a meek smile. And if Colin had blamed an unfamiliar car or a worn out course or a hard night of binge drinking at the Saddleback Ranch, we would have given him a wide by-pass. He could've said he was rusty from vacationing in Punte del Este for two months. But he didn't. He did nothing to take away from Travis' win.

He simply got out of the car, a little shaken, and fought off his disappointment. Even as Travis did his best to play down the victory, Colin returned the favor. He denounced accusations that he had rigged the competition to be close. He said the course was tough. He said that it was an honest battle and that Travis out-and-out beat him. Unbelievable sportsmanship. Throughout the Rally Car broadcast, the announcers were determined to inform America that Colin was a worldwide rally superstar. And in the end, America got to see Colin as a generous champion, which says a lot about the man.

Good stuff.

Fumes appears the first and third Tuesday of every month. Richard Chang can be emailed at rich@urbanracer.com.