As if Friday’s Team Xtreme Racing stolen race car and Denny Hamlin’s motor-home incident were not enough, more off-track news broke early Saturday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The McDonough (Ga.) Police Department is currently investigating an incident involving a team van belonging to NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Jennifer Jo Cobb.
Cobb said on Saturday morning that she was awoken at 2 a.m. ET after hearing a loud bang outside her hotel. She went out to check on her personal vehicle, and when everything appeared OK, she went back to sleep.
However, when her crew members gathered to head to the track for the day at 5 a.m. ET they discovered the van was apparently involved in a hit-and-run incident.
According to Cobb, a car hit two others cars in the parking lot, including the team’s van. The driver seemingly left the vehicle at the scene and apparently fled. Calls to the McDonough Police Department were not immediately returned.
Damage to the Jennifer Jo Cobb team van after a car hit the right rear and knocked the vehichle sideways.
The team was able to make their way to Atlanta Motor Speedway and work on the No. 10 Chevrolet prior to knockout qualifying.
And then, as if Cobb’s incident was not enough, Sprint Cup Series driver Justin Allgaier sent out a tweet Saturday morning indicating there was yet another theft in the motorsports industry.
Monster Energy Supercross rider AJ Catanzaro took to his Twitter account Saturday morning to tell the world his bike, along with that of Konnor Buffis had been stolen out of a trailer overnight. Buffis used his Twitter account to also say all of his helmets had been taken as well.
On Friday, a trailer and dually truck belonging to Team Xtreme Racing was stolen from a hotel parking lot. The trailer contained Travis Kvapil’s No. 44 Sprint Cup Series car. The incident forced the team to withdraw from Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, but the car was eventually found by local police and returned to the team.
In yet another separate incident on Friday, an SUV whose owner thought it was in park when it was not slid backward down a small hill and into the side of Denny Hamlin’s motor home in the infield at Atlanta Motor Speedway, causing superficial damage.
