A Morrow detective hopes he is close to overtaking the potential thief of NASCAR Sprint Cup car No. 44, the theft of which forced a driver to withdraw from a race last weekend.
“I have a person of interest I have spoken to and I am setting up an interview with him as well,’ Detective Sgt. Larry Oglesby told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
NASCAR driver Travis Kvapil was forced to withdraw from the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton when he discovered his Sprint Cup car missing Thursday. That might be the greater crime in the eyes of fans, but the rare theft itself has generated accelerated police work.
The car, along with the trailer housing it and the pickup pulling it, was stolen from outside a Morrow hotel where it was parked in advance of last Sunday’s race. Surveillance video showed the truck and trailer being driven out of the parking lot around 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s really bizarre,” Kvapil told the Associated Press. “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.”
Morrow police recovered the car after a motorist spotted it on the side of Lenora Road in Snellville around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The police also have recovered the Ford F-350 pickup truck — there were actually two vehicles stolen — Saturday night in Stockbridge but not trailer the Sprint Cup car rode on, Oglesby said.
Which sort of makes you wonder if it was the trailer the thieves were after all along. Investigators determined the car appeared intact and not taken for a joyride. Or maybe somebody who wanted to spoil Kvapil’s ability to qualify on Friday for Sunday’s race.
Oglesby hopes to nail down the motive this week.
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