MORROW, Ga. — Team Xtreme’s No. 44 car was stolen from the motel where the crew was staying overnight in Morrow, Georgia.
Travis Kvapil was expected to race in the Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The car was in an unmarked white trailer parked outside of Drury Inn and Suites in Morrow. It was stolen from the parking lot just after 5 a.m. Friday, at about the same time the crew was heading down for breakfast. Team spokesperson, Herman Reiss, said he doesn’t think this was the work of a competitor.
“We joked with one of the rival teams this morning,” said Reiss, “There’s no way that anybody would have known what was in there.”
The car was not inside the team’s official transport vehicle. It was inside a 15-foot trailer with New Jersey tags, towed by a black Ford F-350. The team speculates that the thieves likely didn’t find out they stole a race car until later.
The thieves succeeded in breaking into the truck towing the trailer, and they drove the entire thing out of the parking lot.
This was the team’s only car, and now this setback means they will not only miss the race- they will have to build a new car from scratch.
For this small franchise, getting to this point has been a dream come true, and now this latest development is a nightmare.
“Wow. Anyone near Atlanta find my stolen Cup car let me know! Unreal,” Kvapil tweeted Friday morning. “I bet when whoever has it, opens the trailer and is going to be like ‘oh snap’.”
Reed Sorenson raced for Team Xtreme in the same car last Sunday and placed 32nd at the Daytona 500.
