Team Xtreme announced Friday morning that it has withdrawn from this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Martinsville Speedway. Travis Kvapil was scheduled to drive the No. 44 car.
“With the threat of rain and our position in the points, we made the decision to channel our resources towards racing at Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks,” said owner John Cohen in a statement. “Our crew is hard at work and our focus remains on qualifying into races each week. We will be back after the Easter break with a renewed effort to make the Duck Commander 500.”
After making the Daytona 500, the team had its car stolen at Atlanta and withdrew and failed to qualify for the three races since.
With the team’s move, there are 45 cars entered for 43 spots in Sunday’s STP 500. Rain is the forecast Friday at Martinsville and could impact qualifying. If qualifying is rained out, Chase Elliott and Ron Hornaday Jr. would not make the race. Elliott is seeking to make his Cup debut and his No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports team has no owner points. Hornaday’s No. 30 The Motorsports Group team is next lowest in owner points.