Hauler containing Travis Kvapil’s Sprint Cup car reported stolen
Team Xtreme has withdrawn from Sunday’s race at Atlanta after the No. 44 car Travis Kvapil was scheduled to drive was reported stolen from the parking lot of a hotel overnight Thursday.
The team said the car was in a hauler attached to the back of a truck.
The black Ford pickup, white trailer (both with New Jersey license plates) and the No. 44 car were taken early Friday morning from outside the team’s hotel in Morrow, Ga. [Team Xtreme owner] John Cohen said hotel security video shows a silver Jeep pull up before the trailer was taken.
“That was a thief that stole that,’’ Cohen told NASCAR Talk.
It’s the only car the team has prepared for the race, which is why it withdrew. In parts of four seasons, the team has made 16 Sprint Cup Series starts.
“Sometimes what happens when thieves see trailers, they might just assume there’s something in the trailer they can go off and sell,” Morrow Police Sgt. Larry Oglesby told USA Today Sports. “Sometimes when things like this occur, they will drop off the items in a parking lot somewhere – like a Walmart parking lot – once they realize what they have.
“They’ll open it up and say, ‘Oh my God, this is not what we thought it was. Let’s get out of here.’ And they’ll take off and leave it sitting there. We’re hoping that will be the situation so he can get back to his races this weekend, because they drove quite a distance to participate.”
The team qualified for the Daytona 500 last week after scrambling to prepare a backup car because of a qualifying crash. Reed Sorenson drove the car in the 500 and crashed with Clint Bowyer in qualifying. The team got Sorenson’s backup to Daytona in time for the Duels and he raced his way into the Daytona 500. Sorenson’s 32nd in the 500 is the team’s highest-ever finish.
According to Cohen, the team’s owner, the team is planning to be at Las Vegas.
This episode may bring back memories of the last NASCAR hauler-stealing escapade, which happened in 2013. Jennifer Jo Cobb alleged that Mike Harmon, a fellow driver and team owner, stole her hauler. The hauler was part of a dispute involving the ownership of assets between Cobb and a former business and romantic partner, David Novak. While Cobb won a judgment in state court involving the incident, she asked for the criminal charges against Novak and Harmon to be dropped.
UPDATE: Here’s the security video from the hotel, as obtained by TMZ:
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
