driving my 2.5 rusty on my friends track and managed the bend the crap out of the exhaust pipe. it bent so far back that it pulled apart from the cupler.

Grab it with a pair of pliers and bend it back. I have bent 1/10th onroad headers, usually from other people ramming my car, but never a Traxxas one.

I've bent a TRX header once or twice. Sometimes if the muffler hanger isnt real rigid, the pipe can move around and in a gnarly cartwheel or rollover, they can get bent. I just bend them back. After a few re-bends, they will crack though. They don't use a real strong aluminum alloy in those headers.