One month ago, Sprint Cup Series team Team Xtreme found themselves the innocent victims of a car theft. The team's #44 Chevrolet, which was to be driven by Travis Kvapil at Atlanta, the second race of the season after the Daytona 500, was stolen along with their plain white trailer from a Hampton, Georgia hotel. The car was found dumped in a wooded area in Loganville, Georgia, some 50 miles away from the Atlanta track. While a search was ordered for persons of interest in the case, team owner John Cohen was soon facing his own legal troubles as he was issued an arrest warrant for charges stemming from a nightclub ownership fiasco that took place last summer in New York City, in which Cohen never paid the money or gave the ownership he promised to a number of clients. A civil settlement had been reached in August, but Cohen was found to have violated the terms of the settlement in January.
While the nightclub case soon vanished from the spotlight, the buzz was back on Team Xtreme at Martinsville on Friday morning for what was cited as a threat for rain (which soon became a reality as it postponed the Cup and truck practices and Cup qualifying). It was then revealed that the real reason the #44 team pulled out of Martinsville was because their employees hadn't been paid for two weeks straight due to apparent issues processing the team's paychecks at multiple banks. The team also stated that they wanted to focus more of their time and energy at Texas in two weeks, which effectively starts their Easter break right now. But whatever their real reason for withdrawing from Martinsville is, it doesn't hide the fact that they're in real legal and financial trouble at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment