NASCAR Cup Series

Team Xtreme Racing trailer, Sprint Cup car stolen

Published Feb. 27, 2015 9:29 a.m. ET

foxsports

Team Xtreme Racing confirmed early Friday morning a trailer belonging to the team and containing the No. 44 Chevrolet that was supposed to be raced in this weekend's Sprint Cup event at Atlanta Motor Speedway was stolen from a Georgia hotel overnight.

A silver or gray Jeep Cherokee was seen leaving the hotel at the time of the theft, according to the police report.

The incident forced the team to withdraw from the race.

UPDATE: Police find car Saturday morning

"While this is obviously a setback for this weekend, our plans remain to compete in the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season," team owner John Cohen said. "We are working closely with the police in hopes that our truck, trailer and race car are safely returned."

The team's main hauler was at Atlanta Motor Speedway Friday morning, but the car and trailer were still missing. Due to Wednesday's winter weather, the team sent its main hauler to Atlanta, but the team was not finished preparing the car at the shop, according to the team's hauler driver. Once work on the primary car was completed, it was sent to Atlanta in a trailer pulled by a dually truck.

At 5:32 a.m. ET, the truck and trailer, with the car, were taken from the hotel parking lot. The team's hauler driver told FOXSports.com the theft was caught on camera. The team did not have a backup car as of Friday morning, and eventually informed NASCAR that it would be forced to withdraw from the race.

While Reed Sorenson piloted the Team Xtreme Racing Chevrolet to a 32nd-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Travis Kvapil was slated to drive the car this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"It's really bizarre," Kvapil said. "You can handle maybe getting a flat tire, or getting caught up in a wreck, or a blown engine, something that actually happens on the race track. Or you don't qualify, because you don't have enough speed. But to not even get a chance ... that's pretty disheartening."

A trailer with the red race car inside was hitched to a black 2004 Ford F-350 pickup truck parked outside a hotel in Morrow, Georgia, about 15 miles south of Atlanta and a short drive from the speedway, police said. Surveillance video showed the truck and trailer being driven out of the parking lot around 5:30 a.m., Morrow police Detective Sgt. Larry Oglesby said.

TMZ obtained the surveillance video:

The team, which had been working 18-hour days to get the car ready for Atlanta, was scheduled to leave for the track at 5:45 a.m., and a crewman had been outside a few minutes before the theft, smoking a cigarette.

"I've been doing this since 1979," crew chief Peter Sospenzo said. "I've probably been to 1,200 hotels and 1,200 race tracks. Never once has this happened. It's crazy. But there's a first for everything, I guess."

The trailer is plain white with no markings. The person who stole it likely didn't realize the race car was inside, and may have thought it was lawn equipment or something else he could easily sell, Oglesby said.

"Hopefully they'll open this one up and say, 'Oh no, this isn't what we thought,' and will drop it off at the nearest vacant lot or apartment complex or somewhere," he said.

In addition to the race car, the trailer also contained a spare engine valued at $100,000 and racing equipment valued at $17,500, according to a police report. Even so, Cohen vowed the team would return for next weekend's race in Las Vegas.

Kvapil said the thieves probably won't be able to cash in on their surprising haul.

"There's really no use for it out in the general public," he said. "I hope they realize that and will leave it somewhere where the police can find it."

The theft gave NASCAR star Jeff Gordon a new perspective.

When his crew chief was complaining about the way the No. 24 car was running before practice, Gordon told him, "It would be a lot worse. Our car could've been stolen."

Then Gordon turned serous, saying: "I hate it for Travis and those guys. I hope they get to the bottom of it."

Vic Keller, owner of ZAK Products, the official fuel additive of NASCAR, has offered a unique reward for someone with any information leading to the car's return to Team Xtreme Racing.

"ZAK Products is offering a pit pass for the remainder of the 2015 season for information leading to the return of the Team Xtreme No. 44 car," Keller explained. "We feel terrible for Team Xtreme and Travis and we are willing to do whatever we can to help."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.