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Travis Kvapil tells Twitter his Sprint Cup car was stolen

There's a bizarre story coming out of Atlanta today, as NASCAR racer Travis Kvapil is reporting that his Sprint Cup Car was stolen from a lot at the Drury Inn in Morrow, GA. Kvapil announced the theft, which included the black pickup that was hauling the trailer and the #44 Chevrolet SS Sprint Cup Car – shown above, with driver JJ Yeley at the wheel – on Twitter. According to Kvapil, the car wasn't going to be ready for the Thursday test session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, although forecasts of snow forced the team to dispatch their main trailer and tools to the track ahead of the car, which left for Atlanta later yesterday. According to ESPN, police in Morrow have video of the "incident," which happened at 5:34 AM Friday, with police investigating it as as criminal in nature. "Sometimes what happens when thieves see trailers, they might just assume there's something in the trailer they can go off and sell," Sgt. Larry Oglesby, of the Morrow PD, told USA Today. "Sometimes when things like this occur, they will drop off the items in a parking lot somewhere – like a Walmart parking lot – once they realize what they have." "All we know is it was a silver jeep," team owner John Cohen told USA Today. "One guy got out and they pulled off together." Earlier, Cohen told ESPN that the theft will force the team out of this weekend's race at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kvapil, meanwhile, has taken to Twitter to appeal to his followers to be on the lookout for the truck, trailer and race car. Here's hoping it turns up all together. Check out the driver's tweets, below. Wow. Anyone near Atlanta find my stolen Cup car let me know! Unreal - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 I bet when whoever has it, opens the trailer and is going to be like 'oh snap' - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Ok, to clarify. @Teamxtreme44 transporter is @amsupdates. The guys stayed and worked on the car Thursday at the shop in NC. They drove.... - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 down last night in a Ford dually and enclosed trailer with racecar inside. That was stolen out of hotel parking lot this am in Morrow, GA - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Black Ford dually, white enclosed tag behind trailer. New Jersey plates - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Dang.... I'm wishing we had LoJack or something on it!

Diesel details: Comparing Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, Chevy Silverado Duramax, Ford F-150 Powerstroke

With specifications for the 2019 Ford F-150 Power Stroke diesel already out, and the details on the 2020 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and Chevy Silverado Duramax (and its GMC Sierra twin) trickling out, we felt it was a good time to start comparing the full-size trucks' light-duty diesels. Bear in mind, we've only driven one of these new diesel trucks, so we'll be sticking to numbers for now. Some numbers haven't been announced yet, either, but stay tuned, because we'll be updating this post with additional specifications as they become available. And if you want to compare any other versions of these trucks with other vehicles, be sure to check out our comparison tool. Now let's start comparing, starting with our big chart of numbers below. As we can plainly see, these trucks are quite closely matched. Each one has six cylinders, a displacement of 3.0 liters and a turbocharger to boost it. The output of each is somewhat close, too. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel is the torque king at 480 pound-feet, 20 more than the GM trucks and 40 more than the Ford. The GM trucks win on power, though, with 277 ponies, 17 more than the Ram, and 27 more than the Ford. GM does report that you get their trucks' peak 460 pound-feet of torque from 1,500 rpm to 3,000 rpm, whereas the others only report peak torque at a particular point in the rev band, but all of these trucks should have wide, flat torque curves as you would expect from modern turbodiesels. 2020 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel View 8 Photos Engine output is only one part of the truck performance equation. We also have towing and payload capacity, as well as fuel economy. With towing, the Ram 1500 is the current leader with a maximum capacity of 12,560 pounds. That tops the Ford F-150's 11,400-pound tow rating by well over 1,000 pounds. The F-150 can carry 2,020 pounds in its bed, but we don't know yet whether that's better or worse than the Ram or the GM trucks. We also don't have numbers for the GM trucks' towing capacities. View 9 Photos As for fuel economy, the Ford F-150 manages a thoroughly impressive 22 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway with two-wheel drive. Choosing four-wheel drive drops those numbers to 20 and 25 respectively. The fuel economy numbers for the Ram, Chevy and GMC haven't been revealed yet, but for some comparison, we can look at the old Ram EcoDiesel. That truck's best fuel economy was 20 in the city and 27 on the highway with two-wheel drive.

GM under fire from safety advocates over braking problem caused by recall fix

Safety experts are lambasting General Motors over what they say is the automaker’s slow notification of owners of certain 2019 sedans and trucks that a recall fix could cause power braking to fail and increase the risk of a crash, the Detroit Free Press reports.  GMÂ’s original recall in December targeted about 550,000 Cadillac CT6 sedans and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups, all from the 2019 model year, over potentially defective electronic stability control and antilock brakes. In that case, GM said the errors would not show up as a diagnostic warning on the instrument cluster. But after GM had done recall work on 162,000 vehicles, about 1,700 owner have complained that their power brakes didnÂ’t work after they had the recall done and then used the OnStar app to start their vehicle. GM then issued a supplemental fix for customers whoÂ’d already had their vehicles serviced. In this case, a diagnostic warning should illuminate saying either “Service Brake Assist” or “Service ECS,” which GM says is a signal that a customer should not drive the vehicle and instead call their dealer, which will tow the vehicle and have it repaired. Safety advocates say the automaker hasnÂ’t gone far enough to protect customers. “The fact that you could potentially start a vehicle and not have brakes is a pretty risky proposition,” Sean Kane, president of the Safety Research and Strategies, which works on auto issues for plaintiffs and governmental organizations, told the Freep. “The fact that they wouldnÂ’t notify owners (sooner) is pretty stunning.” GM told the Freep it was required to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and file paperwork before it notified customers about the original recall, which was made Dec. 12. It then had to investigate and resolve the problem created by its original recall fix before alerting customers. GMÂ’s call center and dealers are contacting the remaining 900 customers who havenÂ’t yet had the update made to the original recall repair. GM also hired a vendor to send recall letters to the 550,000 customers affected by the original recall notifying them about the update. There are no known injuries or deaths related to the problem. Read the Freep story here.