A NASCAR team has withdrawn from a Sprint Cup race near Atlanta this weekend after Travis Kvapil’s race car was stolen early Friday morning.
The incident happened around 5:30 am at a hotel near Atlanta after the team drove the #44 Chevrolet down in a plain enclosed trailer from North Carolina on Thursday.
The larger, more fancy and team-labeled hauler had been sent ahead earlier because of the icy weather in North Carolina, the Team Extreme said. That left the Sprint Cup car inside a plain white trailer outside in the Drury Inn hotel parking lot.
According to the police report a silver or grey Jeep Cherokee was spotted leaving the hotel at the time of the theft in Morrow, GA.
The team, which has its main workshop in Mooresville, NC, is now out of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Kvapil is trying to deal with the situation with some humor.
“Dang…. I’m wishing we had LoJack or something on it!” he wrote on Twitter. “I bet when whoever has it, opens the trailer and is going to be like ‘oh snap’.”
Team Xtreme, owned by John Cohen, had chosen not to participate in the open test at Atlanta, which is why the car was not already secured inside the track.
Police said whoever it likely didn’t realize a Sprint Cup car was inside. An officer told the Associated Press that thieves might assume it’s lawn equipment or something else they can easily sell.
Vic Keller, Founder of ZAK Products, announced via Twitter a reward for anyone who found the car and returned it.
“ZAK Products is offering a pit pass for the remainder of the 2015 season for information leading to the return of the Team Xtreme #44 car,” Keller explained. “We feel terrible for Team Xtreme and Travis and we are willing to do whatever we can to help.”
The trailer is a Sunbeam model, is white and has New Jersey license plates, officials said.
